Case study
Wellth
Oct. 2023
Wellth
Designing a mobile-first, responsive site that empowers users to better their mental and physical wellness.
Timeline
1 month
Tools Used
Figma
Photoshop
Maze
Team
Solo Project
Scope
UX/UI Design
User Research
User Testing
Problem
People looking to track their wellness have limited options with steep entry points that don't provide a completely personalized experience.
Solution
Design an experience that allows for free wellness tracking, a community to share ideas with, and a totally personalized experience.
Responsibilities
As the sole designer, it was completely on me to manage the project, conduct user research, ideate concepts, wireframe, and finally gather and iterate on feedback.
Methodology
Methodologies used included competitive analysis, user personas, user/task flows, site mapping and information architecture.
Discovery
When starting on Wellth, I wanted to get a deeper understanding of wellness tracking, the current experience of what was out there, and the shortcomings of existing products.
By diving into competitive analysis, sharing ideas with users, and usability testing, I aimed to understand the following goals:
Goal 01
Learn what motivates people when evolving their wellness.
Goal 02
Understand pain points with current wellness products.
Goal 03
Determine how to personalize the experience.
Understanding the Landscape
After creating my goals, I dove into a competitive analysis to get a better grasp of the current products out there. By auditing the field, I was able to put together a composite score and map out strengths and weaknesses.
From there, I was able to take my learnings and discuss them in my user interviews.
Composite Score
When doing competitive analyses, I like to assign values to each category to help quantify the position of each competitor. In this example, values were based on categories like hardware needed, community aspects, web presence and more. Below are a few insights I gained from my research:
Insight 01
Most wellness tracking products require hardware at a steep entry point.
Solution 01
Create a product that doesn’t require hardware or a download.
Insight 02
Offerings led to users being very siloed, leading to an isolated personal experience.
Solution 02
Build a community of users and professionals for users to share ideas and grow with.
Insight 03
For products with tracking, the advice given wasn’t totally individualized.
Solution 03
Include a quiz during onboarding to maximize an individualized experience.
Research
Now that I had gained a deeper understanding of the market, I was ready to take my findings to potential users and get their thoughts on the direction I wanted to head in. I interviewed a range of users between the ages of 18-55, all with varying levels of activeness.
90%
Users wished they had a free way to track their wellness.
90%
Found learning about wellness to be a daunting activity.
85%
Felt overwhelmed by the amount of general information
75%
Wanted some sort of community to evolve with.
Interview Insights
I synthesized my conversations and found a few consistent themes across each interview:
1
Almost all interviewees found learning about mental or physical wellness to be daunting, yet rewarding.
2
One of the main reasons folks weren’t tracking their wellness was due to not wanting to buy hardware and an overload of information.
3
Participants valued tracking mental health just as much as physical health.
Affinity Mapping
Another method I used to help dissect my interviews was affinity mapping. I was able to group certain sentiments I was finding throughout my conversations and map out specific themes. Here are a few examples:
“Youtube, podcasts, Instagram. I like googling to dive deeper into topics I want to learn more about.”
“Google, or if there’s something I want to learn more about I’ll go in person my PCP and do a blood test which is very cumbersome.”
“Podcasts are the easiest way to digest info, they provide simple and actionable advice.”
“Google, HSP website, Facebook groups to talk to other similar folks. Having a community is huge.”
Current methods of exploring wellness
Interviewees had their own ways to learn about their wellness that typically included going to multiple sites rather than one trustworthy medium.
The need for a tailored experience
A major theme was wanting to be told what to do. Users wanted personalized recommendations that they could treat like a check list and then explore more if need be.
“I wish you could tailor it based on yourself and have the answers right there based on personal needs.”
“I would like to see a tool that I am told what to focus on each day or week so I don’t have to think about it. Like a checklist that you can feel good about checking off.”
I’d want some catered suggestions based on my interests or my data and then explore those on my own.”
“There is too much information on the internet, sifting through all of it and finding things that are relevant to you is impossible.”
There is an overload of options and recommendations and I just give up because being overwhelmed.”
When I first got into learning about my wellness, it was info overload. Now, I’m more specific and stick to a couple resources I know are more relatable and actionable.”
“The amount of information is overwhelming. It’s very tough to guardrail the content your ingesting. You dont know who is trying to sell you something.”
