We already know:

Health outcomes are difficult to isolate and understand because so many different parts of our lives are interconnected.
Exercise doesn’t just help us be more fit; it helps our mood, our sleep, and our immune systems.
Addressing one issue without acknowledging the other related issues will leave us with an incomplete solution
Working towards a solution and falling short can be demoralizing and can cause us to stop trying.

What's wrong with your ___ app?

[headache; mood; fitness; diet; etcetera]

It is only focused on one aspect of your health
It doesn’t help you learn why/how your behaviors  are intertwined with that part of your health
It doesn’t help you see the big picture

It isn't HOLISTIC

Innerverse Wellness is an app that improves holistic wellness through data tracking by finding correlations between user behaviors and health outcomes.

Users can choose to focus on just one health issue (like back pain), or they can widen their net and also look at more patterns (like nutrition and sleep habits), and learn how those things are interrelated in their daily experience.

Overview

Purpose and Context

Innerverse Wellness was created to address the almost complete lack of holistic tracking apps, and to bring a data-driven approach to holistic health.

It was the capstone assignment for my UX Immersion certificate from CareerFoundry, where the assignment was simply to create a health app that included tracking and learning.

Title and Logo Evolution

Explore the evolution of the title and accompanying logos to get a sense of the iterative design process at work:

An Apple a Day

Realization: The phrase 'An Apple a Day' is great at explaining what the app is for, but terrible for Search Engine Optimization (especially with the prevalence of another company with that fruit as its logo).

Innerverse

I went looking for a word that had to do with health, self-knowledge, and that wasn't one of the most common search terms. I wasn't sure what to pair it with initially so I surveyed my Facebook community.

Innerverse Wellness was the winner

Project Description

Users need a way to track and manage multiple health issues holistically, and to analyze the connections between various behaviors and outcomes.

There are hundreds of apps that help track fitness or help track medications and symptoms, or help track nutrition and fitness. There are other apps dedicated to mental health, meditation, and learning about non-western health approaches, but there are not any apps that attempt to look at these things together.

A holistic approach to medicine suggests that no symptom or behavior or mood exists in isolation.

A holistic tracking app approaches data with the same understanding: that all information is potentially related.

How can a user enter with one set of understandings about their health, but deepen their knowledge and improve their health outcomes? How can tracking information inform doctor-patient conversations? How can having all tracking and learning information in one place improve patient confidence in the product as well as their health outcomes?

Innerverse Wellness mid-fidelity dashboard

Overview

Introduction

Problem:

How can users set and work towards holistic health goals even if they aren't familiar with holistic health? How can data about holistic connections help patients improve their knowledge and outcomes?

Goal:

Create a responsive web app that users can customize to set personalized goals, and that can provide AI-based data analysis to inform user decisions about their behaviors and goals.

Role: UX Researcher & Designer

Project Scale:

6 months (Immersion project for CareerFoundry)

Primary Stakeholders:

Doctors, patients, public health officials

Tools Used:

Sketch
Figma
Marvel
Gimp
Canva

Team:

Project Lead: Mara Levi
Tutor: Elizabeth Larson
Mentor: Candice Li

Intro

User Research: Competitive Analysis

Process:

I began by searching for holistic health care apps. While there are hundreds of apps devoted to one health area (like fitness) or two (like fitness and nutrition), there are only a handful looking at holistic health.

I focused on Vell Health, an app relatively similar to what I had in mind, and EmojiTrack+, an app that was very simple but open-ended so users could track anything they wanted.

Vell Health

Pros:
In-depth questionnaire creates confidence
Detailed and personalized recommendations
Entire section devoted to learning about symptoms
Lots of free content

Cons:
Complex interface with little to no onboarding
No questions about mood or mental health
No tracking the way symptoms and behaviors interact
Not enough differentiation between themselves and other competitors

Main Takeaways:

Partnerships with medical professionals lends credence
Tracking the ways in which symptoms, issues, medications, or behaviors interact is uncommon
Simple is good, but not always helpful if a user needs detail

EmojiTrack+

Pros:
Simple, easy to figure out, imminently customizable
Fun emojis can be chosen to create visual (and easily identified) representations of notes

Cons:
User does all the heavy lifting in finding connections. App essentially provides a space for logging information only
No feature to add notes to aid in memory of events (for sharing with doctor or making individual connections)

Research

User Research: Interviews

Participants:

I interviewed 3 adults: 1 patient, 1 provider, and 1 person who is both a patient and a provider, and combined my takeaways from those conversations into user personas that could guide my ideation process. I also surveyed 26 adults about their health tracking habits and their willingness to answer regular tracking questions.

