Amidst the chaos of the pandemic, Elon Musk and his brain wave technology company Neuralink have just unveiled their new breakthrough product the Neuralink Implant, a revolutionary device that allows users to control technology through their thoughts. Along with the physical product, Musk also unveiled the Neuralink Brein, a smartphone companion app that allows users to collect, curate and interpret data from their brain.
With the power of the Neuralink, Elon Musk has approached me to design the interface for the application. The basic idea behind the implant is that it turns the user’s brain activity into bytes which can then be read by the user’s smartphone. The app, much like a smart watch, can also detect the mental and physical state of the user. This data can then be sent to medical professionals for further examination.
The goal was to keep the research to a minimum on this project. I felt it was more important to focus my time and effort on the Information Architecture and Interaction Design, since it was such a complex and integral part of the app. Nevertheless, below are the main objectives that guided my research.
This will determine the types of data to collect from the user, and features that will be helpful.
This will aim to identify the types of data to personalise and what information should be kept private.
This will aim to identify the target users, possible use cases, motivations and goals.
This will aim to uncover users’ concerns and expectations.
Since the Neuralink is one of a kind, the industry for this revolutionary product does not yet exist. For this reason, I had to research a variety of related industries, particularly wearable technology. Below, are some of the key findings.
In order to make sense of all the data I collected during my secondary research, I created user personas. Given that there were two primary use cases, I created two personas: Amanda and Barbara.
I started the information architecture process with a task analysis. This allowed me to step into the users shoes to understand how they might go about completing common tasks. From this, I found out what pages to include and their relationships, useful features, and how to determine the hierarchy of information. Below are just a few of the tasks that I mapped out.
In order to delve deeper, I created a ‘Hero’ task flow for my persona Barbara, to understand how she might go about achieving a specific goal through the app. Not only will this help me empathise with Barbara, but it will allow me to understand her motivations and the steps she could take to achieve her goal.
Using the scenario from the hero flow, I created a journey map to identify potential pain points within the process. A journey map allows me to better empathise with the user by stepping into their shoes and imagining the task from their perspective. By doing this, I was able to improve Barbara’s experience of ‘sending a health report to her doctor’ by illuminating unforeseen problems and thus potential opportunities for improvement.
The IA document gave me a birds-eye view of the entire app, acting as a visual representation of the pages, features, interactions, and hierarchy. This gave me a comprehensive understanding of the app by organising and classifying key information, resulting in more meaningful wireframes.
It was now time to begin the design phase, starting with the wireframes. To do this, I digitised my sketches and created mid fidelity wireframes for 5 key screens. The wireframes helped me to organise the content effectively on the page before inserting visual embellishments.
Strong navigation with a clear hierarchal structure was crucial for the designs success. I wanted to ensure users knew where they were, and where to find what they’re looking for.
To test my wireframes, I created a prototype in InVision. This was followed by a test plan to outline the objectives, goals, and parameters for success. I gathered 4 participants who shared some of the same key goals and values with my personas, Amanda and Barbara, and I asked them to ‘Find the exercise page and generate a 3-month report’.
I picked this task because I wanted to test the navigation of the prototype to see if participants were able to find what they were looking for and without difficulty. I also asked participants to generate a report, as this would be a frequent task for my persona, Barbara, and so I wanted to ensure it was easy to find and quick to complete.
The feedback from the participants was mostly positive. All users quickly found the exercise page, which suggested that the navigational design was a success. Users also found the ‘create a report’ process quick and easy. Participants also liked the card layout, the actionables, and the point-based system. This system allows users to understand the data without the need of a medical or scientific grounding.
Despite the overall positive response, there was some constructive criticism, which revealed interesting opportunities for improvement.
After making the necessary revisions to the wireframes, I started to gather a variety of visual inspiration for logos, colour, typography, icons and overall artistic direction. Artistic choices were predicated on Brein’s brand attributes: bold, futuristic, and engaging.
Guided by a mood board and a lot of experimentation in Sketch and my notebook, I distilled my ideas into a style tile. I opted for a dark theme, as well as bold colours and a rounded typeface. The combination creates a cool, futuristic vibe that adheres to the brand attributes.
Using my style tile, it was time to inject some life into my wireframes by beginning the UI design. Below are the screens that I focused on: Activity, Physical activity, Exercise, Search Results and Create a Report.