Information overload
Another theme was the importance of digestible information. Users would rather have less, but more specific info rather than a lot of generalized info to sift through.
User and Task Flows
I love putting myself in the shoes of the user and fully understanding their experience. The flows below show how I would expect a user to go about navigating the site.
Design
With the user needs and key features in mind, I began prototyping a few flows that I thought would be helpful to test down the road.
I tend to sketch better digitally rather than physically so I find my low fidelity prototypes quickly becoming mid fidelity once I start playing around. I try to create a couple different versions, some with copy and some without, as to not get married to one idea so quickly.
Prototype Testing
I used Maze to put my prototype in front of 16 testers and gauge how they felt about the experience of taking the quiz and creating a profile.
No design is perfect right away and I enjoy critical feedback so I can improve my designs. I used their pain points to evolve the experience into the final design. Here are some paint points I used to optimize my designs:
Pain Point 01
First color scheme was too light, didn't 100% meet accessibility standards. UX was "too friendly" for such an activity based product.
Solution 01
Come up with new branding and color scheme that evoked energetic sentiment with a more intuitive feel.
Pain Point 02
Transitions between the quiz felt clunky and jarring. Some users were unclear on where they were in the sign up process.
Solution 02
Create a smoother transition between each step to ensure users weren't confused.
Pain Point 03
Inconsistent sizing/placements on different mobile devices.
Solution 03
Create a more universal layout so that the design stays the same across older and newer devices.
Final Design
With the feedback I received, I was able to put together a holistic design that captured the needs of all the testers.
Testing resulted in an overall better design, smoother mapping, and a more intuitive experience for the user.
Conclusion
It was a great challenge to design a product from scratch in a realm I've never worked in before. Health and wellness can be a very sensitive topic for users and I tried to remain neutral and helpful, allowing users to dictate their experience vs. having a product demand things of them.
From the feedback I received, the site was intuitive, familiar and rewarding once a profile was set up. Users were excited with the flexibility of their profile and ready to start improving their mental and physical wellbeing. Mission accomplished.
Case study
Wellth
Oct. 2023
Wellth
Designing a mobile-first, responsive site that empowers users to better their mental and physical wellness.
Timeline
1 month
1 month
Tools Used
Figma
Photoshop
Maze
Figma
Photoshop
Maze
Team
Solo Project
Solo Project
Scope
UX/UI Design
User Research
User Testing
Problem
People looking to track their wellness have limited options with steep entry points that don't provide a completely personalized experience.
Solution
Design an experience that allows for free wellness tracking, a community to share ideas with, and a totally personalized experience.
Responsibilities
As the sole designer, it was completely on me to manage the project, conduct user research, ideate concepts, wireframe, and finally gather and iterate on feedback.
Methodology
Methodologies used included competitive analysis, user personas, user/task flows, site mapping and information architecture.
Discovery
When starting on Wellth, I wanted to get a deeper understanding of wellness tracking, the current experience of what was out there, and the shortcomings of existing products.
By diving into competitive analysis, sharing ideas with users, and usability testing, I aimed to understand the following goals:
Goal 01
Learn what motivates people when evolving their wellness.
Goal 02
Understand pain points with current wellness products.
Goal 03
Determine how to personalize the experience.
Understanding the Landscape
After creating my goals, I dove into a competitive analysis to get a better grasp of the current products out there. By auditing the field, I was able to put together a composite score and map out strengths and weaknesses.
From there, I was able to take my learnings and discuss them in my user interviews.
Composite Score
When doing competitive analyses, I like to assign values to each category to help quantify the position of each competitor. In this example, values were based on categories like hardware needed, community aspects, web presence and more. Below are a few insights I gained from my research:
Apple
0
Whoop
FitBit
Everyday
Mantra
100
Insight 01
Most wellness tracking products require hardware at a steep entry point.
Solution 01
Create a product that doesn’t require hardware or a download.
Insight 02
Offerings led to users being very siloed, leading to an isolated personal experience.
Solution 02
Build a community of users and professionals for users to share ideas and grow with.
Insight 03
For products with tracking, the advice given wasn’t totally individualized.
Solution 03
Include a quiz during onboarding to maximize an individualized experience.
