christine han

Optimizing productivity through computer vision

Timeline

April - June 2024 (10 weeks)

Client

Student-led

Role

Product designer

Team

9 engineers & 5 designers

Overview

PRoblem

People fail to concentrate when they work

In today’s tech-mediated environments, students struggle to focus. Constant media multitasking and rapid context-switching make long term goals difficult to follow through on, while environmental distractions affect the brain’s ability to stay engaged.

Despite good intentions, many fall into destructive study patterns. Without feedback or accountability, focus slips and sustainable habits fail to form.

Instead of restricting technology, our team saw an opportunity to use automation to build better focus…

With FocusView

Using focus tracking to monitor growth and build effective study habits,
FocusView transforms distraction into discipline.

Explore features

Feature 01

Stay on track with real-time feedback

Feature 02

Shape your environment to match your flow

Feature 03

See your progress, build lasting habits

Research

Strategy

All eyes on computer vision

We saw an opportunity to disrupt productivity apps by using computer vision to measure focus in a way no tool had before. Exploring this untapped space gave us the opportunity to experiment with behavioral analytics and pioneer new, innovative designs.

objective

Build a product in 10 weeks that uses computer vision and behavioral analytics to help students nurture productive, sustainable study habits.

Survey

Understanding the user

50+

Responses

18-26

Ages

To complement our secondary research, we conducted a survey with our core user base—students. The results gave us clear direction on where to focus within our 10-week timeline

01 Habits that hinder productivity

Students cited distractions like phone use, posture, and irregular study environments. We prioritized addressing these first.

02 Notifications: help or distraction?

Responses showed that gentle, real-time nudges were motivating rather than distracting, guiding our decision to include feedback features.

03 Existing productivity tools

Many students already use apps like Notion, Reminders, and Google Calendar. This insight pushed us to consider complementary features and future API integrations.

04 What other features should be included?

Open-ended responses highlighted a demand for visual progress tracking and habit-building tools, which we incorporated into our feature roadmap.

“I would love to get encouragement and feedback.”

Student, 19

“I want the ability to see stats to determine how I’m progressing.”

Student, 18

“Cross-device compatibility would be nice.”

Student, 24

Core user goals

1

Fix bad habits (especially phone use and digital distractions)

2

Seamlessly integrate with external apps they already rely on

3

Track personal growth over time

Ideation

Focusing on features

To answer these needs, we brainstormed features tie directly with user goals:

Feature

User Goal

Real-time notifications

Correct bad habits when they happen

Eye tracking

Detect two primary distractions (phone use + looking away)

Data visualization

Map growth and show long-term progress

We also considered gamification and rewards as retention strategies, but decided these features risked becoming distractions themselves. After all, our mission was to improve productivity sustainably—through focus.

User flow

Designed for focus

To achieve focus, our guiding principle was to keep the experience distraction-free. We designed a direct, minimal user flow that removed unnecessary detours, ensuring users could stay engaged with their work instead of getting lost inside the product itself.

While it may seem counterproductive, we intentionally limited usability to reinforce focus. For example, during a focus session, users could not access other features such as settings or data analytics unless they paused the timer. I believe this design choice reflects the delicate balance between providing freedom and creating healthy limitations that sustain deep work.

Design

Staying true to our emphasis on focus, we adopted a minimalist design system that highlights only essential features.

Sketches

Initial sketches

In our agile sprint, we rapidly mapped out the user flow, information architecture, and wireframe sketches to align on structure before moving into screens.

Sketches of key screens in the user flow

Wireframing

Low-fidelities

In my low-fidelities, I explored different user interactions in Set Timer, such as number dials vs. number selectors, to test usability and overall feel. I also experimented with a center scroll or customizable modules for Trend Reports.

Wireframing

High-fidelity

Our final designs translate the minimal concept into functional, polished screens ready for testing and iteration.

Reiteration

Iterations

3 major improvements in my design

After presenting the MVP on demo-day, I continued to polish the interface to increase usability and visual impact. Here are the key design improvements I made: