Focus Stella

Three questions to the project team

What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
When we first planned Focus Stella, our goal was never just another focus app. It was to give the experience real playfulness, something people would actually enjoy returning to. The core UX challenge was that biometric data usually feels clinical and hard to read, the opposite of inviting. We needed a visual language that stayed scientifically credible yet felt warm and personal. That search led us to the 'star' metaphor: every focused moment becomes a star, and your sessions slowly draw a personal universe. Through gentle storytelling, it turned heart rate and arousal into something intuitive and emotional, blending naturally into daily life while still feeling special enough to make people want to build a lasting focus habit.

What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
My personal highlight came after prototyping, when I ran a usability test with 30 participants myself. Building on prior research, I designed a task-based comparative evaluation to see where Focus Stella truly differed from existing focus apps. The result that stayed with me was Novelty at 5.38 out of 7, our most significant score. It confirmed, through real UX research, that users genuinely perceived the experience as new, not only visually but in how it felt to use. The qualitative insights I gathered during the sessions were just as valuable, and they convinced me the concept deserves to be developed even further.

Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
I am currently a third-year undergraduate. Next semester I will study in Germany, where I hope to design for users from different cultures and learn how good experience translates across them. In five years I see myself working internationally as a designer who moves between research and craft. I also want to carry Focus Stella beyond a concept, toward real development and launch, growing it into a product that genuinely helps people build healthier focus and attention habits. This project showed me how much I value UX planning and research, the parts where I turn human insight into experience, so I plan to keep focusing my career there and become a designer who shapes meaningful, evidence-based products.