The logo and name of the application represent a symbiosis between two types of activities: one for "me" and the other involving "you."
Introducing a wellness application that helps users maintain both their physical and mental fitness while forming meaningful connections with others.
14 Weeks
Five Members
Product Design
Figma, Qualtrics, Miro
Duration
Team Size
My Role
Tools
What are the emerging and accepted norms governing these activities in order to support individuals in engaging effectively while safeguarding their well-being?
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant disruption in the way people participate in various activities, leading to noticeable effects on their mental and physical well-being. As society adapts to the "new normal," it becomes crucial to address the following question:
The Challenge:
The objective is to identify and establish the emerging and accepted norms for these activities in the "new normal" and create a user-centered platform that promotes a seamless and enjoyable experience for users engaging in these activities while prioritizing their well-being.
The Solution
Introducing a wellness application..
..that helps users maintain both their physical and mental fitness..
..while forming meaningful connections with others..
..and getting rewarded for it.
Over the course of the semester, a team of us conducted weekly projects to solve a problem. Here’s how that looked like:
Step 4: Design
Step 3: Create
Step 2: Ideate
Step 1: Research
01.
Design Thinking
Our team worked on Miu from start to finish. This allowed us to explore the entire process, how they are interlinked with each other and how they depend on each other. We started with an idea and it was through feedback and refinement that we came to the final design. At the same time, I noticed that while this is a well established process, as designers and researchers, we have to learn that design thinking is a flexible process and that it may uniquely applies to each product or service.
02.
Team Strengths
Throughout our project, our team maintained a collaborative working style by communicating frequently and understanding each other's strengths. With a mix of researchers, developers, and designers, we were able to learn from one another and combine our expertise to create a cohesive product. As a designer, I picked up new tricks on Figma from my teammates, and in return, I shared my knowledge of psychology to help inform our design decisions.
Lessons Learned
research
Step 1
The process of writing personas can help us organize the interview results from each of our group members and focus more on the common needs of our target audience.
We based this on the interviews, discovering:
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a strong desire among participants for more social opportunities, as the pandemic has limited in-person interactions. They expressed eagerness to reconnect with old friends and make new ones.
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the prolonged period of staying at home and restrictions on indoor sports centers have made interviewees more open to outdoor activities and exercise.
We start thinking about how our product would addresses these needs by combining physical and mental health benefits, while also incorporating social features to facilitate connections between users.
The most difficult part when we were working on personas is to integrate the responses of different interviewees into one key point. Each interviewee has different personality traits, living habits, and backgrounds, so it took some time to analyze the commonalities between each other. We used sticky notes to summarize the similar characteristics between different people, and then use details to sort out key points. We came up with a primary persona and two secondary personas, this allows us to review from time to time whether our ideal user base would be applicable as we move on to design in the future.
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Scenarios helped shift our focus from looking at the problem to create a corresponding solution to creating a solution with people in mind, where their struggles are given utmost importance.
For example, through Michelle (one of the attached scenarios), we were able to see how a female who not only wants to be connected to other people but is also relevant through social media would want in comparison with Cathy who is just looking to stay healthy and connect with people. Scenarios help us in breaking down the problem into little pieces only so we can piece them together and form a unified solution.
The scenarios are linked here.
‘..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..’ (Mayo Clinic)
Socializing + exercising has several benefits not only for your physical health but also for your mental health.
To start off, our team conducted competitive analysis with some platforms already is use.
We found that..
We started our research process by conducting a competitive analysis. We see a multitude of mental wellness and health care applications out in the market today..
..however most of them missed some features that could prove to be essential for the wellbeing of the user.
We first focused on elements that our solution needs to support to address the problem:
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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.
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Establishing a mechanism that allows users to communicate and interact with others.
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Boost user engagement while motivating them to exercise or attend activities regularly.
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Providing peer support for users’ mental health, setting up channels for people to reach out to professionals if they have mental health problems.
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Providing tools to minimize decision-making pertaining to healthcare while backing up these tools with actual research.
Linked is the full report.
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After conducting preliminary interviews, we gained valuable insights into the problem space.
The analysis revealed that incorporating rewards in our app would increase user engagement and motivation for workouts and challenges.
Additionally:
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Users expressed a strong willingness to connect with others facing similar situations, reinforcing our initial problem statement.
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We also identified a potential challenge in encouraging users to reach out to mental health professionals as an initial step towards improving their well-being.
Attached is the script used for the interviews.
Here's what we found:
FINDING 3:
Disadvantages of their Coping Strategies
The subjects were asked about what they thought were the advantages and disadvantages of their existing coping strategies. There were similar themes in their disadvantages. What was the common amount the subjects was that they did not have a right idea of how much of the strategy was enough to make themselves feel better and for them to not overindulge. For example, subject 2 expressed that she would watch tv shows or movies to make herself feel better. However, she mentioned that she would often watch it for longer than she anticipated and this would cause her to delay other tasks of hers causing other problems.
Subject 1: “Distracting myself would often lead me to do my stressful tasks last minute. It would mean that I would procrastinate until I couldn’t and then I would rush to finish my tasks”
Subject 2: “A disadvantage is that I would spend more time on them than intended.”FINDING 2:
Interest in Rewards for Exercise
When asked Question 7 from subjects, both had almost identical answers. The subjects expressed that they don’t work out often. They also said that they would not work out for challenges but would be more inclined to work out if they were being offered some rewards for doing so. Subject 2 also mentioned how she would get points from a previous app for walking certain miles and they could use those points to get movie tickets. She commented that it would
motivate her to walk more.
