Improving your Stress Levels with the Health Wellness App- A UI/UX Case Study
There is an old saying that goes “Health is Wealth”, a healthy lifestyle is a lifestyle packed with treasures and luxuries.
So I decided to challenge myself to test my design skills, so I started working on this app idea that I have been thinking about for sometime now. The app helps users run test for their stress levels by measuring their heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. Thus, helping them to monitor and control their stress levels from their comfort zone without necessarily visiting the clinic.
However, the main objective is to monitor and control stress levels as well as keep track of the daily physical activities with the help of the smartphone and a wearable device, without adding cognitive effort. I believe that the result is a direct and straight-to-the-point app concept.
The problem
Over ten(10) million highly skilled, educated and active smartphone users live in Nigeria. They go through mental stress, depression, and unhealthy lifestyle on a daily basis, they often neglect clinic visits due to low perceived need to seek medical care because they expect their unhealthy lifestyle, illness or symptom to improve overtime, they also face the challenge of time constraint and high cost.
Nevertheless, majority of them wish they can monitor their heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and also keep track of their daily physical fitness activities to improve their health.
The solution
The Health Wellness mobile application helps user performs painless tests of their heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature as well as keep track of their daily physical fitness activities, it also tracks and records the user’s calories intake, burnt calories, distance covered, steps taken, ability to share data with your doctor. All the activities are monitored through a special wearable device called the Wellness Rig X, which is built specifically for the app.
The Wellness Rig X is a special wearable device built to work collaboratively with the Health Wellness application in maintaining and improving the user’s health by performing check-up tests and also keeping track of the user’s physical activities.
Research
I conducted an online survey with ten(10) participants who are working class Nigerians between 18–40 years of age. They are smartphone savvy with the ability to conveniently operate an app with minimal altercation. The aim of the research was to collect important data that would assist in the overall design of the app, and so I proceeded to ask three(3) vital questions;
- How frequently do they visit the clinic/hospital for regular check-up tests.
- How often do they use health fitness app to improve their physical health.
- What are the most commonly carried out check-up test.
Research results
After conducting the research, I discovered that;
- 80% neglect clinic visits due to time constraints, while 10.6% don’t go to the clinic due to the high cost, the remaining 9.4% claimed their unhealthy lifestyle, illness or symptoms will improve with time.
- 70% have a health fitness application in their smartphones and 55% actually use it while 15% have it but don’t use it due to the product flow and design ambiguity. The remaining 30% don’t have any health fitness application in their smartphone.
- The highly used health apps from the research are Samsung Health and Google Fit, with 76.3% preferring Samsung Health and 23.7% uses Google Fit.
- All highlighted the need to perform check-up tests with their smartphones from their comfort zone.
- 40% admitted to have used one of the following measuring devices
- Digital forehead thermometer
- Digital Oximeter
- Digital Sphygmomanometer
Only 3% actually own one of the above mentioned devices. The remaining 60% agreed to have never used or owned any of the above mentioned measuring devices.
From this research findings it was clear that the design approach for the Health Wellness App had to be simple and accurate.
Understanding the user
Kennedy is a 30 year old highly skilled graphics designer, who is currently working in Abuja Nigeria. He was born and raised in Lagos state, the western part of Nigeria which is known for its fast paced and endless demanding lifestyle of its inhabitants. As a result Kennedy has grown accustomed to this fact paced and overly demanding lifestyle, which has left his stress levels increasing and his health at risk. However, due to time constraints he can’t visit the hospital and he keeps missing and postponing booked appointment with the his doctor.
User journey
After empathising and understanding Kennedy’s needs, I proceeded to draft out how his journey would look like when using the Health Wellness App for the first time.
Simple Appflow diagram
Wireframing
After designing the App Flow chart, I then moved on to create sketched wireframes with pen and paper exploring and trying various design ideas. This process served as a guide in achieving the final design.
High fidelity screens
Wellness Rig X wearable device
The is a wearable device built specially for the Health Wellness mobile application. It has sensors that helps keep track of daily activities and also runs painless check-up test such as heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature measurement. It works seamlessly with the health Health Wellness App to ensure accurate and precise readings. It however comes with different straps for different parts of the body such as the wrist, arm, chest and forehead.
Logo design
Wellness (noun) — The quality or state of being good health (Oxford Dictionary)
For the logo icon, I merged together the heart symbol and a stylised outline of the letter “W”. The heart symbolises good health which has the green that represents nature, which also means health. There is a huge connection between the heart symbol and the choice of colour as both represents good health.
The letter “W” refers to Wellness and the choice of colour is blue which stands for tranquillity and calmness, which comes with good health.
Conclusion
This was a concept and personal project aimed at improving users health and boosting their physical fitness levels. It was fun to do and I had the freedom to explore different directions design wise, as I was the only one who worked on the project.
Through research, I was able to empathise with the users and in turn designed a product that solves the task. I believe such motivation and approach is a good practice for a designer to train and master their skills and share it to the world.
You can check the full presentation of the project on behance in the links below
Click to try out the clickable final design prototype
Thanks for reading :)
If you want to see my designs and stay connected follow on Twitter, Behance or send me an Email
Don’t forget to clap or leave a comment below
Feedback is welcome.
