APPly - The Work/Life Balance Game

Campaign Ad #1 - After COVID-19
Campaign Ad #2 - After COVID-19
APPly Infograph

Inspiration

We’re stuck at home, just like most of Europe. Fortunately we can still work, but on behalf of that, we overfocus and leave other important things behind, which leads to a potential overwork load and mental illness. We talk less, we work more, we think more, we comprehend less, and forget to just disconnect and use our time with control and balance. What if we can set a pause button, while playing? Puzzled?

Enter APPly, the app to help you happily connect!

With APPly, you can set your calls, your “me-times”, your “our-times”, and force yourself to slow down. Find yourself quests and milestones. You don’t need all that pressure to work eight hours straight, these are stressful times and it’s crazy out there. Relax. Watch that cartoon you said you were watching with the kids but you truly want to watch by yourself with your preferred beverage. Call your parents because you worry about them just as much as they worry about you. Set that as your missions, and with and integrated system, your phone and a voice assistant will react to them. It’s time to play your life as it should be: a fun game.

The more you focus on balancing your life between work and everything else, the more you’ll enjoy the app, as it comes with a score system. Besides that, with a gamification principle, you will rank up as you meet your milestones. As a game, more points end up in benefits. From discounts, to free periods, maybe even granting yourself a day-off! Taking in consideration that a more well balanced life lead up to more productivity, this mindset is extensive to your company.

To enlight the pros of companies when it means their job offer and their employees happiness, APPly is thought in a way that we can build specific plans for companies who care about balance, putting these as a differentiator when it comes to hire someone.

That way, we can ensure three players at once: you, who struggles with this routine shift, your company, who will unthrive with the economy and the benefits suppliers, who can chain their offer to a more significant target.

Your life should be a business that we all care, and it’s time to see as it should.

Find your balance. And you’ll live APPly ever after.

What it does

APPly lets you schedule several little things you want to do to take a break from work, as well as set goals for the week. Let's say you want to talk with your significant other on Monday, at 9:32 PM for around half hour and you really need to talk about the food in the pantry going bad. Schedule the call, and at 9:32 the app will call them. Call time is counted at the end and points are awarded according to your set goal. At the end of each week, extra points are gained proportionally to the goals you set for yourself.

Points grant you levels, and levels grant you benefits. Leveling up means more benefits, but it also means that you need to push yourself even more. The benefits you receive are up to you. You want a discount at your favourite brand clothes shop? Want a free month of gym membership? Want cheaper coffee? It's all up to you and what you choose!

How I built it

The app is a work in progress and is being created with Android Studio, using Java and XML. A mock-up was developed using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and marvelapp.com to simulate operation. Video made with Adobe Premierie and After Effects, audio recorded with Audition.

Challenges I ran into

Create a significant idea that combines our context and our way of living. Taking on account that we are suffering with a period of increased mental illness due to abrupt routine shift, we thought essentially in a solution that meets business prosperity and personal immediate reward.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We think that we met a solution that will be easy to penetrate on people lives, since it’s relatable and joyful. More, we took in consideration the economy impact mixed with health, without postponing the importance of that combo in workers minds.With a comprehensive explanation of it pros and cons, for individuals and companies, this product can be a gamechanger in the present and future contexts.

What I learned

To work on APPly the team had to quickly learn new skills and acquire information. Firsty, how to work with the marvelapp.com platform to build the mockup. There was no previous After Effects expertise and as such that too had to be learned. The principles behind a gamification platform were also a major point, which allowed us to develop this idea and to build a business model to support it.