Research
Now that I had gained a deeper understanding of the market, I was ready to take my findings to potential users and get their thoughts on the direction I wanted to head in. I interviewed a range of users between the ages of 18-55, all with varying levels of activeness.
90%
Users wished they had a free way to track their wellness.
90%
Found learning about wellness to be a daunting activity.
85%
Felt overwhelmed by the amount of general information
75%
Wanted some sort of community to evolve with.
Interview Insights
I synthesized my conversations and found a few consistent themes across each interview:
1
Almost all interviewees found learning about mental or physical wellness to be daunting, yet rewarding.
2
One of the main reasons folks weren’t tracking their wellness was due to not wanting to buy hardware and an overload of information.
3
Participants valued tracking mental health just as much as physical health.
Affinity Mapping
Another method I used to help dissect my interviews was affinity mapping. I was able to group certain sentiments I was finding throughout my conversations and map out specific themes. Here are a few examples:
“Youtube, podcasts, Instagram. I like googling to dive deeper into topics I want to learn more about.”
“Google, or if there’s something I want to learn more about I’ll go in person my PCP and do a blood test which is very cumbersome.”
“Podcasts are the easiest way to digest info, they provide simple and actionable advice.”
“Google, HSP website, Facebook groups to talk to other similar folks. Having a community is huge.”
Current methods of exploring wellness
Interviewees had their own ways to learn about their wellness that typically included going to multiple sites rather than one trustworthy medium.
The need for a tailored experience
A major theme was wanting to be told what to do. Users wanted personalized recommendations that they could treat like a check list and then explore more if need be.
“I wish you could tailor it based on yourself and have the answers right there based on personal needs.”
“I would like to see a tool that I am told what to focus on each day or week so I don’t have to think about it. Like a checklist that you can feel good about checking off.”
I’d want some catered suggestions based on my interests or my data and then explore those on my own.”
“There is too much information on the internet, sifting through all of it and finding things that are relevant to you is impossible.”
There is an overload of options and recommendations and I just give up because being overwhelmed.”
When I first got into learning about my wellness, it was info overload. Now, I’m more specific and stick to a couple resources I know are more relatable and actionable.”
“The amount of information is overwhelming. It’s very tough to guardrail the content your ingesting. You dont know who is trying to sell you something.”
Information overload
Another theme was the importance of digestible information. Users would rather have less, but more specific info rather than a lot of generalized info to sift through.
User and Task Flows
I love putting myself in the shoes of the user and fully understanding their experience. The flows below show how I would expect a user to go about navigating the site.
Design
With the user needs and key features in mind, I began prototyping a few flows that I thought would be helpful to test down the road.
I tend to sketch better digitally rather than physically so I find my low fidelity prototypes quickly becoming mid fidelity once I start playing around. I try to create a couple different versions, some with copy and some without, as to not get married to one idea so quickly.
Prototype Testing
I used Maze to put my prototype in front of 16 testers and gauge how they felt about the experience of taking the quiz and creating a profile.
No design is perfect right away and I enjoy critical feedback so I can improve my designs. I used their pain points to evolve the experience into the final design. Here are some paint points I used to optimize my designs:
Pain Point 01
First color scheme was too light, didn't 100% meet accessibility standards. UX was "too friendly" for such an activity based product.
Solution 01
Come up with new branding and color scheme that evoked energetic sentiment with a more intuitive feel.
Pain Point 02
Transitions between the quiz felt clunky and jarring. Some users were unclear on where they were in the sign up process.
Solution 02
Create a smoother transition between each step to ensure users weren't confused.
Pain Point 03
Inconsistent sizing/placements on different mobile devices.
Solution 03
Create a more universal layout so that the design stays the same across older and newer devices.
Final Design
With the feedback I received, I was able to put together a holistic design that captured the needs of all the testers.
Testing resulted in an overall better design, smoother mapping, and a more intuitive experience for the user.
Conclusion
It was a great challenge to design a product from scratch in a realm I've never worked in before. Health and wellness can be a very sensitive topic for users and I tried to remain neutral and helpful, allowing users to dictate their experience vs. having a product demand things of them.
From the feedback I received, the site was intuitive, familiar and rewarding once a profile was set up. Users were excited with the flexibility of their profile and ready to start improving their mental and physical wellbeing. Mission accomplished.
More Work