Objective:

My primary objective was to find out how a health tracking app could benefit users, and what features might help me differentiate it from other apps users already had access to.

Key Takeaways:

Holistic and data-driven analysis of health issues would be useful to many people but it needs to be highly customizable and user-friendly.
Users do want visual representations of their data - they want to see their progress and also where there are correlations.
Users would return to the app if it required minimal time/input, if they had support from others within the app, and if the data were helping them reach a specific health goal.

Doing

I’m constantly on my phone texting or scrolling, but I have a hard time keeping up with tracking.
I use my phone to track passively so that I don’t have to spend time entering data
I use my phone for reminders of tasks I need to do and I might find that helpful in a tracking app.
I work two jobs and take care of children, so time is one of my most valuable resources.
I keep track of all of my meds, appointments, and symptoms in my head - it works for me!
I’m careful about what personal information I share with an app, even if it’s supposed to help me.

Thinking

I know lots of health issues are interrelated, but I don’t really understand how.
I think that health and fitness apps are just trying to sell my information.
I believe that customization would make me want to use a health tracking app.
I think that if a health app were connected with my doctor I would really trust the information it gave me
I think tracking apps take too much time and energy.
I believe that using an app to draw conclusions about user data could save me a lot of time and effort.

Feeling

I like to be able to see my progress when I’m working towards my goal. It makes me feel accomplished and motivated.
I find tracking apps stressful because I’m always feeling shame that I don’t keep up with them.
I feel motivated by helping other people, or being accountable to other people.
I like learning the science behind how and why things are connected with my body and mind.
I feel turned off by hidden fees and apps that require payment to use their most desirable features

Interviews

User Research: Personas

I created three different user personas based on the results of my interviews and surveys. I considered motivations and needs for each persona as well as possible barriers to using the app frequently.

I also created a Journey Map for each user.

Emmet

Angel

"I don't have the brain space to track my symptoms along with everything else. I need something that can track, analyze, and remind me all in one place."

Quinn

Problem: What do our users need?

Emmet needs a convenient, quick way to record and track migraine symptoms so that they can focus on enjoying their busy life.

Quinn needs reminders for and suggestions of workouts that she can do in short spurts throughout the day. She needs to track stress and back pain but doesn't realize the two may be connected.

Angel needs tracking tools and recipes to help lower his blood pressure. He needs to be able to search for ingredients that his kids will also enjoy, and that he can find locally.

Hypothesis: How can our app support our users?

We believe that by providing quick one-click reminders, we will achieve Emmet tracking their headaches twice per day for a full week.

We believe that by creating a large database of resources, Quinn will find the workouts and tools that meet her individual needs, and we will achieve Quinn engaging with the app for three weeks in a row.

We believe that by creating a large database of resources, Angel will find the recipes that meet his family's needs, and we will achieve Angel engaging with the app for at least three weeks in a row.

Focusing Statements:

Each person has a different list of things they’re working on and different motivations to do so. The ability to create a customized program will be a key to reaching a wide audience.
Partnerships with professional care givers, insurance companies, and online chart programs will also widen the audience and make the app accessible to more people.
Most users see how this app could benefit them, but also recognize their unwillingness to spend time answering questions. Creating ways to passively track or to save time for users will be essential for maintaining regular use.

Personas

Problem Statement

Individuals with limited free time need help keeping track of multiple elements of their health. They need resources to learn more, they need charts to show the relationships between their behaviors and outcomes, reminders to track data or do health-related activities, and they need encouragement to continue all in one place.

We will know we have addressed the problem when users with a variety of needs come back to the app for multiple weeks, when users make use of tracking data for multiple weeks, and when users and care providers collaborate using the app.

Challenges

Creating customizable features that allow users to individualize their goal-setting
Motivating users to open the app regularly by finding a balance between frequent reminders and friendly encouragement
Providing enough information to help users make meaningful improvements in their health without overwhelming anyone with too much information.

Ideation: Workflow Maps

I created user flows for all three personas based on their needs and limitations.

Emmet's User Flow

Quinn's User Flow

Angel's User Flow

Based on those flows, I came up with a general site map for the entire app. I performed a card sort based on some of the questions that arose during the mapping process, and ended with the following site map:

I also brought a mobile-first approach as I thought through the features of the app.

Problem

Workflows

Ideation: Wireframes

Based on those user flows I began sketching out pen and paper wireframes. I used those ideas to create low and then mid-fidelity wireframes.

