FiTS – Empower people to turn good intentions into a healthier lifestyle. The app Fits was aimed to help users establish healthy habits by adapting to their daily routine.
• Design strategy • Design System • Lead UX / UI Design • Prototyping • Testing
Short summary
This project aimed to improve user retention for a health app called Fits, which had surpassed 500,000 downloads but had a low retention rate. Through user interviews, research, and working with psychologists, I discovered that weak external motivation and a lack of assistance in building habits were contributing to the low retention.
Based on these findings, we redesigned the app, testing and validating the changes with prototypes and user testing. The new design included a focus on pre-built routines, connecting new habits with old habits, visualizing progress and milestones, and having a simple overview of personal habits.
As a result, we increased the app's efficiency, quality, and speed in feature development & delivery.
B2C App
Health
Strategy
Research
Testing
Prototyping
| Situation
The challenge:
optimize for user retention
Even though the health-app Fits surpassed 500.000 downloads, the retention was very low. I needed to find out how the app could keep its promise – turning good intentions into a healthier lifestyle – and not stop with the good intentions.
Looking at the app metrics, it was obvious, the core problem the app was trying to solve – turning good intentions into healthy habits – was a real problem. But there was a clear flaw in the execution, as the retention rate was extremely low. Since the app was free for 14 days, the freemium approach could be ruled out as a problem.
| Research
As a first step, I decided to get insights by conducting interviews in the form of user diaries. Since the business problem was customer retention, it seemed obvious to look at user behavior over time rather than taking a snapshot.
after 2 weeks of collecting user diary data and analyzing it, two major insights were gathered:
1. Weak external motivation
After a motivating start and a mediocre experience with the first workout, the only external motivation to get back into the app was a static, impersonal push notification that was easy to ignore over time.
2. Poor assisting to building a habit
The included workouts were not really adapted to the testers‘ everyday life and their specific needs.
Let's see if we can pin-point these painpoints in the user-journey.
The user-journey displayed as an AARR-Funnel (shortened form of the AARRR-funnel) underlined and confirmed the results of the test. The way to do a workout inside the app is very linear and static. Also, the only way to remind the user of doing a workout was a simple time-based notification.
Okay great. But how do you assist people on building habits?
Psychological insights To find out how we could assist users on building senseful habits, I first needed to find out how the habit-forming process works in general. For this I teamed up with two psychologists. Key insights • forming a habit takes about 21 days • a clear goal and rewards for milestones is beneficial for motivation • connecting a new habit with old habits makes it easier to stick to it
| Approach
Brainstorm & wireframe
Based on the key findings on habit formation, I started a brainstorming session together with the entire team.
We realized that the changes that needed to be made to achieve our goal would result in a major redesign of the current app.
Prototype & test with users
To test and validate our assumptions with real users, I needed a working prototype that mapped the most important use cases.
With the new design system, it was possible to create high-fidelity layouts very quickly. The atomic design approach worked very well, as new molecules could be easily created and still conform to the design principles. The layouts were then brought to life as a prototype with principle - ready for user testing.
Testing with 8 different users for 1 hour each.
Testing results
The user test gave us great insights on which features we should set the focus, to effectively keep users coming back into the app. As a first great result, we could reach a far better score with the prototype asking how likely it would be that they will keep using the app in comparison with the current app.
Buttons, icons, navigation controller and many more...
Through the user-tests I could identify 4 key-features.
1.
Choose from a number of different routines that are prebuilt to inspire and make it easy to get started.
Buttons, icons, navigation controller and many more...
2.
Buttons, icons, navigation controller and many more...
Connecting or replacing a new habit with an old habit as well as set location based or interaction based reminders like leaving a place or 30 minutes after first interaction with the phone.
3.
Making progress visible through reaching and celebrating milestones, visualizing burned calories as food and social comparison.
Buttons, icons, navigation controller and many more...
4.
Having a simple overview of my personal habits and the habit progress.
Buttons, icons, navigation controller and many more...
| Conclusion
changed how features were build by using a design system
boosted efficiency, quality and speed in feature delivery
enhanced the product, so that it could bring real value to the user
