Neutrum App
Can our Homes go Gender Free?
I have always been fascinated by the human-centred design approach, entailing research into a variety of psychology, including that to do with colour, behaviour and cognition. Further to that, I take a real interest in UX design, obsessed by the user experience.
Please find below the detailings of the development of an app, which is currently in developemnt, which distributes household chores among family members, with the aim of eliminating gender roles within the home.
Notifications.
User journey mapping told me that a key pain point was the feeling of stress felt when you first arrive home and realise you have so much to do, but such little time to do it in.
User testing helped me to understand that notifications suggesting that the tasks at hand won’t take long (with clear time frames) would entice users to open the Neutrum app to assist them.
Gamification.
Having a point and rewards system allows for family members to feel responsible for completing their assigned tasks. By keeping the rewards personalised from their families there is a sense of interacting with humans rather than the computer.
The app does not directly tell users that it is tackling gender balance, as user testing told me that this could deter interaction - this type of nudge changes the behaviour of users gradually over time.
Colour Psychology.
My Product Design Specifications stated that the app ‘must make family members feel calm’, to be an aid during times of high stress. After researching the green effect and a continued user testing, this lime green colour was selected to run throughout the app.
This colour fails colour contrast tests when used as text on a white background, so the Google Colour Tool allowed me to select a darker green for the text so there was no compromise made to the aesthetic.
Human Perception.
The app needed to be perceived by users as a fair system but how can we define a subjective term as fair? After research into distributive and interpersonal justice, an equity chart system was integrated.
This visual display of weekly data allows family members to view that there have been the fairest outcomes and that they’ve treated one another with respect.
Neutrum App Video