Five to Nine (5-9)
Project Overview
During my senior capstone project, I set out to address the mental well-being of software engineers, who often struggle with burnout and work-life balance. I designed 5-9, a mobile app that encourages developers to disconnect from work and engage in meaningful activities.
Roles:
UX Designer
Team:
Just Me
Timeline:
2 Months
Tools:
Figma
Scope
The Problem
Software engineers dedicate long hours to their jobs, often in exchange for great pay. However, this comes with the pressure to constantly stay updated with the latest technologies and meet demanding work expectations. As a result, many engineers struggle with burnout and have little time or motivation to engage in fun, fulfilling activities outside of work. The lack of structured breaks and social interaction can negatively impact their mental well-being, making it difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance..
The Solution
Design an app such as Five to Nine (5-9) that’s tailored for software engineers to promotes their mental health and well-being by encouraging them to engage in meaningful activities outside their work environment. The name was chosen because most people’s outside working hour
Tailor & Curate Your Experience From Onboarding:
Select activities of their interest into their feed
Create goals that match their level of interest & time.
Create goals that match their level of interest & time.
Discover and Join Activities
Software engineers can browse personalized activity recommendations based on their selected interests.
They can filter activities by category (e.g., fitness, social, creative, outdoor).
Each activity comes with details, including time, location, and user experiences from the community.
Sharing, Viewing & Requesting to Join with Momentos
Users can record and share videos or photo Momentos of their activities, similar to a TikTok-style feed.
The feed displays other users' Momentos, inspiring engagement and discovery.
Users can react or send a request to join others in their activities, fostering real-life connections
What’s Out There?
Secondary Research
Some notable obersvations from these reports was widespread issue in the tech industry, with 76% of workers, including software engineers, reporting burnout, and 83% of developers experiencing it at work. Key contributors include high workloads (47%), inefficient processes (31%), and unclear goals (29%).
Surprisingly, research showed that company-provided mental health tools were largely ineffective, which led me to shift my focus from a workplace-driven solution to a B2C approach with 5-9, empowering engineers to take control of their well-being outside of work.
Competitive Analysis
The were many aspects I wanted to touch to with my solution that I thought could benefit software engineers. So I looked at various groups for my competitive analysis such as socially fun, general mental health and software engingeering.
Curation & Control
Physical Installation
As I progressed in my web development work, I received a new feature request from our product owner. They informed me that the micro-site I was working on would incorporate AR components to complement an ongoing physical installation being developed by our 2D team.
Create Activites
The 'Create Activities' feature embodies Curation & Control, allowing users to host any activity, set an activity type filter, and selectively invite specific people during the creation process.
Easy Middle Man
Momentos Feature V1: Journal-Style
Initially, the Momentos feature was a simple journal for users to log reflections. However, this approach conflicted with the ‘Easy Middle Man’ vision by keeping users overly engaged with the app.
Momentos Feature V2: Short Video Sharing-Style
I pivoted to a video-based experience inspired by TikTok. This would better allow users to see how others are experiencing enjoying activities and to be inspired to do the same. So users are not kept endlessly engaged, but instead motivates them to go out and create their own Momentos.
Request to Join Feature
"Originally, the app had like and comment buttons, but they encouraged passive engagement. Replacing them with ‘Request to Join’ made interactions more spontaneous and fun, motivating users to actively participate rather than just scroll.
Free & Funky
Onboarding Illustrations
To keep it free & funky, I used fun illustrations in the onboarding to signal this a space where users can freely express their unique selves.
Creating Momentos
Creating a Momento embraces the funky and free spirit by giving users a short timer—like BeReal—to snap a photo or record a quick video of their activity. With no filters, it encourages authenticity, letting users capture real moments without the pressure of perfection.
Branding
As I progressed in my web development work, I received a new feature request from our product owner. They informed me that the micro-site I was working on would incorporate AR components to complement an ongoing physical installation being developed by our 2D team.
Full Prototype
Next Steps
User Testing & Feedback Loop
Going forward with these iterations I would like to usability test with engineers especially when comes to features like ‘Request to Join’ since it’s so different then the common ‘Like’ button.
Exploring lightweight interaction features
I plan to further develop the goal-setting aspect. At the end of the onboarding, I included example goal concepts to encourage users to engage in activities and create Momentos.
Learnings
Make Things Connect
I used this project to prioritize and highlight my interaction and visual design skills. I focused on ensuring that design choices and components weren’t isolated. For example, in later versions, Momentos and Activities work together—users can share what they’re doing, and others can join directly from the Momento feed, not just the Activity feed.