Reimagined Sleep Diaries
As part of a UX study abroad program in Newcastle, I worked with an international team of researchers and designers to reimagine the sleep diary — a widely used tool in both clinical and research settings. Our goal was to build a more inclusive and intuitive mobile prototype that could replace outdated paper diaries and improve how older adults report sleep data.
We collaborated with sleep researchers Lucas França and Mario Leocadio-Miguel to design a system that could eventually be used in large-scale population health studies. Our prototype was developed with a focus on accessibility, minimizing cognitive load, and allowing for long-term, sustainable use in real-world studies involving older or vulnerable populations.
Challenge
Sleep diaries are a critical tool in sleep science, especially for diagnosing and treating insomnia — but the current formats are often text-heavy, visually inaccessible, and confusing to use, especially for older adults or patients with cognitive conditions like Parkinson’s.
The biggest challenge was adapting a traditionally analog, medical survey into a responsive, touch-based interface without losing the nuance of the data researchers need. We also had to balance the app’s ease of use with the inclusion of features like medication tracking, entry validation, and day/night transitions — all while working with a research sponsor across time zones and academic systems.
Results
Our final prototype includes a complete survey flow tailored to morning and evening entries, an onboarding experience that introduces users to the concept of a digital sleep diary, and contextual UI elements to guide users through their sleep tracking routine. It reflects careful attention to typography, button hierarchy, and visual contrast, based on accessibility principles drawn from our research.
We also delivered interface features such as:
Entry locking to enforce proper usage flow (e.g. night entry disabled until morning is completed)
Visual progress indicators to reduce ambiguity
An expandable past entries page to allow review but not editing
Custom settings panel with accessibility controls (text size, contrast, dark mode)
Integration points for researchers to include or disable features like sleep reports
Process
Day 1–2: Established context through academic readings, UI accessibility research, and interviews with target users. Identified needs like minimizing text entry, simplifying time selection, and clarifying the structure of morning vs. evening surveys.
Day 3: Built a low-fidelity wireframe and conducted usability testing with participants simulating older adult users. Gathered detailed feedback about icon clarity, text sizing, and the day/night toggle (which we later removed).
Day 4–5: Developed and tested mid-fidelity screens with updated navigation, simplified button structure, and tutorial improvements. Sponsor feedback led us to revise elements like time input, screen locking, and report naming.
Day 6–7: Finalized high-fidelity prototype. Styled the interface using a custom palette and font system (Livvic, Futura, Inter), polished the survey flow, and refined the onboarding and settings screens. Delivered our presentation to faculty and project sponsors.
Conclusion
This project reinforced the importance of accessible design in health technology. Working on a tight timeline, across institutions and disciplines, challenged me to move quickly without sacrificing research integrity or usability. Reimagined Sleep Diaries wasn’t just about making something look better — it was about making a critical research tool more usable for the people it’s supposed to serve.