Project Overview
For the Olive project, I acted as the sole user researcher and UX/UI designer on this end-to-end project. Everything that follows in this case study was done by me. This is my first-ever project and I attempted to capture the full design process. Both the mobile and desktop versions of the app were built concurrently.
The Team
Just me
My Role
UX/UI Designer and User Researcher
Platform
Mobile and Desktop
The Problem
A busy individual often overlooks healthy habits needed to live a holistically healthy life, because there is no all-in-one holistic healthcare app that helps the user retain and gain healthy habits. Most people split their time between separate apps for mental health, and working out.
The Opportunity
Create a first-of-its-kind app that combines the functionality of a mental health app, a physical health/workout app, and a doctor portal.
Final Deliverable
Try Olive the all-in-one holistic health app
Meditate
Workout
Learn about healthy habits
Within your busy daily schedule!
Research
6 App Competitive Analysis
Wanted to understand the existing health app market. Completed a SWOT analysis of 6 apps (2 mental health, 3 doctor portals, 1 physical health).
3 User Interviews
Interviewed 3 different people who have experience with health applications to;
Understand existing pain points
Learn what they would add to improve these apps
Learn how they use health apps
Interviewees
Medical Student
Age Range: 25 - 35
Retiree
Age Range: 50+
Librarian
Age Range: 35 - 45
29 User Survey Participants
Conducted a survey to understand the general publics relationship with health apps.
Research Takeaways
An affinity map was created to organize important points from the interviews and surveys and find patterns that could be acted on within the next phase of design
My primary takeaways included;
Users want health apps to fit within their busy schedules and offer shorter exercises whether they be workouts or meditation
Users want to learn about and practice healthy habits around several topics that aren’t covered in typical health apps such as; nutrition, emotional health, body image, and sleep
Users would like their various doctor portals to be able to talk to one another
Users who practice healthy habits often fall off over time and would like that constant reminder
Users prefer their health apps to have content variety that is easily searchable
Empathize
User Personas
User personas were created to flesh out the 3 most likely types of users for a health app based on past research.
User Journeys
User journeys flesh out the personas by giving a walkthrough for a task they may complete. Creating the user journeys got my mind working to find the small solutions to alleviate pain points as the user moved through tasks.
User Task Flows
To further flesh out the user personas, user task flows were created to show the machinations of the user journey tasks from the entry point to task completion.
Iteration
Low-Fidelity to Mid-Fidelity Design
The three primary flows (mental health, physical health, and medical care) were sketched out and built in the low-fidelity wireframes on paper and transferred to Adobe xD.
I did not want to reinvent the wheel, so many of the screen layouts were heavily inspired by existing health app designs. My goal was to bring mental health, physical health, and medical apps together into one platform.
The low-fidelity sketches were transferred to an AdobexD mid-fidelity flow as seen below.
Moderated User Testing - Round 1
I tested the low-fidelity prototypes for the mobile and desktop platforms concurrently with 6 participants with varying levels of technological expertise. All tests were moderated in person with pre and post-test questions to gauge satisfaction.
Goals;
Observe the user's learnability of the app
Track user efficiency of task completion
Learn the errors the user encountered
Learn what the user felt was missing from the task flows
Gauge general user satisfaction after completing tasks
Affinity Mapping
User quotes, errors and my own personal observations were noted in an empathy map to find the largest issues that may need to be fixed in future iterations.
High Fidelity Design
The final iteration took all the peer review notes into account and focused on;
Designing for accessibility through appropriate color contrast of background text and icons
Abiding by iOS standards
Eliminating the medical function because medicine is too privatized to be included in the final app
Keeping page layout and design element placement as consistent as possible across screens
The high-fidelity desktop design was built concurrently during the final iterations of the mobile app and adopted many of the design elements.
Mobile Screens
Desktop Screens
Usability Testing Round 2
The second round of user testing yielded a cleaner design, better information architecture organization, and ease of navigation.
Affinity Map Round 2
User Testing Fixes
Reflections
Olive was my very first ever UX project and there were many lessons learned from the process.
Problem Definition - Coming from a non-creative background in engineering, I'm conditioned to solve problems in a matter-of-fact way. While the idea of combining the different health apps into one was novel and a pain point for my interview subjects, Olive does not solve a specific enough problem.
Iterative Design - I spent the majority of the design phase obsessing over small details, losing focus of the greater project goals in the process. In the future, I hope to iterate more quicker.
Document the Process - Being new to design, I didn't fully understand the importance of documenting my thought process each day explaining why I was making certain decisions.