Hero image with app mock-up

Project Overview

This is a project close to my heart. I am always trying to incorporate
exercise and improve productivity, and my biggest weakness is lack of consistency.
This is my solution - gamifying the habit building process!!
‍
I have tried to create an app to help develop consistency to having an intentional and mindful day with exercise, meditation and planning done at the beginning of the day.
40 a day
The app 40 a day helps users spend 40 mins in a day exercising, meditating and planning. These habits when followed consistently will enhance a person's wellbeing in the long run. The user will find new videos for exercise and meditation in the app everyday as Inspiration.
My Role
UX Designer
UX Researcher
UI Designer
Tools
Adobe XD
Miro
Usability Hub
Time
Six Months (Nov 2020 - May 2021)

The Problem

How can we help people stay on top of their wellbeing in this era of digital distractions and burnout due to lack of self care?
The solution is based on two psychological models - B.J Fogg's Behaviourial model and the "Three Keys to Success"
I have tried to tackle the challenge of building lasting habits (the behaviour), from three levels
picture illustrating b j foggs behaviourial model
picture illustrating the three keys to success
1
Aspiration (Ability)
2
Inspiration (Trigger)
3
Motivation
The perfect balance of all three elements could set the users up for the elusive success of building everlasting habits!

The Solution

The app has three features.
1
The main feature of the app is recommendation of exercise and meditation videos with a new video readily available everyday. The user does not need to spend time searching for new content but can just get on with her routine.
2
Inspiration in the app is provided through engaging content that will be recommended on a daily basis. The user gets to choose between success stories, latest health recommendations from scientific research, how to tutorials, etc, in different format like blogs, videos or audio.
picture of inspiration mock-up
3
Motivation was the tricky bit. My initial idea of creating a place in the app to perform challenges with friends did not get a good response in the Usability Testing. The final motivation idea for this iteration is to grow a plant. The plant grows a little every time three activities are completed
Process
Empathize
-Problem Statement
-Competitor Analysis
-User Interviews
Define
- Persona
-User Journey's
-User Flows
Ideate
- Wireframes
Prototype
-High Fidelity Wireframes
-Design System
Test
- Usability Testing
- Affinity Maps
- Iterations
- Final Prototypes

Empathize

01

Problem Statement

Our health conscious users need a way to build healthy habits with regards to food, exercise and wellbeing because the user does not have the motivation and time to follow a consistent schedule everyday.

02

Competitor Analysis

I conducted competitor research and analysis on two apps, one a habit tracking app called Productive and the second Headspace.
productive competitor profile

Key Findings

1
There are so many habit tracking apps with new ones added everyday.
2
The current pandemic situation has caused higher levels of stress.. The right content is very relevant at these times.
3
Apps with superior User Interface are the ones that are most popular in the app store.

03

User Interviews

I conducted fifteen online surveys and three in person interviews.
The results were analysed and I created Empathy Maps to understand the mental models, pain points, goals and frustrations of the users.
Empathy map example

Key Findings

1
Exercising regularly is one of the most challenging habits which most users are trying to adapt
2
Usually some sort of learning is required to build a habit either in the form of books, videos, expert advice or articles.
3
As gleaned from the user survey, bite sized content seems to be the best form of educating and keeping focussed attention.

Define

04

Persona

persona photo Ella

Ella

33,
Java Programmer
Ella has just started working in a new role. She enjoys her new role but she finds that the long hours and the extra 40 mins commute has left her with no time to take care of herself

Frustrations

1
Finds no time & motivation to exercise
2
She knows that she needs to eat healthy to get the energy to exercise. For this she knows that she needs to improve her skills.
3
She enjoys good food so can't help picking up food from her favourite eat outs on her way home especially during the dark winter months.

Goals

1
Ella wants to learn how to cook her favourite meals.
2
She knows her immediate priority is exercising to get her energy levels up.
3
She wants to find a good instructor online or wants to find useful resources to get her going.

