Merck
Best Mobile App – DTC National Advertising Awards.
Ayogo Health Inc. is a video game company that motivates people to change their lives, one fun social game at a time. Studies say it is good to have relaxing tones to set a mood before bed, such as light shades of green, blue, lavender, peach, pink, or neutral tones for peaceful energy. The app design rationale was conceived to take the user to a calm place where they will find a series of cues to help them improve their sleep hygiene.
General Goals
- Create an app that fulfills the medical requirements from Merck to support their marketing strategy.
- Create an engaging experience that brings users back to the app by providing rewards and scheduled tasks to support users with sleep disorders.
Research
In our research, we found many factors that can influence the way you sleep. Some studies say it is good to have relaxing tones to set a mood before bed, such as light shades of green, blue, lavender, peach, pink, or neutral tones for peaceful energy. Other studies indicate that yellow candle tones are actually the best options. Research also showed how users behave with instructional apps and how important it would be to have some sort of a coach inside the app to guide and support these patients.
Concept
The app design rationale was conceived to take the user to a calm place where they will find a series of cues to help them improve their sleep. The idea was to have a coach in the app to support users in this process to improve their sleep. Merck didn’t want to make this application too medical; therefore, we had to find a way to create a concept that connected with users on a more emotional level. We had to create an experience that could separate users from their worries during the day and provide an immersive experience for them.
Design
During the design process, we had many iterations to come up with the proper fantasy for this medical application. We aimed to provide soothing colors and lullabies to these users.
We introduced our coach, Lou, a turtle that will take you on a journey to different destinations to relax in front of beautiful scenery and sounds. The coach was designed by Cicero Villas-Boas, who managed to create very vivid expressions on the coach’s face to generate empathy in the users. We spent quite some time coming up with the right expressions, and it was totally worth it.
User Interface
This is the place where we combined all the components from the team, from our wishlist, and research findings. I brought warm tones to the interface, aiming to generate a proper color temperature prior to sleep. I designed an interface that was comfortable to use, legible, and most importantly, generated empathy in the users.
The interface was designed to support the rationale of the app, with the intention of immersing users more into the fantasy of the digital therapeutic. I created a custom wooden background inspired by a ukulele, which relates to the coach character, combined with the story of the app, which also connects with the imagery and sounds collections in the library.
Best Mobile App
DTC National Advertising Awards
2016 DTCN Ad Awards Winners >>
Ayogo’s post for the award
30 relaxation soundtracks with imagery designed to provide the right stimulus to improve sleeping routine.
Audio Design
I worked on the audio design of this project, creating the app sounds as well as the soundscape collections. We provided a variety of audio approaches to relax the users, including pink noise, wind, rain, and many others. These sounds were delivered progressively as a reward system to users as they unlocked different levels in the app.
For these soundscapes, we faced the challenge of the app’s 50MB size limit, and we aimed to provide a large library of these soundscapes, which had to be long enough for a person to fall asleep. To tackle this, I created soundscapes using three or four short loops per soundscape. Then, these loops were mixed using code created by the lead developer. This technical specification allowed us to store 30 relaxation soundtracks.
As the coach, Lou, is a Hawaiian turtle, I used a ukulele to record sounds that provide feedback as users completed their tasks in the app. These sounds occurred every time they swiped right on their challenges on the task page.
Results
The app was released in the United States on the Google App and Apple App Store. Merck won an award for Best Mobile App at the 2016 DTC National Advertising Awards. This award came a couple of years after the release, and it was a very proud moment for the team and the entire company.
Best Mobile App – DTC National Advertising Awards- 2016 – Bronze
Sleep Guru Merck & Co, Inc.
Boston, United States – 2016
Check Sleep Guru audio in Soundcloud
Game sounds
