What challenges did you encounter while designing the app?
Aura is a new type of product. As no one is familiar with a smart sleep system yet, its main controller, the smartphone app, needs to be as intuitive as possible.
Could you tell us about the vision behind the user interface?
Creating an emotional experience!
Aura monitors your sleep experience through sensors and uses scientifically validated light and sound programs to help you wake up and fall asleep. Despite all the science and "quantified self" data collection, the product needs to connect with people on an emotional level.
The user interface and data vizualisation presenting the sleep patterns had to strike the right balance between an emotional experience and a clear representation of what is going on during the different sleep cycles.
Unlike most apps, Aura is designed to be used at night in your bedroom. That's why we chose a soothing purple tone for the interface's main color.
So, what's next?
The user interface of the mobile application is still a prototype, and we'll be working on refining the general ambiance, icons, and data vizualisations for the commercial launch this coming spring.
And of course, we look forward to using Aura ;-)
\ Photo credits: User Studio