Habit Trainer

Make a habit; kick a habit. An app to rule them all.

One day, for whatever reason, you feel the urge to change. Most often, this means you have to work on your habits. And let’s say you have set your intention on one or more habits — bad ones you want to kick, some you want to adjust, or good ones you want to build.

You have done your homework: wrote down your sought-after habits; reflected on your motivation for each; made a plan with behaviors, tasks and activities; stated success criteria and rewards. Then, with confidence, you went and looked for apps, since there are millions of apps out there; for sure someone has addressed habit management and there is choice. You shall find one to help you build and track the consistency habits are about.

I have tried several apps myself but for each one I soon gave up the habit of using the habit app. None of the habit apps I tried were “sticky” enough. In some cases I had to complement the app with other apps or tools; or, there was too much nagging; or, their reports or feel good messages were ineffective or simply annoying.

In order to make a point a bit later I need to briefly mention the habit theory, as described in “The Habit Loop” by Charles Duhigg or “The 3 R’s of Habit Change” by James Clear.

The habit loop model includes:

1. Reminder (or Cue): for an ingrained habit the cue is the trigger for the behavior; for a work-in-progress habit it could be a reminder sent by an app. The reminder/cue can be external or internal.
2. Routine: the behavior or activity the habit manifests.
3. Reward: your benefit from the routine and, at the same time, the reason why you would build consistency to the point of running on autopilot.

And here is the point: All the apps I tried apply the habit loop model in supporting your habit building/breaking efforts. They send reminders; give visual reports of past self-reported activities; include status and metrics (ex. Longest streak length) or uplifting messages (“keep up the good work”, motivational quotes) or via social channels. They do follow the model. That’s good, right? Then what fault do I find them? Why can I not stick with any?

Actually, it is not planning for habit making/breaking that is hard. Rather, it is building consistency. Consistency is built over long periods of time and is fragile — one missed event and consistency, or at least the streak that so many apps measure, breaks.

Here is what I need to build consistency:

1. Make it easy to report events — Using an app takes 3–4 clicks or more; can I do it with one click? Like using the Amazon AWS IoT button or the Flic button. Or, with no button. I could report that I’ve taken my medication via Amazon Alexa. Instead of checking my phone for upcoming event, I could ask Alexa. That is, I would like the interface to be as simple as possible.
2. Flexible event configuration — Let’s say you need to take medication 2 hours before lunch and if you miss you are not to take it later — doctor’s orders. And let’s say you want to change AC filters every 6 months but no more often. Well, these two events need different kinds of configurations and reminders. And, yes, I need to manage all my habits in one place — one app to rule them all.
3. Remind me my motivation — I will stay motivated for short-term activities like taking an antibiotic for 7 days; for others I will likely need a vivid and personalized reminder of my motivation. I would find the following helpful: notes to self; personal photos; a friend texting me; a state of mind (yep, no idea how to easily capture that for reuse, as with the gesture of putting on a hat).
4. Make me feel good — Stock quotes don’t cut it for me. Personal pictures, music, videos, notes do. I need a way to associate my personal content with a given habit in the app.
5. Record my notes — As I build consistency I need to reflect on what is going on and I need to take notes, so let me do that in the app.

I have not found an app that can meet these needs and I need them all. So, I decided to build my own and, to start with, come up with the app concept.

I have developed an interactive digital design prototype as part of the Coursera Interactive Design specialization capstone, over 10 weeks of structured assignments, as follows.

Need Finding and Ideation

I knew I wanted to explore habits and how people make and track them. I observed several people going through their routines and noted their needs and goal breakdowns and opportunities related to my design topic — “change”.

The exercise of uncovering deep needs and framing them as problems, challenges or opportunities as well as creating a visual inspiration collection helped me define a point of view (PoV). The PoV serves as concise reminder of project goals — a mission statement, in a way.

Habit Trainer POV: “Create awareness of behavior and habits in order to effect change”

Storyboarding and Prototyping

Storyboards and design prototypes are a practical way to document findings and further clarify ideas and project goals. The more the better. My drawing skills may not have improved but I did gain clarity of purpose. (It’s important to note that hand-drawing is mandatory in this specialization; it may not be comfortable but the exercise is meant as try and throw away, relieving the pressure for perfection.)

Two storyboards. The more the better.

Design prototype pages. The more the better.

Design Heuristics

There is a lot to learn from in-person evaluations (sitting side-by-side with random people and walking them through the design prototype) and Heuristic Evaluations from peers or people who know what this means (don’t just assume anyone at Starbucks can do it). I uncovered what works and what does not and also got valuable insight on how to pursue my project. By now, I knew what functionality I wanted to build into my app.

The Plan

Time came to list specific design prototype features and build a development plan to manage the project. I went through several iterations of refining my prototype with Balsamiq wireframes and InVision reviews. The tool of choice needs to support hotspots and online sharing, which are needed for both in-person and online testing. (Perfect point to mention The Perfect Design Tool article by Francisco Inchauste; I trust it will continue to delight for a while.)

Initial Testing

Some of the test findings were useful as they surprised me. For example,

1. “A tile that combines action and status is confusing; you could apply the event status color coding to the event panel.”
2. “Do the ‘<’ and ‘>’ signs in the blue tiles refer to quantity or to time order?”

In-person design prototype testing with two participants. Some of the findings surprised me.

More Testing

More iterations, more decisions… I was ready for more extensive testing. Extensive as in several rounds of testing with tens of participants. UserTesting.com is an excellent source of testers and high quality testing. It can be costly but it provides videos and testers’ talk-aloud and written comments. If you do a good job of setting precise and contained test goals and specific test instructions you will find the result fascinating. (It rests in the details to avoid a failed test session.)

Is B better than A? Is the event status useful? Is the clock face a useful shortcut? Why the yellow shading?

I got useful feedback to work on — the good, the bad and suggestions.

A short extract of verbal and written testers’ comments on UserTesting.com:

1. Clock vs Pen — What are these for? To edit event name? To edit time? Scheduled time or event completion time?
2. When updating completion time the check-box next to it is confusing. (A shortcut is not helpful if confusing.)
3. “Trash bin should not be less easily removed for recurrent events, needs confirmation; best option is to open a different window and delete from there.”
4. “Make the design look nicer, so far it looked pretty boring.”
5. Having many types of events with many types of reminders all in one place is a very useful idea.

Results Processing

In deciding how to incorporate feedback into the design prototype I took into account the estimated value for the user and the cost of building a code prototype. I plan to use the code prototype for my own needs as well as an MVP as I continue this project.

Note: The design prototype does not keep state, as this would be overkill using a tool like Balsamiq and/or InVision. This means that I cannot get a good feel for the functionality I have built into the design prototype so far. Rather than switching to another design prototyping tool I will proceed with a code prototype for the much needed learning and validation ahead.

“All design is redesign.”

Epilogue

What’s next? So far I have focused on core functionality for easy reporting and flexible configuration needs. I plan to continue iterating and churning this functionality as part of the quest for a sticky habit builder/tracker app. I would like to enlist a graphic/UI designer, a full-stack developer and a marketing specialist.

Final Note

The Coursera Interactive Design specialization consists of seven online courses and a capstone project. It ran a bit over a year and required weekly commitment for assignments and peer reviews. The specialization instructors — Scott Klemmer, Elizabeth Gerber, and Jacob Wobbrock — are experts in their domain and have provided education via high quality videos, lecture notes, interviews, assignments, questions for group participation. The peer reviews system is a necessity for a large scale education platform like Coursera; it also proved effective for this specialization — a credit to my peers. A highly recommended experience!