Designing an Award-Winning Alarm App

Designing an Award-Winning Alarm App

Streamlining Wake-Ups with Behavioral Science and Time Awareness

UuUp is an alarm app designed to redefine the wake-up experience through empowerment and awareness.

Leveraging behavioral insights and AI technology, UuUp provides a customizable alarm experience that adapts to individual resting patterns and chronotypes. This integration aligns with the varied lifestyles of modern users, ensuring a more controlled and conscious start to their day.

UuUp is an alarm app designed to redefine the wake-up experience through empowerment and awareness.

Leveraging behavioral insights and AI technology, UuUp provides a customizable alarm experience that adapts to individual resting patterns and chronotypes. This integration aligns with the varied lifestyles of modern users, ensuring a more controlled and conscious start to their day.

UuUp is an alarm app designed to redefine the wake-up experience through empowerment and awareness.

Leveraging behavioral insights and AI technology, UuUp provides a customizable alarm experience that adapts to individual resting patterns and chronotypes. This integration aligns with the varied lifestyles of modern users, ensuring a more controlled and conscious start to their day.

🍻

UuUp won Gold in Mobile App at the Indigo Design Award 2024, and was shortlisted for the Mobile Design of the Year.

🎉

🎉

UuUp won Gold in Mobile App at the Indigo Design Award 2024, and was shortlisted for the Mobile Design of the Year.

UuUp won Gold in Mobile App at the Indigo Design Award 2024, and was shortlisted for the Mobile Design of the Year.

THE PROBLEM

How might we …
deliver an intuitive and efficient alarm experience without altering user habits?

How might we …
deliver an intuitive and efficient alarm experience without altering user habits?

How might we …
deliver an intuitive and efficient alarm experience without altering user habits?

In a market saturated with alarm apps, from basic to creatively complex ones, users consistently face a myriad of challenges. Feedback from online platforms and our personal experiences repeatedly echoed these frustrations.

These apps tend to introduce complexity, continue to offer snooze functions that actually disrupt sleep, and usually consist of complicated setup processes - all deviating from their intended user benefits.

  • 😵‍💫

    “I just wanted a simple alarm, but these apps feel like navigating a maze.”

    Forum Post

  • 😫

    "The setup process for my alarm app is so complex, I often just give up and use the default settings.”

    Social Media

  • 🤨

    "Every update adds more complexity to my alarm app...”

    App Review

  • 😴

    "My alarm’s snooze is too accessible!”

    Online Comment

  • 🥱

    "Thought the snooze button was my friend, but it’s just ruining my sleep routine.”

    Online Comment

  • 😠

    "Trying to set a simple recurring alarm shouldn’t be this time-consuming and confusing.”

    App Review

  • 😵‍💫

    “I just wanted a simple alarm, but these apps feel like navigating a maze.”

    Forum Post

  • 😫

    "The setup process for my alarm app is so complex, I often just give up and use the default settings.”

    Social Media

  • 🤨

    "Every update adds more complexity to my alarm app...”

    App Review

  • 😴

    "My alarm’s snooze is too accessible!”

    Online Comment

  • 🥱

    "Thought the snooze button was my friend, but it’s just ruining my sleep routine.”

    Online Comment

  • 😠

    "Trying to set a simple recurring alarm shouldn’t be this time-consuming and confusing.”

    App Review

  • 😵‍💫

    “I just wanted a simple alarm, but these apps feel like navigating a maze.”

    Forum Post

  • 😫

    "The setup process for my alarm app is so complex, I often just give up and use the default settings.”

    Social Media

  • 🤨

    "Every update adds more complexity to my alarm app...”

    App Review

  • 😴

    "My alarm’s snooze is too accessible!”

    Online Comment

  • 🥱

    "Thought the snooze button was my friend, but it’s just ruining my sleep routine.”

    Online Comment

  • 😠

    "Trying to set a simple recurring alarm shouldn’t be this time-consuming and confusing.”

    App Review

FINAL DESIGN SNEAK PEAK
  • A single, goal-oriented 'get up' time

  • A 'Routine View' for easy management

  • 'Customizable' ringtones and vibrations, and audio uploads

  • 'Time Readout' for immediate time awareness

  • 'Persona quiz' identifies and align with the user’s specific chronotype

  • 'Adaptive alarms' that adjust to user personas

  • AI-powered 'chatbot' for effortless voice and text command use

  • Designed to seamlessly integrate with smart home ecosystems

APPROACH & PROCESS

Understanding wake-up routines and incorporating chronotype.

Before jumping to design, we studied how people wake up, what works for them, and how routines and chronotypes shape their mornings.

1

Examine night-time practices to streamline alarm setups

2

Investigate morning routines to optimize the wake-up experience

3

Analyze individual habits and lifestyles to tailor the functionality

4

Explore integrating chronotype to influence user flows

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
I initiated the design process with a macro competitive analysis to identify design opportunities
I initiated the design process with a macro competitive analysis to identify design opportunities

I noticed most modern alarm apps follow similar logic for time selection and wake-up flow, but they differ widely in how they handle customization and integration with users’ daily routines.

USER RESEARCH & TRENDS
Interviews with 10 unique users discovered real-life behavior and personas

The participants are from diverse professional, age, and background groups. My goal was to discover their real-life routines and perspectives on how the alarm process impacts their routines, both when going to bed and getting up. I also aimed to create a set of personas that focus on users’ behaviors and habits.

