Tessera

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  Tessera

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  UI Elements, notifications and widgets

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  Tessera's main features screen

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  High-fidelity Screen

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  Figjam Findings: Second and Primary Research, Surveys, Interviews, Affinitization, Personas, & User Testing

Inspiration: 

By retrospecting people’s daily life through interviews and surveys, it provides an authentic perspective on regular routines. Through this lens, we noticed a ubiquitous problem: using fragmented time efficiently. In modern society, time is divided by miscellaneous events. Waiting for the bus, in between two meetings, or simply lying on the bed, we use mindless scrolling to fill up every fragmented period of time. As a result, people indulge in this dopamine trap with the guilt of not achieving something intentional or meaningful. Through this universal dilemma, we envision that the fragmented downtime can be spent on something intentional and meaningful rather than unmindful scrolling through subtle guidance. Therefore, we aim to explore how wasted, fragmented time can be transformed into small, productive sessions for positive and beneficial tasks with the help of an application. Driven by this mission, we created Tessera to reclaim the depth in our daily transitions.

What it does:

Tessera utilizes a combination of existing hardware and software, including a gyroscope, GPS, screen time, and calendar, to detect if users are experiencing fragmented time and spending excessive time on doom scrolling. If so, Tessera provides gentle guidance to help users replace mindless scrolling with productive micro-tasks, such as reading, reflection, and scheduling future events. By providing a unique page, QuickSart, Tessera allows users to begin those activities effortlessly. Additionally, Dashboard provides a powerful, comprehensive overview to the users to track previous progress and view all tasks at a glance. To reduce distraction, Tessera Focus helps users to reduce social media distractions to help them stay intentional during those fragmented times.

How we built it

Following industrial-standard workflow, we conduct primary and secondary research, create affinization, construct user personas, and build a sitemap before moving on to product development. We iterate based on peer feedback and usability testing to refine accessibility, clarity, legibility, and interaction flow. This structured workflow supports us in translating a simple idea into a cohesive, fledged product experience.

Challenges

One of the major challenges we faced was identifying a clear direction that reflects the theme of reimagining everyday life. In the early stages, we explored several ideas before developing Tessera. However, they lacked general applicability in everyone’s daily life despite the product opportunities. As freshmen students, developing an app concept together in a short period of time was also a challenge. It took a significant amount of time on grounding the objectives and conceptualing the information architecture. These challenges helped strengthen both our idea conceptualization and our collaborative efficiency as a team.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of 

We are proud that the team of four freshmen can construct a developed app concept within a short time constraint. The outstanding motivation, devotion, self-discipline, and supportive attitude are witnessed throughout the project. The synergy between the teammates enables us to present Tessera with well-executed visuals, smooth user flow, and intuitive experiences. Seeing our concept evolve from a minimal but authentic observation into a functional, problem-solving prototype is rewarding. Ultimately, this project taught us that impactful designs—much like a tessera—rely on every individual piece working in immaculate alignment to create a powerful, unified vision.

What's next for Tessera

What’s next for Tessera? That is the question we keep coming back to. We are now thinking about how to more accurately identify fragmented user time using existing hardware and operating systems, so the app can respond more naturally to real moments throughout the day. At the same time, we want to continue improving the UX interface and make everything more intuitive and seamless. The goal is to refine how users interact with Tessera so that it feels even more effortless, supportive, and integrated into their daily flow.

Built With

• figma