A wellness application that allows users to form connections with people while staying physically and mentally fit. The application has individual and group activities, hence the name :)
Duration
Sep- Dec, 2021
My Role
UX Design
UX Research
Team Size
5 Members
Problem Statement
How can we help people practice self-help for their mental and physical wellbeing, while staying connected?
Key Drivers
Why do we need this?
In the past months, a disruption in normal social activities because of covid has led to various mental and physical struggles for people of all ages. Long periods of isolation and loneliness has resulted in poor mental health and the desire to re-establish the connection with others.
Research from Mayo Clinic states that ‘socializing not only staves off feelings of loneliness, but also it helps sharpen memory and cognitive skills, increases your sense of happiness and well-being, and may even help you live longer.’ It has several benefits not only for your physical health but also for your mental health. The ancient philosopher Plato noted: ‘lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.’
Research + Planning
The Present Form
1. Competitive Analysis
1.1 Reflection from the analysis
We see a multitude of mental wellness and health care applications out in the market today. Some applications make use of some sort of dependence on a professional and are created as a preventative applications. Some applications make use of games and tasks in conjunction with a reward-based system that keeps users engaged with the application while they work on themselves. This gamification, if implemented properly, shines a positive light on creating applications that are light-hearted to use. By taking control of the look-up process the applications minimize the decisions that the users make. View detailed analysis here:
2. Interviews
Through the 10 interviews that we conducted, we find that the participants, to a certain degree, experienced both physical and mental issues. A majority of these issues can be directly associated with the rules and regulations that were put in place to tackle the pandemic.
A more complete interview analysis can be found here
Findings: Elements that our solution needs
1
Creating a system that takes into account user issues (mental and physical) to provide apt solutions for the problem in hand in an efficient manner.
2
Establishing a mechanism that allows users to communicate and interact with others.
3
Boost user engagement while motivating them to exercise or attend activities regularly.
4
Providing peer support for users’ mental health by establishing channels of communication
5
Providing tools to minimize decision-making pertaining to healthcare while backing up these tools with actual research.
Ideation
How should the product behave?
1. Scenarios
Through these scenarios, we were able to gather insight on chores that are involved in a persons daily life and how activities could be introduced in their routines to promote a healthier living. The complete scenarios can be found here
2. Personas
From the research we conducted, there were a few common recurring themes related to social interaction, physical health and mental health. To capture these concerns we devised there personas that would address and recognize each of the said issues. We made sure that each of the discovery made in the research section was addressed in at least one of the personas.
We also made sure to include peripheral data related to daily lives including comfort with using technology as well as occupations, to add layer of personality to the personas. By doing so the team was able to empathize with the user.
While creating these personas, the team established the target population, which was decided upon through the preliminary research.
3. Sketches
To better visualize the experiences that the users can have with the application, we created multiple sketches. These sketches were made to provide more context to the solution we create and sparked divergent takes on creating solutions. Through this exploratory activity we were able to realize the ways in which the user could interact with the application.
3. Stories
The team then selected a few sketches, through brainstorming sessions, to finalize the aspects that we will focus on the application. Since the sketching session resulted in multiple ideas, that couldn't be implemented because of the time constraints, the brainstorming session involved prioritizing the most essential features.
3.1 Storyboard 1- Andy
Andy is a Software Engineer whose life changed a lot after Covid. He always maintained a good exercise routine and loved meeting new people. Connections and a challenging workout routine is what he sought after during isolation.
3.1 Storyboard 2- Cathy
Cathy is a server in Ann Arbor. She misses being around people the most and wants safe ways to connect with people. She wishes to exercise together with the people she meets and also maintain good mental health.
Synthesis + Design
Creating the Wellness Application
After the completion of the requisites, the actual designing and modeling of the system started. Insights from the research and planning phase were used to form the decisions we tool in the synthesis and Design stage.
1. Feature Selection
The team, based on the prioritized scenarios brainstormed several feature to include in the application. This also involved using competitor application as reference to know what works and what doesn't
2. User Flow
After finalizing the features to be included, the team then collaborated to create the structure of the application. This was done to carefully map out interactions and subsequent micro interactions with the application. The user flow diagram was regularly iterated on during the period of the design phase, to include any new changes or additions to the application. The classification of flow of interactions is shown below. Detailed flow can be seen here
Missions
Account
Online Activities
Community & Chat
2. Paper Prototype
The user flow diagram gave us a lot of insight as to how the application is supposed to behave. This was the begging of the actual design phase, however, designs created for this activity were no where close to final and acted only as a basic preliminary paper prototype to verify the components of the application. The video for the prototype can be seen below.
2.1 User Testing
We were able to test this prototype with potential users to uncover pain-points that could be mitigated as the design was being finalized.
The test log for the prototype can be found here
1
Creating a system that takes into account user issues (mental and physical) to provide apt solutions for the problem in hand in an efficient manner.
2
Establishing a mechanism that allows users to communicate and interact with others.
3
Boost user engagement while motivating them to exercise or attend activities regularly.
4
Providing peer support for users’ mental health by establishing channels of communication
5
Providing tools to minimize decision-making pertaining to healthcare while backing up these tools with actual research.
3. Initial Wireframes
4. Style Guide + UI Kit
To ease the design process and also impart cohesiveness to the application overall, the team devised a design system that goes by the theme of the application. We tried to create a the design system that was overall bright, in that, research suggest that brighter colors can help improve mood.
5. Initial Design + Prototype
After everything had been finalized, the team stared extending the design system to the wireframes. This initial high level design was again not wholly complete and required some polishing before it could be called completed. However, the design had almost taken it final form in terms of its looks and feel, just enough to be tested later.
5.1 Usability Testing
The created design was tested against 8 users, to find issues with the application. The tests was conducted to check the look and eel, the flow of operations and discover features that might have ben left out.
The following main pain-points were uncovered
Lack of cohesiveness in design
1
Confusing Team up Mechanism
2
Missing Completion and start pop-ups
3
Lack of discoverability
4
A more thorough usability log that describes the issues users faced can be found here
5. Final Design - Follow through
By taking into consideration the poor experience that the users faced, I overhauled the look and the feel of the application, along with the addition of newer pages, to make the activities and their associated process in the application easier to navigate through. I improved the design as an additional step to finish the project to completion.
Mission: Finding and Meeting Up
Mission: Progress to Completion
Self-care: Music, Work out, etc
Chat and Account
6. Final Prototype:
Follow through
Values + Learnings
Rapid, Rapid, Rapid
Through the various activities, we found that the ideation sessions must lead to multiple ideas which thereby leads to a lot of rapid sketches. The focus here is on the quantity of ideas, so that the designers can have multiple options to select the best idea from. These ideas are then supposed to be rapidly prototyped to thus be tested against users. By continuously working in an agile fashion, the team was able to reduce the time of completion considerably when compared to a traditional waterfall design cycle while discovering pain-points timely.
Additionally, through the various interviews I found that the briefing section should be light hearted and more of a socializing activity instead of a prescriptive introduction. This activity not only loosens up the interviewee but also helps ease into the more difficult questions of the test.
Finally, interviewers must also make sure to make the interviewee known of the fact that the usability test checks the application and not the user, so if the user is unable to complete a task, it isn't the users fault rather the applications fault.
Memories :)
