Bee Well
Overview
While at the University of Florida, my team and I designed a working prototype of a health management app that helps young adults build healthy habits and manage their goals. An Analysis of College Student’s Nutrition Practices done in 2022 showed the majority of students struggle to develop healthy habits due to lack of time and availability. Studies suggest these poor habits persist into adulthood increasing the risk of conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Role
Timeline
Lead Designer
Research and Design
January 2022 - April 2022
Tools
Team
Figma, Miro, Adobe Photoshop
Maclay Ramsey - UI Designer
Kenzie Reneemann- UI Designer
Joseph Addison - Visual Designer
Eric Linger- UX Researcher
Understanding the Problem
How can we motivate students to overcome barriers such as a busy lifestyle and poor dietary information to build and maintain sustainable healthy habits?
Pain Points
Through literature review and user interviews, we identified why young adults struggle to accomplish their goals and the main pain points they experience.
Paint Point #1:
Poor Time Management
78% of students claim to struggle with time management throughout their college experience
Paint Point #2:
Lack of Motivation
“its hard to prioritize my health goals when I’m frequently exhausted by my schedule”
Paint Point #3:
Difficulty Maintaining a Routine
"My current health goal is trying to put myself on my own set schedule and give myself a sense of direction"
Solution
A mobile platform that focuses on gamification to encourage young adults to set realistic goals, build a community of like-minded individuals and educate themselves on healthy practices.
Young Adults' Health Concerns
User Interviews
We conducted 5 interviews to learn why young adults struggle to reach their health goals. We focused on health conscious individuals that value nutrients and want to improve their wellness but have difficulty maintaining healthy habits.
Research Goals
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Understand user’s current struggles and interest regarding their health
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Learn the daily lives of our users and how our product can address their current problems
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Analyze why users have met or failed to meet their goals in the past
Understanding the Users
We synthesized our interview findings into user personas to clearly outline the pain points, goals, and factors that were successful.
Kevin
Kevin is a sophomore at university and often struggles with procrastination. He finds that he frequently puts off tedious or difficult tasks to focus on his hobbies. He’s hoping he can find a fun way to motivate himself.
Jane
Jane is very involved in clubs at her university and works part-time at a retail store. She often struggles with managing her schedule and often overbooks herself. Jane is looking for a way to manage her busy schedule to reduce her stress.
Sam
Sam has recently started a new job. She has recently found a routine that balances her work and social life. However, she would also like to add other tasks such as exercising. She is concerned her current routine is not adaptable
Pain Points
Procrastinates "boring" tasks and feels like his life lacks structure
Overwhelmed by her current schedule
Concerned her routine cannot accommodate new goals like exercising
Goals
Wants to develop a routine he can enjoy and maintain long term
Reduce stress
Form of accountability when managing multiple tasks
Factors that helped
Sense of accomplishment from crossing off task
Calendar apps
Project management apps that have clean UI and are easy to use
Our Strategy
Ideate
We used Miro to conduct the Disney Creative Thinking Exercise. We brainstormed possible problems people face when trying to improve their health, the reasons they may fail and possible solutions.
We then organized these topics into an Affinity Diagram to understand the common themes and large scale issues our users were facing.
Design Features
We generated solutions that addressed users ' needs based on the user's pain points and goals. These solutions became the core design requirements of Bee Well.
01: Welcome Survey
During onboarding users can complete a quick survey outlining their goals and challenges. Bee Well takes this data and creates a personalized experience for the user. For example, users can read suggested articles based on areas of interest. by suggesting relevant articles.
02: Suggested Articles
Suggested articles based on users' interests such as nutrition, exercise, or tips to reduce stress.
03: Honeycombs
Users have multiple opportunities to receive honeycombs, an in-app currency that can be spent in the Store to purchase accessories for their Bee icon. Users can earn honeycombs for various tasks, such as completing goals, reading suggested articles, or competing against friends.
04: Goal Tracking
Users can create daily or long-term goals and customize how often they receive reminders.
05: Hive
Users can build a community or hive of people who share similar goals. They can share their progress and even engage in friendly competitions.
User Flow
Once we decided on the key features of Bee Well, we created a user flow in Miro. Our goal was to analyze the different interaction users may have with our product based on their decisions. We considered multiple scenarios and the pages needed to address potential “dead ends” where users' needs were unmet.
Design
Mid Fidelity Prototype
When designing our prototype, we focused on user interaction and the basic design of our product. We highlighted the bee theme and incorporated honeycomb motifs throughout our design.
Feedback
What is the purpose of the honeycombs? Why should the user care about earning them?
We incorporated the point system (honeycombs) to encourage users to complete tasks and interact with the product. However, we didn’t consider how the honeycombs benefit the users. To further incentivize the users, we added an in-app Store.
Users could now customize their bee icon by purchasing accessories using their honeycombs.
Final Design
We used Miro to conduct the Disney Creative Thinking Exercise. We brainstormed possible problems people face when trying to improve their health, the reasons they may fail and possible solutions.
Welcome Survey
User Feedback: During user interviews, the respondents had a variety of pain points, stress, time management, and physical health. They wanted a curated experience for personalized goal-tracking.
Solution: We created a survey users completed during onboarding to focus on their specific goals and challenges. Bee Well generated tips and articles educating users on the best way to complete their goals.
Suggested Articles
User Feedback: We found that while users wanted to make changes in their life and knew what didn’t work in the past some did not know how to succeed. Many found it difficult to start and stay consistent.
Solution: To address these concerns Bee Well generated articles and tips that educate users on their interests and the best ways to complete their goals.
Honeycombs
User Feedback: One of the main barriers users faced was a lack of motivation especially regarding long-term goals.
Solution: Gamification has proven to be a viable tool to increase productivity so we incorporated a point system. For all goals users meet they can earn Honeycombs. They can also earn Honeycombs through other means, like reading articles.
Goal Tracking
User Feedback: Our target audience primarily consisted of college students; so, they needed an adaptable routine they could maintain for at least a semester (4 months).
Solution: Habits form from consistent and repeated actions. To ensure users can achieve their desired results they need to set realistic goals. Bee Well allowed users to customize when and how often they can realistically do an action. Users could also set when they receive reminders.
Hive
User Feedback: Through user interviews, we noticed two common issues; users needed some kind of accountability and they wanted to build a community of people with similar goals.
Solution: The Hive feature was a perfect solution. Users could add friends and compete in competitions or simply have a companion as they tried to meet their goals.
Reflections
While I’m proud of all my team and I managed to achieve on this project there is always room for improvement. Considering the experience I have gained in the two years since this project, I would change or improve upon a few things.
Wireframes
One big thing I would change is our wireframes. Wireframes are low-fidelity versions of the product that focus on structure and layout without getting distracted by aesthetics and design elements. It’s a vital way to test the assumptions we have made from user and market research and ensure the risky features or high-traffic areas are properly implemented. However, our wireframes were more like a mid-fidelity prototype. While we did build the basic structure and layout, we also began implementing design elements and basic interactions.
In future projects, I would be sure to build proper wireframes and get feedback before designing visual elements.
Design
There are a few design changes I could implement for a more engaging, and accessible design with clearer visual hierarchy.
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Consider color contrast and WCAG guidelines when choosing color palette
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Profile icon is too large
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Add titles under icons in navigation bar
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Add additional forms of feedback through microinteractions and alternative states like hover or error.