Research Findings

Key Insights

Overview

Design

Principle

Situational Nature of the Wake-Up Process

Wake-up times vary due to lifestyle roles and activities, with inconsistent, consistent, and occasional patterns.

Adaptive

Different responses to alarms driven by Wake-Up Motivation

Central to wake-up motivation are discipline, responsibility, and the consequences.

Motivating

The Coexistence of Routine and Ad-hoc alarms

There is a blend of daily routine alarms with the occasional, situational ones

Flexible

DESIGN SCOPE 1 - HOME SCREEN

Step 1: Directions

Research revealed that users need an intuitive and reliable alarm system. Alarms should be easy to set up for both quick one-time needs and recurring routines. Flexibility and the assurance that alarms are correctly set are crucial for peace of mind.

I decided to focus on making the alarm setup process simple and stress-free. The design should support both quick setups and management for routine alarms and one-time alarm.

Step 2: Iterations

Early versions emphasized upcoming alarms and included a music feature meant to aid sleep. But since UuUp isn’t a sleep tracker, the music quickly proved off-target.

I shifted focus to what users actually need: fast, efficient alarm control. To keep things organized, I introduced a “Routine” tab specifically for recurring alarms. One-time alarms live in a separate section within the “Today” view, so users can set them quickly without mixing them up with routines.

Step 3: Specifics

I structured the final design with two main tabs for easy navigation: "Today View" and "Routine View". A clear card design with a tag helps identify one time alarm and different routines.

Today View

  • Enables users to glance at all alarms set for the day, providing clarity and preparation.

  • Allows users to quickly set up one-time alarm or manage upcoming routine in one place.

Routine View

  • Offers a dedicated space for managing recurring alarms, keeping the interface organized and easy to navigate.

  • Supports the variability of users’ daily lives, offering both adaptivity and flexibility.

DESIGN SCOPE 2 - ALARM SETTING

Step 1: Directions

Users feel overwhelmed by the complexity and mental stress of setting up multiple alarms. There's often different understandings between waking up and getting up, which adds unnecessary mental load.

I decided to simplify the alarm-setting process to reduce stress. The design should clearly distinguish between waking up and getting up, making it easier for users to focus on their actual goal.

Step 2: Iterations

To reduce cognitive load, I based the flow on a single get-up time. I also introduced a visual editing interface to make alarm adjustments more intuitive.

Initially, this interface was embedded inside the main modal, but it quickly felt cramped—especially for users setting alarms across wider time ranges. Even with scrolling, the space limited usability.

In the final design, I moved editing to a separate modal. Users now review alarms in a clean list view and can expand into the editor only when needed. This keeps the flow light for quick reviews but still allows deeper control.

To improve clarity, I added a white border around alarm settings for better visual grouping and accessibility, making the interface feel cleaner and more structured.

Step 3: Specifics

By simplifying adjustments and minimizing mental workload, the design allows users to easily finish and update their routines without the distraction of multiple calculations and setups.

Visual Alarm Editing Interface

  • Allows users to adjust alarms easily on a proportional time scale, eliminating the need for manual calculations.

  • Supports the variability of users’ daily lives, offering both adaptivity and flexibility

Single get-up time

  • Users only input one get-up time, and then UuUp helps them to work backward to set to auto-suggest wake-up alarms

  • Promotes a goal-oriented approach, enabling a more purposeful start to the day, offering clarity and simplicity.

DESIGN SCOPE 3 - SMART ALARM

Persona Quiz

User is given a series of questions to identify their persona.

Persona & Alarm Matching

Based on assigned persona, tailor-made alarm sets will be generated to align with user’s get-up time.

DESIGN SCOPE 4 - TIME READOUT

Time Readout for Time Awareness

Adds an auditory layer of information by reading out the exact time during the alarm, fostering a greater awareness of time upon waking.

DESIGN SCOPE 5 - PERSONALIZATION

Versatile Sound for Enhanced Motivation

Users can choose from preset ringtones, upload their own soundtracks, or even record custom sounds for their alarms. After all, who knows how to motivate you better than yourself?

Custom Vibration

Provides an added layer of personalization by allowing users to record and set their own vibration patterns.

EXPLORATIVE FEATURES - AI ASSIATANT

Voice (text) Commands

Enables hands-free alarm management by allowing users to create, edit, and adjust alarms through voice commands.

Future Scalability

Designed with potential integration into Smart Home ecosystems in mind.

DESIGN LANGUAGE

UuUp’s design language fuses Neubrutalism's bold audacity with Monochrome Flat Design's simplicity and ease of use, creating an impactful yet user-friendly interface.

WHAT I LEARNED

The dual value of user research and consideration of business impact

The dual value of user research and consideration of business impact

The dual value of user research and consideration of business impact

Our research honed the project's focus, informing us on what users actually needed and allowing us to zero in on features that made the most difference. Strategy analysis was pivotal in steering both the user experience research and design direction.

The fusion of Neubrutalism's bold aesthetic with the imperatives of usability taught us to navigate the delicate balance between form and function. Moreover, the incorporation of AI and chronotype research not only enriched our understanding of user behavior but also introduced a level of adaptability and scalability that redefines what a wake-up app can be.

  • Focused Impact Through Research: Prioritizing Essential Features

  • Design Harmony: Balancing Bold Visuals with Usability

  • Tech Meets Psychology: AI & Chronotypes

  • 👉Next Feature: Get-Up Check