Health + App — wellbeing in your hands
Health + is an app that helps people track their intake of food each day, to inform people of their eating habits, provide customised health reports based on their goals and consumption. This app allows people to stay informed about the nutrients in their food and connect with their friends and family for motivation.
I will share my design process from need finding to final release of the app.
Need finding
How did this idea emerge? People are living a busy, hectic world with masses amounts of information. One issue that always comes through is health through our eating habits, and being mindful of what we put into our bodies.
To gather further data and users’ real life scenarios, I spoke to 3 different people who are in differing stages in their lives. They allowed me to shadow them on a typical day during their lunch hour, through this experience and the subsequent interview. I was able to identify their needs, motivations and pains.
I found that everyone understands that eating the right foods improves their health, but many does not comprehend how the food they are currently eating affects their health. People are not properly informed and genuinely wants to be healthy for their friends and families. There are so much information out there, however we cannot genuinely relate this information back to ourselves to really change and motivate our eating habits.
Ideation
The analysis of the interviews lead to brainstorming for new design opportunities and innovation. I created a list of 15 user goals identified through the need finding process, which included items like “users need to feel connected with their food” and “users need to be able to record all their eating habits and transform it into usable data”.
I took this chance to find existing application for sources of inspiration that deals with food consumption and tracking intake. There were popular applications that only dealt with tracking intake and exercise, however nothing really offered customised health reports or information to suit the user. There were also no applications that focused on connecting people with others, as they were premised on individualistic goals and needs.
Prototype
I was then able to create a storyboard showing scenarios in which the app would be needed and used. It was to show who the user is, the situation the app could be used and how the task was accomplished.
Then came the paper prototypes for Health +
Heuristic evaluation
I asked my friends to give me real time feedback using my paper prototypes and I was also to list down many points matching the Nielsen’s heuristic violations and rated them between 0 and 4. Using these set of violations, I was able to improve my prototype, attending to the most severe violations first.
Planning and designing the prototype
Now everything really falls into place. I created an initial development plan for creating the prototype, listing all the tasks needed and the time it would take for each task. This allowed me to have a good overview of what was needed to be done through the coming weeks.
I developed the wireframes for the application, completed the mockups on Sketch. The wireframes were then uploaded onto Invision, I mapped out all the buttons and had an interactive working prototype ready for first tests!
Testing the prototype
This is the part where we validate the design through user testing. I used a user testing website the help validate the improvements of the navigation bar and understand user flow. I created two versions of a navigation bar as through previous user testing, there was feedback that one icon did not convey the proper message to the user.
The testing showed that the redesigned navigation bar was indeed clearer and users were able to understand what the icon lead to.
Health + Final Design
I was able to finalise the design of the app based on the feedback and results of the test.
In this article to share with you my design process of Health + and design decisions and iterations I have made throughout. Thank you for reading.
