MOTI: Building Better Habits

DFA Collaborative | Inside the Studio

Written by Mia Manavalan

“It wasn’t like, ‘I have this idea’, but rather, ‘I have a problem I want to solve: How do we help people build better habits?’”

Kayla Matheus pursued this problem while attending 30 Weeks, an experimental program that gives designers the experience, skills, and mentorship they need to be successful at building startups. Google Executive Creative Director, Robert Wong, founded 30 Weeks to test out this idea that more designers should start their own companies (https://www.30weeks.com). Kayla was one of the designers in the inaugural class.

It’s different from your typical incubator or accelerator because you don’t start with team, money, or an idea. You start as a designer. A designer who wants to create a startup based on something you are passionate about. Kayla took a personal problem and created something out of that. She grew up struggling with knee pain and underwent physical therapy for 10 years. She began to realize that what she learned at her physical therapy classes never actually followed her home — she was failing to develop beneficial habits. Thus, the problem she wanted to solve emerged: how do we help people build better habits? From that, MOTI was created (http://www.moti.io).

She began her research with case studies: watching and interviewing five people for a month. These users were either trying to form a good habit or break a bad one. After doing some preliminary research about behavioral psychology, a light bulb went off in Kayla’s mind. Humans need something physical to keep themselves accountable. She studied the habit-learning theory based on the idea that in order to successfully form habits, people need an immediate, tangible reward. These early prototypes, which were akin to small desk toys, embraced this finding. Later, she realized that people needed to have a semi-anthropomorphized object that they could bond with in order to develop some sense of accountability. And so was the beginning of MOTI: MOTI provides an emotional attachment that wearables cannot.

Each MOTI has at least one anthropomorphized feature, like a faceplate or an eye or feet. The concept of a MOTI is simple: its user, who is someone that aims to develop a habit, presses MOTI’s push-button every time a habit formation task is completed. This forces the user to stop and take a moment to externally acknowledge their step in achieving their goals.The MOTI connects to WiFi and every time the user pushes MOTI’s push-button, it logs a timestamp to see how the user’s habits are developing in order to analyze behavior and progress. Graphs are created over time, ideally with an upward trend, which can be viewed physically on the MOTI or through the accompanying app. Almost as though it has its own mind, the MOTI can anticipate when the user should perform their target habit behavior and knows when the user has failed its expectation. In response, the MOTI conveys its feelings of sadness, anger, or encouragement by using color and sounds.

Currently, MOTI is still in the early stages of development and all employees are working for equity. The startup culture isn’t easy. Although they a work in an environment where stress certainly exists, the people of MOTI are still trying to foster a culture based on MOTI’s core idea: encourage positive behaviors and healthier habits. Sitting in their open and collaborative office space, I saw that truly defines “making.” “We’re trying to combine the design world and the technology world,” Kayla said. It’s a modern design for everyday people and it’s something that could really make a difference in people’s lives.

To find out more about Kayla check out Safiya’s article, “MOTI: Kayla Matheus”.

Illustration by Allison Chen