Unlock Your Brain
Client
UnlockYourBrain GmbH
Collaborators
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1 CEO
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1 COO
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1 Product Manager
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1 Lead Designer
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6 App Developers
Location
Berlin, Germany
Year
2013 - 2015
UnlockYourBrain's language and trivia app uses machine learning with every unlock of your smartphone – unlock your potential!
In 2012, one scholar and one entrepreneur developed a prototype for an e-learning app that integrates people's desire to train their brains with the daily interaction they have with their devices.

Strategy objective
User feedback from the Play Store and gorilla testing indicated that users wanted more from the lock screen app other than math training. Areas the company decided to focus on were:
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Brand awareness
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In-app user engagement
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Web application for a course marketplace & user-generated content
User Stories
Mobile app – As a user, I want to study and see progress on multiple subjects so that I feel challenged and motivated to continue learning.
Web app – As a user, I want to test myself so that I can learn using content relevant to my exams.

What we did
The first step Design did was audit the current assets from the Android app to its marketing materials then we audited the mobile user experience and started prioritizing the redesign against the list of product features in the roadmap:
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Onboarding experience
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Re-engagement features ie. weekly statistics, leaderboard
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Customizable content
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Gamification features ie. rewards, levels
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Web platform to manage and publish content to app
What we learned
While designing the app experience, we were also designing the UX and UI for the web-based publisher platform and the company's marketing materials.
The skeuomorphic UI looked great from a brand perspective but it was difficult to implement components that used complex patterns, gradients and iconography. On top of those delays, it was challenging to get user feedback in a feature-driven environment.
The feedback that users gave on the PlayStore was a great resource for acceptance testing but not having a process for data collection before releases disrupted how Product Management and Design prioritized user needs against the roadmap demands.