05

User Journey

user journey picture

06

User Flow

user flow for primary persona ella

Key Insights

To find the solution using all the data from above, I created four mini problems that the app had to solve for my user.

1
I don't feel like exercising or meditating now.
2
How do I keep doing this when it gets boring?
3
How do I start and maintain a habit?
4
I have no time to look for exercise routines.

Ideate

07

Wireframes

low fidelity wireframes

Prototype

08

High Fidelity Wireframes

Feature #1 - Aspiration

The first feature of the app is a set of three daily activities to be performed in the app - exercise, meditation and planning the day.

Feature #2 - Inspiration

The second feature in the app is inspirational content. The user will receive exclusive recommended content everyday depending on their preferences.

Feature #3 - Motivation

The users are motivated by performing daily challenges with friends. The users would not want to break a streak while exercising or meditating with friends.

09

Design System

Please click through the link on the right to browse through the "40 a Day" Design System.
Design system picture

Test

10

Usability Testing

The usability tests were conducted remotely, face to face over zoom calls. I interviewed six partcipants in the demographics of my end user.

Goals

My goal in the first round of testing was to -

The results were organised using affinity maps and rainbow spreadsheet.

1
uncover usability issues
2
test the learnability of the app.
3
to assess if the users are able to access all the core features in the app
4
to determine if users will want to come back to the app after interacting with it

Results

rainbow spreadsheet picture

11

Iterations & Design Decisions

Issue # 1 - Onboarding

Most test participants did not get the concept of the app from the onboarding. So I need to tell a story here and really get across the "40 a day" concept.

Issue # 2 -Selection

Four out of five test participants did not know that they could change the recommended exercise & meditation videos. I needed a more visual and intuitive way to show this.
Updated Version
choose a workout mock-up

Issue # 3 -Motivation

During the testing, one of the task was to find a challenge and invite a friend to do it with.
80% of the participants did not know this feature existed in the app and 90% of the partcipants did not know where to go in the app to access this feature.
Though the partcipants did feel this was a good feature which will keep them motivated., almost 90% of the participants did not feel they would actually need to do this challenge with a friend through this app and thought that they might not use this feature after all.

12

Final Mock-Ups and Prototype

Feature #1 - Aspiration

Exercise, Meditation and Planning the day

The user performs her exercise and meditation from the recommendations and then plans her day. These three activities will take her 40 mins.

Feature #2- Inspiration

Recommended daily content

The user is inspired by Success Stories, how to tutorials and other form of content that is recommended daily based on preferences.

Feature #3- Motivation

Grow a plant

When the three activities are completed for the day, a plant grows virtually in the app. This would motivate the user to come back to the app everyday!

Other screens in the app.

Welcome Page
welcome page mock-up
Login Page
login page mock-up
Set preference page
set user preference mock-up
Homescreen
homescreen when user logs in mockup
Statistics Page
Statistics page mock-up
Accessibility Screen option
Content Page
picture of inspiration mock-up
Plan your day screen
Plan your day screen
Please feel free to try out the prototype here. Sign in as Ella and follow along some freshly recommended exercise and meditation videos. Also read about the latest scientific findings on optimal performance.
This is not a complete working model of the app and so all the features do not work. It shows only the core features.
The blue hotspots will show the clickable areas in the prototype.

Learnings and Takeaways

1
The structured approach of solving a problem via design thinking process  makes it easier to be creative in finding a solution.
2
When I found that one of the core features was not a hit during the Usability testing, I did not really have to restart the entire process.
3
The Empathize phase gave me so many different directions for the three main problems of Aspiration, Inspiration and Motivation. So when I found that I needed another solution, I could pick up from the different ideas from the research phase
4
I also found the Usability testing phase to be very useful and humbling. By taking the solutions so early to the users it is much easier to bring in the iterations before time and energy has been invested in one idea

Thank You

A special thanks to my tutor Kazi and mentors Omri and Hamed for your patience and the constructive feedback helping me continuously grow as a designer
Thank you so much for staying with me through the case study. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any feedback or just to say Hi.
Get in Touch