Moleskine Journal

Plan, Sketch, Write & Journal Digitally - all on One Platform

Overview

Moleskine is synonymous with high-quality notebooks, planners, and writing instruments, fostering a community of creatives who value craftsmanship, design, and self-expression. The brand’s expansion into physical tools aims to complement its physical products.

Scope: Concept Project

Duration: Two weeks

Tools: Figma

Role: UX Researcher & UX Designer

Team Members: Group Project

The Challenge

Our task was to explore the feasibility of adding a social networking feature to Moleskine’s smart notebook like. The goal was to enable users to share their creative works, whether publicly or anonymously, enhancing the journaling experience.

However, user research revealed that journaling is a deeply personal activity. Users overwhelmingly prioritized privacy and self-expression over social sharing, prompting us to pivot away from the social networking concept.

The Solution

We created a new app, Moleskine Journal, an all-in-one app that enhances and consolidates the functionality of Moleskine’s existing three apps.

  • Streamlined Experience: Combines planning, sketching, and journaling into one platform.

  • Enhanced Customization: Allows users to seamlessly integrate text, sketches, lists, and photos.

  • Creative Freedom: Focuses on intuitive tools that mirror nostalgia and authenticity of traditional journaling.

Discover

To guide our design, we conducted 10 user interviews, focused on journaling, note-taking, and sketching habits.

We uncovered the following key insights:

Users cherish the intimate experience of journaling.

01

Journaling is a private experience for users to express themselves without being judged. They prefer to keep these practices private, rather than sharing them with strangers.

Users find comfort and grounding in the routine of writing things down in their journals, notebooks or planners.

02

Users value organization and efficiency, and the act of crossing tasks off a list gives them a sense of productivity and fulfillment. They enjoy the physical act of writing things down and it evokes a feeling of nostalgia for them.

Users find that the digital journaling experience often fails to replicate the tangible, comforting aspects of physical journaling.

03

Many users are hesitant to transition to digital platforms due to concerns about privacy and a desire for greater customization. The ability to tailor their journaling experience to their unique needs makes them reluctant to fully embrace digital alternatives, in addition to fear of their personal entries and data being shared. Users tend to prefer the authenticity and security of traditional journaling.

Our user insights allowed us to create our user persona, Mindful Mia:

A New Direction: Prioritizing Mindfulness and Customization

Given these insights, we shifted our focus to:

  • Mimicking Traditional Journaling: Users need a digital journaling experience that feels as accessible and customizable as physical journaling.

  • Streamlining the Experience: Instead of introducing a social networking feature, we would focused on consolidating Moleskine’s three apps into one cohesive platform to enhance usability and reduce friction.

Evaluating the Existing Apps

Moleskine’s three apps, each with its own strengths, offered valuable tools like:

  • A comprehensive calendar for planning.

  • Sketching and drawing features with expansive tools and colors.

  • Task and event organization.

However, the fragmented experience prompted us to ask: Do users really need three separate apps to access these features?

Developing the Solution:

We created a new iOS app, Moleskine Journal, that provides an intuitive digital journaling experience by enhancing and consolidating the three existing Moleskine apps. Moleskine Journal simplifies the journaling process, indexes user-generated content and automates file categorization, and blends new and existing creative tools. 

With Moleskine Journal, users are able to plan, sketch and write on one platform, combine various forms of written and visual media (lists, photos, text, sketches), and focus on the creative process and freedom of expression.

Design

Starting with Low-Fidelity Usability Testing

Now that we knew what we were solving for, we could start with the fun part - designing! Before we got into wire-framing in Figma, my team completed a Design Studio where we sketched out wireframes and showed to each other to brainstorm ideas for the look and flow of the app. We then moved on to Figma to start our first prototype and move through the process from there.

We completed our first round of usability testing with three users with our low fidelity wireframes to understand key areas that may be causing confusion or that aren’t clear before we spent more time adding details. Key insights from usability testing helped us improve our prototype and make the following changes to our mid-fidelity prototypes before testing again:

Moving on to Mid-Fidelity Usability Testing

After making improvements to our low-fidelity prototype based on usability tests, we added additional details and completed another round of usability testing, which gave us the following insights to improve upon for our final prototype:

Final Prototype:

Conclusion

Reflection

  1. Managing Tight Deadlines: A structured sprint schedule was essential for staying on track during the two-week timeline. Balancing flexibility with clear goals ensured that we met deadlines while maintaining focus on quality.

  2. The Power of Team Collaboration: Working as a team amplified creativity and efficiency. Brainstorming ideas together and dividing tasks allowed us to tackle challenges effectively and create a cohesive solution.

  3. Prioritizing User Needs: User research highlighted the gap between the client’s initial request for a social media feature and users’ desire for privacy and simplicity. By pivoting the core app experience, we delivered a solution more aligned with user needs and behaviors.

Next Steps:

  1. Enhance Drawing Features: Redesign the sketching flow for better navigation and integrate features like revisiting days’ entries seamlessly.

  2. Incorporate Prompts: Add daily journaling prompts and “on this day” features to inspire creativity and encourage reflection.

  3. Enhance Onboarding: Build interactive onboarding tips to ensure users can easily navigate the app’s rich features.