A mobile app concept to better organize and manage alarms
LARMA is a mobile app that refines the traditional alarm experience with minimalist design and efficient structure for the modern mind to stay focused and punctual.
For those who rely on many alarms for their daily scheduling needs, LARMA provides custom alarm groups with the ability to quickly enable or disable several alarms with one tap.
Vacations from work can be reinforced with just a simple gesture. No need to sort through each individual alarm and remind yourself of your obligations - just simply turn "Work" off.
LARMA
After researching existing alarms solutions, an informal survey was administered to learn about traditional alarm app usage. The survey indicated that users sometimes manage as many as nine alarms. Some of these alarms exist in the same category such as Work or Home, and it's not uncommon to toggle multiple alarms each day for a given category. Participants also indicated that an uncategorized list of alarms is challenging to parse, and can even be overwhelming to see so many obligations in one, long cluttered list.
Design Process
With this information, user flows and wireframes were created to start validating assumptions about the new alarms solution. The main goals focused around the ability to group alarms, enable or disable multiple alarms at once, and collapse them out of view for a more calming environment.
Prototypes
After learning from the wireframes, high fidelity mockups and prototypes were created using Figma for usability testing. Testing focused on the main user flows, which includes expanding and collapsing alarm groups, toggling alarm groups off/on, and editing alarms. Further validation with the interactive prototypes proved that the experience indeed felt more organized and efficient compared to traditional alarm apps.
Expand and Collapse
The ability to collapse alarm groups allows the user the declutter the interface. At a quick glance, users can easily see if their grouped alarms are on or off without having to parse the list of individual alarms. The option to expand the view allows users to further customize each alarm within the group. This categorized structure led users to report a less stressful alarms experience.
Alarm Group Toggle
An on/off switch at the top level allows users to toggle an entire alarm group, which can include one or many related alarms. In this scenario, with just one tap, users can easily disable all work related alarms while on vacation. This familiar control communicated the status very clearly to users, and increased the efficiency of managing multiple alarms.
Edit Alarm
Adding or editing an alarm presents the user with a number of options including alarm sound, snooze ability, and days to repeat. The editable fields are denoted by a dotted line, which includes the name of the alarm and the time. To better accommodate one-handed usage, the time was relocated to the thumb zone, since that was measured to be the most frequently adjusted setting.
Brand Design
To support the goal of creating calm, the design was approached with a minimalist philosophy. For instance, avoiding excessive ornamentation, limiting colors, and thoughtfully managing negative space.
Name and Logo
Many ideas were sketched to explore the concept of rearranging and organization. The name LARMA is an anagram of ALARM. The final logo design was created using Vectornator, and emphasizes the concept of organizing multiple groups by incorporating details such as the disclosure triangle and repetition.
Retrospective
LARMA was the first project I worked on where the app was entirely conceptualized from my own experiences and desires. Because of this, I wanted to ensure that the app helped other users facing similar problems and had purpose beyond just myself. Surveys and usability tests were effective in validating my assumptions, but I also received valuable insights that ultimately influenced the final design. This experience of getting out of the building reinforced the necessary ability to detach personal decisions and expectations from the reality of the end users' needs.