Case study 4: Workplace Wellness Application

How to integrate fitness in the workplace and improve health, mood and performance of employees.

Introduction

Despite the vast availability of personal metrics and health apps, people continue to struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Our client, The National Wellness Institute, is an organization founded in 1977, provides « health promotion and wellness professionals unparalleled resources and services that fuel professional and personal growth. »

The Wellness Institute is interested in exploring how they can use technology to help people lead healthier lives. The NWI wants to:

1. Create a set of digital wellness tools for Wellness coaches;
2. Update their image — create a new visual system that reflects their innovative and refreshed approach to wellness.

Source: The six dimensions of wellness. Image source: https://nationalwellness.org/about-nwi/

We were required to by The National Wellness Institute to:

• Conduct user research to understand people’s relationship with mental, physical, and emotional well-being in order to develop a tool that will drive them to action.
• Re-imagine how people can adopt and maintain a routine that enhances their well-being.
• Create a tool in any category that relates to personal wellbeing, such as (but not limited to): exercise and fitness, eating/diet, meditation, time management, etc.
• Focus on a tool that tracks the user’s progress and pushes them to commit to a healthier lifestyle.
• Revamp: the UI should reflect a fresh, updated image.

Our process

During this project we followed next steps of Design Thinking:

• Research (survey, user’s interviews, CMS interview, secondary research, competitors analysis)
• Define
• Ideate
• Prototype
• Evaluate

Research

Primary research goals was to understand people’s relationship with mental, physical, and emotional well-being in order to develop a tool that will drive them to action.

Research models deployed:

Qualitative research , allowed us to explore ideas and experiences in depth — interview with 5 targets and 1 SME with the sole aim of having a deep understanding of personal wellness and current setbacks being experienced in attaining 100% in the 6 dimensions of wellness.

Quantitative research, allowed us to test our hypothesis by systematically collecting and analyzing data — 122 respondents gave us insights via our well tailored survey. Useful data was also collated on the web.

Secondary research:

This below statistic shows the activities which could improve well-being according to French people in a survey from July 2018. It displays that 94% of the respondents considered that going for a walk or walking outside was an activity which could improve their well-being.

(Source: statista.com : Activities which could improve well-being according to French people 2018, Published by Statista Research Department, Aug 25, 2021.)

Our findings:

60% of our targets of our survey respondents:

1. Spent a minimum of 8 hours working at their desks and even if they moved around briefly, it was still related to work.
2. Did exercises at their leisure or signed up for GYM sessions.
3. Mainly did exercises to reduce back and muscle pain, feeling of calmness afterwards.
4. Enjoy Yoga, Running, Jogging, Long walks and stretching.
5. Planned, but skipped a lot of planned exercises and outdoor activities.
6. Also used devices to monitor/track their vitals and progress.

Adverse effects on the body from sitting at your desk for too long:

1. Risk of heart disease has increased by up to 64%.
2. A study found prolonged sitting time was responsible for 6.9% of deaths.
3. Reduced social skills, back and spine injuries, loneliness or depression, Chronic Pain, Rheumatic disorders, Obesity, Diabetes, Cancer, etc.
4. 76% of users are sitting 7 and more hours per day. Sedentary lifestyle affect our bodies, increases a risk of chronic health problems, because humans are built to stand upright. On the other hand, when people are physically active, overall energy levels and endurance improve. 77 % of users answered that they are doing sport : 56% have sport sessions 3–5 times per week, 35% — 1 session per week.
5. Users claimed some obstacles to maintaining an active sport life: for 39 % of users its a lack of motivation. 23% mentioned that they forget to plan or assist a workout session. Forgetfulness is actually the matter of priority. In this modern world, it’s difficult to find time for anything, and this shortage of time can lead us to skip activities we may deem less important than others. A sport activity can get pushed aside as something that is “optional.”

Persona

Let me introduce you our User Persona Veronica.

Customer journey

“Veronica’s exercises are so irregular and she needs to know the exact workout plan to prevent or reduce neck/back pains.”

Problem Statement

People who work prolong hours at their desks need to restructure their exercise routines because they need to lessen chronic neck and back pains.

Hypothesis to Opportunities

Hypothesis

We need to improve Veronica’s daily routines. The goal is to motivate her to include relevant exercises to prevent/reduce neck and back pain.

Constraints

Veronica is Ignorant about the precise exercises to prevent unforeseen risks associated with physical fitness at work. She is lost on how to manage the little free time on her hands.

Opportunities

Create a tool to help Veronica adopt and maintain a routine that enhances her well-being. Tool will also track her progress and push her to commit to a healthier lifestyle.

Solution

So, after a brainstorming we came up with a solution of splitting long workouts into micro-workouts throughout the day, which will be a significant contribution to the weekly activity rate.

The goal is to bring exercise routines into the office life. We propose a mobile application that will guide and motivate working professionals that lack of time. The working professionals will be able to easily adapt this short routines into their daily work schedule. The Wellnesster app offers numerous of features. The user can select their pain points, create their own weekly routines, track their progress and share their results. We are making this app accessible both for mobile and IWatch.

Our product is WELLNESSTER mobile application runs on iOS and Android OS.

It was designed for people who work long hours behind the desk, with little physical movements either in their cubicle or around the office. Immobility, fatigue and less funtime triggers high stress levels, loneliness, anger, physical pain, mental/psychological traumas, etc.

As an MVP, the 1st version of the app focuses on reducing and curbing the increase of neck/back pains experienced daily by busy professionals.

Users can fully enjoy the benefits of The WELLNESSTER App when they utilise wearables to support their mobile devices, whenever they take-on a new WN challenge.

From all devices why an wearable?

According to our research it showed that best device for fitness and health purposes is a wearable. Wearables allows easy access to track the progress of the persona and calculate calories, heart rate, among others depending on the app. Very functional and accessible. Throughout the years it has become more appealing to consumers. Why Iwatch ? As per our survey and interview it is the most popular and customer favorite from all other brands.

Mood Board

The Mid Fi Prototype

Mobile device

Wearable device

Hi-Fi Prototype

Please find below the demonstration of hi-fi prototype.

We have conducted the usability and desirability tests after finalizing the Hi-Prototype. We have collected users feedback we made some micro-iterations.

I-watch Protype

Iterations

• Re-designed log in buttons
• Added “select body area” screen
• Re-designed goal screen
• Included pagination bar on exercises screens
• Re-designed statistics page and share page

Next Steps

• Nutrition planning
• Water tracker
• Competition/Community feature

Takeouts

1. Feature Prioritization- must have, should have,could have,won’t have, in orders to create a product that offers maximum value but with a manageable level of effort.
2. Using the lean design process we can ensure products include only the necessary components and functions.
3. It was a great exercise for our team to work with Trello tool

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Lao Tzu