Subject 1: “I don’t exercise often but if I was rewarded for it then, yes. Especially if it is a
monetary reward.”
Subject 2: “If yes, I was rewarded for it, I would be more inclined to workout. We would get
points for movie tickets on an app for walking a number of steps. That would motivate me to
walk more. If the challenges have rewards I would do them too”.FINDING 1:
Coping Through Connection
When asked about their coping strategies at the start of the interview, both the subjects had one
in common: reaching out to people for support to make themselves feel better. As a coping
strategy, subject two expressed that they often reach out to close family members or friends to
distract themselves or to seek their help in matters making them feel distressed. Subject one
expressed a desire to reach out to their close friends and parents to get advice on matters and
to help themselves feel better as well.
Subject 1: “I cope with stress through eating. Sleeping. Distracting myself through tv or with
talking to people.”
Subject 2: ”As a coping mechanism I like to turn to my faith and spirituality as a source of
comfort. I also turn to communicating with my loved ones.”-
The most difficult part when we were working on personas is to integrate the responses of different interviewees into one key point. Each interviewee has different personality traits, living habits, and backgrounds, so it took some time to analyze the commonalities between each other. We used sticky notes to summarize the similar characteristics between different people, and then use details to sort out key points. We came up with a primary persona and two secondary personas, this allows us to review from time to time whether our ideal user base would be applicable as we move on to design in the future.
The process of writing personas can help us organize the interview results from each of our group members and focus more on the common needs of our target audience.
We based this on the interviews, discovering:
-
a strong desire among participants for more social opportunities, as the pandemic has limited in-person interactions. They expressed eagerness to reconnect with old friends and make new ones.
-
the prolonged period of staying at home and restrictions on indoor sports centers have made interviewees more open to outdoor activities and exercise.
We start thinking about how our product would addresses these needs by combining physical and mental health benefits, while also incorporating social features to facilitate connections between users.
-
Scenarios helped shift our focus from looking at the problem to create a corresponding solution to creating a solution with people in mind, where their struggles are given utmost importance.
The scenarios are linked here.For example, through Michelle (one of the attached scenarios), we were able to see how a female who not only wants to be connected to other people but is also relevant through social media would want in comparison with Cathy who is just looking to stay healthy and connect with people. Scenarios help us in breaking down the problem into little pieces only so we can piece them together and form a unified solution.
ideate
Step 2
These sketches sparked divergent takes on creating solutions and were made to provide more context to the solution we create and. Through this exploratory activity we were able to realize the ways in which the user could interact with the application (and that we might not be the best at drawing).
We started our design process by creating sketches freely.
This assignment was a free flowing process uninhibited by rules.
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 time constraints, the brainstorming session involved prioritizing the most essential features.
Scenario 1:
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.
Scenario 2:
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.Based on prioritized scenarios, the team conducted a brainstorming session to finalize which features to include in the application.
We also analyzed competitor applications to gain insights into what works and what doesn't work in practice.
This board complemented our ideation process:
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To better understand the cognitive patterns of our intended users and predict a state of flow, we developed a User Flow diagram.
This diagram provides a clear visualization of how users will interact with the product, from the initial sign up/log in stage to the final interaction. By mapping out the user's movements throughout the product, we can anticipate their needs and optimize the user experience.
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The user flow diagram gave us a lot of insight as to how the application is supposed to behave. This was the beginning 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.
To begin our creation process, we started with building initial wireframes.
The team primarily used Figma to design and collaborate.
These are some of the screens we created:
Wireframes
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We started working on the home and profile screens focusing on aspects that the users would want to see first.
1
Profile Page
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To generate accountability, we started visualizing how we could combine missions with other people.
2
Adding Missions
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Based on user feedback we added a rewards section.
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We thought about the business aspects on how we could generate revenue with this feature.
3
Rewards
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This section was personal to us - this is how our idea started!!
4
'Me' Section
The wireframes and paper prototypes were tested with 8 users. The tests was conducted to do a check before we created final wireframes. In our usability test, most of the users met problems on the pop out screen while waiting for the team up response. A possible reason is that the pop-out screen is usually not for waiting but for a notification that will be read and closed in a short period of time. Another issue is that after team up successfully, there is no notification that informs users they join the group, the system directs them to the group chat instead, which causes the confusion to users of what is happening. Also, there weren’t sufficient indications to tell users what status they are in, so the user may feel confused when directed from page to page. Hence, we figured that some popup notifications should be added to guide users for the following steps.
To summarize, the following main pain points were uncovered:
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Lack of cohesiveness in design
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Confusing 'team up' mechanism
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Missing completion and start pop-ups
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Lack of discoverability.
Linked are the usability inspection logs we used for the usability tests.
Usability Testing
create
Step 3
To streamline the design process and ensure consistency throughout the application, our team developed a design system that aligns with the application's theme. We aimed to create a cohesive and vibrant design system, as research suggests that brighter colors can positively impact users' moods. By incorporating this design system, we aimed to improve the overall user experience and create a visually engaging application.
Design System
Final Design