Wireframes

Usability Testing

Scope

Testing both mobile and desktop versions of:

- Sign Up/ Onboarding

- Goal setup

- Dashboard Customization

- Workout Flow

Schedule

Moderated in-person and online testing December, 2023

Sessions

20-30 minutes of time per participant

Equipment

Testing on laptops or iPhones using Figma prototypes; Sessions recorded using Google Meet

Metrics

Jakob Nielsen’s error rating severity scale

Participants

Ginny (75)
Barb (68)
Emily (47)
L-E (42)
Craig (40)

Skye (28)

Objectives:

Assess whether, after onboarding, users can remember how and successfully add a goal or symptom to their profile
Is it too many steps?
What could make the process less frustrating?
Assess whether, after onboarding, users can remember how and successfully customize their dashboards
Assess the clarity of the workout search function and users’ ability to navigate to an actual workout.
Is it too many steps?
What needs clarification?
Determine whether users prefer a dashboard that is visually uncluttered (but requires more steps to find things), or having more information accessible on the dashboard

Takeaways

Pain points for users are a great way to assess the functionality of my work.  Things that made sense to me in conceptualization weren’t always easy for users to figure out.
Most users struggled with the goal setting flow - this is an important place for me to focus attention going forward.
Users often have unique assumptions about how to get to certain places. Offering redundancy within the app of multiple access points to the same important features will reduce user confusion and frustration.
Most of the difficulties in navigation had to do with assumptions I made about what would be obvious (like what the SKIP button means), but this wasn’t clear to all users. Onboarding or more clear calls to action will alleviate this confusion.

Scenario tasks:

Pretend you are just signing up for the app. You can go through the onboarding or you can skip it - whatever you might usually do with a new app - and then see if you can go through the steps to create a profile (you won’t have to fill in any personal information - I have it pre-filled with generic information).
Quinn sits a lot and she suffers from lower back pain. Her goal is to reduce back pain by doing easy yoga 3-4 times a week. She’s interested in tracking her pain every day while she’s doing her workouts. She wants to set reminders to work out and track her pain.
Next, we’re dealing with Quinn’s anxiety. Quinn finds visual clutter stressful so she wants a simple dashboard with only the important features showing - just fitness, physical health, and mindfulness. She also wants to see her progress towards her goal and any other data charts on the dashboard.
Now that Quinn’s dashboard is complete, there’s one more task - see if you can help her complete an easy, short (5-8 minutes) Yoga workout to help her back pain!

Takeaways

Users appreciate the opportunity to customize a dashboard and disagree about whether it would be useful for them.
Goal adding needs to be streamlined into fewer steps, with more explanation at each step.
Workout search function is clear, but users were surprised to need to search through workouts. They expected just to see a list of them up front.

Testing

Data Analysis

Rainbow Spreadsheet

Affinity Maps

I took the errors, observations, positive and negative quotes from the Affinity Maps and arranged them in a Rainbow Spreadsheet so that I could visualize where there were major problems, and I could begin brainstorming how to address those in the next iteration of my prototype.

Insights

Most users struggled with the Goal Setting Flow
Goal adding needs to be streamlined into fewer steps, with more explanation at each step
Offering redundancy within the app of multiple access points to the same important features will reduce user confusion and frustration.
Most of the difficulties in navigation had to do with assumptions I made about what would be obvious (like what the SKIP button means), but this wasn’t clear to all users. Onboarding or more clear calls to action will alleviate this confusion.
Add clarity and progress guidance to onboarding

Mobile Observations & Negative Quotes

Rainbow Mobile Observations & Negative comments

Mobile Errors & Positive Quotes

A/B Testing

After seeing the results of my user test report I wanted to try a few solutions out on a small sample of people. I ran 2 A/B tests. One to clarify onboarding and the SKIP button, and another to improve the Goal-Setting Flow.

Test 1

A total of 11 participants answered the 3-question survey about where to place the skip button in onboarding.
Interestingly, though many users struggled with the skip button in user testing, 64% of participants in the A/B test preferred the original placement of the skip button. Most said this was because it is at the bottom of the page.

Other helpful feedback included a suggestion to change the color so that it wasn’t so tempting to hit the skip button before reading anything else.

Action Steps

Based on these findings I will plan to keep the skip button at the bottom of the screen, but to change its color so that it is not the first thing that catches a user’s eye.

Updated Prototype with centered, less obtrusive Skip button:

Test 2

A total of 12 participants answered the 3-question survey about clarifying the text in the goal-setting workflow.

The results were not statistically significant, however an analysis of the comments suggested that several people chose version A by default because they didn’t understand how to take the online test. Participants were recruited from a private network.

This suggests the possibility that version B was a more significantly preferred choice.

Action Steps

Based on this information I will plan to update the goal creation screen with the new question. I will also think through ways to space each step out onto different screens to reduce the visual clutter.