App
FamileBalance
YOUR FAMILY’S PATH TO BALANCE
My conceptual app that empowers parents and children to collaborate together as families on a fun journey while learning how to balance screen time and well-being one step at a time.
A butterfly decoration
Short on time? Click for High Fidelity Prototype
A family sitting on couch with devices
Image by Freepik
Problem
Children and teens are navigating a digital balancing act as excessive screen time hampers their social, emotional, and physical well-being.
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Parents find themselves caught in a dilemma: they value the educational and entertainment perks of devices, but struggle to maintain a healthy balance with these devices and their children’s health.
A balance with a device and mental well being icon
Project
  • Conceptual
  • 7 months
  • CareerFoundry
  • Student
Role
  • UX Designer
  • UX Researcher
  • UI Designer
Tools
  • Figma
  • Illustrator
  • Usabilityhub
“MeSearch”
Life Experience
Being a foster parent, I had the opportunity to have a foster child that had been raised on heavy screen usage. As we helped him balance his screen time and activities in his life, he began to improve in significant ways.

Finding balance with devices and well-being is more than a class project, but a life-long passion of mine to help my family and all families struggling with balance.
A picture of my foster children playing and riding outside
Horseriding
Research and Empathy
User Research
After conducting a survey of 19 families, my target audience narrowed to mothers 35 - 54 years. After  conducting interviews to learn more in-depth information about these mother’s health habits and device use, important insights surfaced.

Some unexpected insights from affinity mapping was that parents feel they are alone even though most had similar problems. A crucial insight was that parents are overwhelmed and need small steps and ideas to gain confidence.
A photo of me affinity mapping
Most parents see negative outcomes yet they do not want to monitor their children Needed is a tiered cost and a progressive program.
Parents feel alone in their “battles” so having other parents experiences may be helpful to give them motivation.
Although parents are seeing negative outcomes, they are afraid and don’t know what to do. Ideas or information would help parents feel more confident.
Small changes seem to be effective, so the path to balance would need to be broken down into small steps, one at a time.
User Goals and Needs
It was apparent from the personas that the parents (users) needed a way to balance device use because their relationships were suffering. A new dimension was added to the steps: help users find balance by helping them build and strengthen relationship skills along the way.
A picture of a working mother persona and how she is affected by devices.
Storyboarding Stacy's Journey
A comic of a mother frustrated and wondering if she could make changes
A mother coming in and seeing all her children on their devices comic
To be continued . . .
Key Features To Meet User Needs
A mother and child on a laptop with the FamileBalance App
Step-by-step individual and family paths would break down each path and challenge
Skills paths would be added to each path to learn skills for strengthening relationships
Resources would be available for parents along the way to gain confidence and learn what is healthy for their family
Physical and Social challenges would be added so families could assess their balance in these areas
Stacy's finding what she needs in the app . . .
A comic scene where the mother finds an app that her blog recommended called FamileBalance with features such as working together, fun health challenges, etc.
A mother saying she feels overwhelmed by trying to make changes, but has hope from the description of the features of the app comic
Ideating: Dashboard Home Page
It was important to get the dashboard figured out before starting the wireframes. I wanted the family to see the path, see members on the path, and see a clear starting point.
Scan of a sketch of the dashboard of FamileBalance
A sketch of the path for the phone screen
Wireframing and Testing
I changed the wireframes to add a visual of the path and had members joining the path. In my research, it was important to show that they and their family members were making progress, so the path needed to be a priority visually. User testing revealed items that were not intuitive, and screens were re-worked.
Click here to access wireframe prototype
A wireframe of discovery questions
a wireframe of the helper helping
a wireframe of adding family members to the path
a wireframe of a helper helping the user through the process
Families start the path to
FamileBalance
Click For High Fidelity Prototype
A mother and child holding the FamileBalance app and displaying the home screen with a path.
Photo by Freepik.com
Bring Your Familiy on a Path to Health
Parents and children begin an individual assessment and skill building path Both learn better ways to work, communicate, and collaborate with their families. Families/individuals take challenge paths to record and track health information and get suggestions to improve their health. Important resources along the way help them understand what is healthy and why.
Screen of Building confidence options for assessment
Screen with information about how parents can be better with authority with tips.
a screen that shows how the apps shows the user progress.
Family Collaboration: One Step at a Time
More screens from the FamileBalance App
Conversation A.I. Tone Meter
Reports that are on the FamileBalance App

Recording and analyzing family conversation using AI Natural Language Processing and Sentiment Analysis helps family members see how they can improve their social skills as well as add suggestions to improve tone and frequency of social interactions.

A tone meter feature on the app
Physical Balance At-a-Glance
Balance Meter helps families and individuals compare their device use and physical exercise. Suggestions can be added to the family path to improve their balance.
The report that shows how many minutes that they are on their device compared with their active minutes of exercise
Suggestions Screen from the app that suggest ways to get their physical fitness better
Photo by Freepik.com
Stacy Finds Success
Comic: A mother telling everyone that they are putting their screens down for dinner
A comic: The son realizing his phone is telling him he is spending too much time on app and suggests playing with friends so he does.
A comic: a mother sitting in the chair reading to her child. She is glad she used the app to help her find better routines for her family.
What I Learned & Next Steps
Things learned
Things I would do better
The next steps of the design
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More Case Studies from Angelyn . . .
Mother and Children with Screen
Parent Career Coaching Sprint 2023
A showcase of my collaborative UX Research
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