GuideHabit
GuideHabit is a passion project where I explored how technology can help in the behavior-change process of building healthy habits.
My Role
Tools
Timeline
Figma, Miro
UX/UI Designer
12 Weeks
The Challenge
This design challenge that I created for myself was to create an MVP that guides users to build healthy habits. There is great content on this topic in mediums such as books, blogs, podcasts, etc. However, there are few apps (beyond task checklists) that exist to help users build habits.
The Outcome
I designed GuideHabit, an iOS native mobile app that provides the structure to build new healthy habits through personal reflection and detailed planning.
Research Insights
To begin, I conducted user research in the form of desk research and user interviews to understand the problem space of habit-building in greater detail. Below are the key findings that influenced the focus of the GuideHabit solution.
01.
Individuals who struggle to build healthy habits don’t often plan upfront for how they will achieve their goals.
02.
It's important to focus on the 'why' behind the new habit to cultivate a positive mindset and build motivation.
03.
When building new habits, backslide will happen eventually, so it's important to anticipate and plan for it.
04.
Social accountability leads to stronger follow-through but also requires vulnerability.
Personas Based In Research Insights
GuideHabit Focus
Based on the research findings, I decided to focus GuideHabit's solution for users who could use more structure and accountability when building new habits. With this audience in mind, I framed the product focus on the following questions.
How might we provide structure for users to follow through on building a new habit?
How might we help users set achievable habit change goals?
How might we
make the process
of building habits positive and engaging?
Brainstorming MVP Features
To explore what GuideHabit's unique solution could be, I ran through a series of brainstorming exercises to ideate on potential features. Then, based on these brainstorms, I narrowed the focus for GuideHabit's MVP features to the following.
01.
A guided habit-building process would lead the user through a series of personal reflection prompts to help them plan effectively.
02.
An easy way to reschedule a habit if something comes up.
03.
A celebratory experience when completing a habit includes sharing to a social feed for social accountability.
Interaction Flows
With the MVP features established, I focused on GuideHabit's information architecture via three main red routes: creating a habit, rescheduling the habit, and marking the habit as completed for the day.
Visualizing GuideHabit
An initial process of sketching, then user testing, then wireframing allowed me to quickly iterate on how GuideHabit would look and catch any issues in the interface early on.
Style Guide & Accessibility
Based on my user research finding that habit change can be a frustrating experience, I wanted GuideHabit to communicate a sense of friendliness and warmth while also meeting WCAG accessibility guidelines.
High-Fidelity
I designed the three main red routes for GuideHabit's MVP in Figma and created a clickable prototype that would be used for multiple rounds of user testing to continue to refine the solution.
Further Iterations
Next, I dove into a total of 10 moderated usability tests to understand if GuideHabit worked as intended.
Below you can see snapshots of some of the essential findings and corresponding design changes that I made due to this research.
Reduced Text for Scannability
UX Writing Changes for Clarity
Iterated Habit Card UI
Final Designs
Here you can access the final GuideHabit Figma prototype!
Retrospective & Next Steps
01.
At the beginning of this project, I began with a small idea of how technology can help build healthy habits. However, I discovered greater complexity by talking to users, and it would take many iterations to design a great solution!
02.
As my first big design project, GuideHabit taught me that I am not the user. My biggest insights came from my 20 interviews, where I really understood how users interpreted my ideas. In summary, I learned just how essential user testing is to UX design!
03.
There are many exciting ways that GuideHabit could continue to be refined based on user feedback. For example, the social sharing component did not resonate with testers, so alternatives like a digital self-reflection journal could be interesting to explore. Additionally, a reporting feature would be another area for exploration.