Most productivity tools are built for a student who already has motivation. I designed Momentum for the one who doesn't.
Role
Solo project
Scope
Strategy · Research · Design
Duration
8 months
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Good morning, Maya
YOUR MOMENTUM · TUESDAY
[ home · momentum ring ]
[ home — visuals in progress ]
01The problem
Motivation is a state, not a trait.
Motivation in college is a state, not a trait. It moves with sleep, workload, and energy, and it collapses at the point when the stakes are highest. The students who fall behind are rarely disorganized. They are depleted. Existing tools make that worse. They demand constant input and reward streaks, so they fail on the exact day a student needs them and turn a missed day into guilt.
The bet: design for the worst day. If it works when a student has nothing left, it works on the good days for free.
02The approach · Sensing
Read the student, don't ask them.
A depleted student cannot reliably report what is holding them back. Awareness is the one thing they do not have to spare. So Momentum pulls from apps students already use, like Canvas, sleep, screen time, and mood, and reflects the patterns back, including how something like late-night screen time is quietly shaping their focus. I cut journaling, daily check-ins, and manual mood logging, because every input is a cost on the day that matters most.
Momentum learns from data students already generate, so the experience needs zero manual tracking.
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Insights
WHAT'S SHAPING YOUR FOCUS
SLEEP · LAST 7 DAYS
PASSIVE SIGNALS
CONNECTION FOUND
[ Insights — visuals in progress ]
A passive source
Sleep is pulled in automatically — no logging, no check-in. The same goes for screen time and mood.
A surfaced connection
Late-night screen time is quietly shaping focus — the pattern the student couldn't have reported themselves.
03The approach · Matching
Match the method to the moment.
A method that transforms one person can leave another feeling helpless. Think of everyone who has bounced off Notion. So Momentum assigns one of five research-backed strategies based on a student's current behavior, and re-matches as that behavior changes. There is no menu to pick from. Choice is load, and load was the enemy.
One of five strategies, each grounded in a behavioral theory, matched to the student's current state.
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Today's method
MATCHED TO HOW YOU'RE DOING
STRATEGY 2 OF 5
Build Momentum
THEORY · BEHAVIORAL ACTIVATION
YOUR STEPS
[ Study — visuals in progress ]
The matched strategy
Assigned from current behavior — the student never chose it from a menu. Choice is load.
The theory behind it
Build Momentum is grounded in Behavioral Activation. The research is labeled on the screen, not written up in a paragraph.
04The approach · Starting
Start smaller than the student expects.
The hardest moment is starting. Momentum never shows "write the paper." It shows "open the doc and write one messy paragraph," so the first action is always doable, even on a bad day.
Every task is reduced to a first step small enough to beat avoidance.
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Essay · PSY 230
BROKEN INTO FIRST STEPS
Open the doc, write one messy paragraph
[ Task list — visuals in progress ]
The first step
Never "write the paper." The top action is always doable, even on a bad day — so starting stops being the wall. Everything else stays checked off below.
05What I cut, and why
Streaks
Punish the bad day — the exact day a depleted student needs the tool to be kind.
Points
Lift engagement, but engagement was never the goal. Follow-through was.
Social
Adds comparison and pressure to a student who already has too much of both.
No streaks, no points, no social. Each one lifts engagement and works against the premise. Streaks punish the bad day, and social features add comparison and pressure. I optimized for follow-through and wellbeing, not time in the app.
06Grounding and validation
Built with students, held to an honest bar.
I shaped this through ongoing informal conversations with students and put the prototype in front of them throughout the eight months. I treat that as direction, not proof. To validate it properly I would run a concept test on the reframe, diary studies across a full semester, and a Wizard-of-Oz test of the matching logic before building it, tracking task initiation and follow-through on hard days rather than time in the app.
Next · 01
Concept test
On the reframe itself — does designing for the worst day land?
Next · 02
Diary studies
Across a full semester, where motivation actually moves.
Next · 03
Wizard-of-Oz
Test the matching logic before building it.
The bet
Momentum is a bet that the best thing a motivation tool can do is ask less of you when you have the least to give.