How grouped alarms can improve the usability of one of world's most-used apps
This conceptual feature, grouped alarms, is focused on improving an app used by millions - the iOS Clock app. Conversations with a wide range of users revealed a recurring issue for people wanting to easily set alarms that fit around their varying needs.
Project goals
01
Ease of use
Setting an alarm should be a quick action that allows users to manage their day within a tap or two. One of the largest user complaints revolved around the tedious setting and toggling of many alarms just to wake up in the morning. I made it a priority to improve this aspect.
02
Tailored around people
Most of us hit snooze. Some of us accidentally fall back asleep. None of us live the same day every day. The grouped alarm functionality needed to provide flexibility without sacrificing the core functionality of an alarm.
03
Familiarity
An app with a user base as large and diverse as the iOS Clock requires new features to be easily understood. I made it a priority to work within the current Apple Design Language of the time.
Existing friction
The existing alarms app was limited in functionality by the layout and configuration options. From researching how people use the app, we knew that most alarms were set in group around key daily events, however, the alarms app did not allow grouped alarms to be create or even easily managed. In addition, the primary action, inputting time was far away from a comfortable thumb reach and was hard to accruately control with a swiping gesture due to the small input size.
Off'n'on in one step
Creating and managing a grouped alarm should be as simple as creating a one-off alarm. To achieve this, the existing UI was largely kept the same and an option to make it a grouped alarm was added. Using the existing component for the stopwatch, a user can quickly toggle and see the alarms added to the group. Once the alarm was saved, it would be visually identified by the layered icon showing the number of alarms in the group along with the option to toggle the whole group or individual alarms off or on.
Making it easy to plan your day
Once a grouped alarm has been created, users had expressed a desire to order their alarms, so we added the option (when editing) to hold and drag to reorder alarms and grouped alarms. In addition, by tapping the icon showing how many alarms sit within a grouped alarm, a user can view all included alarms and toggle each one off or on.
