LinkedIn
Email
Resumé
Habit building is hard. There have been several studies on the intricacies of human nature regarding habits, what causes people to stick to them, and what leads people to failure. WeUp, a small startup, set out to help people build habits and reach their goals with the help of gamification and some friendly competition. After years of research and development, WeUp reached out to my team for a set of fresh eyes and advised us to "blow it up" if necessary, anything to ensure the best experience for the user.
We dove into the original wireframes and company documentation to dissect the app, its game mechanics, and the company's brand identity and mission. Seeing as this app and its original design were conceptualized several years ago, we knew it was also important to analyze the current marketplace for habit building apps, particularly those with financial rewards such as Spar!. Getting a deep understanding for where the company has been and where it would like to be allowed us to create an informed research plan.
Upon initial research, it became apparent we would need to not only update the app's UI for today's phones; but that we would need to embark on a deep exploration of the app's overall design and features in order to pinpoint areas for potential improvement. While we had some initial thoughts, we knew extensive user research would give us the insights we needed to inform a new design.
My team definitely endured some constraints, such as our primary point of contact living in Africa, my team living in three different time zones, no budget, a three week time limit and a pandemic. Not to mention, I fell ill with Covid-19 halfway through our sprint, but my team and the excitement of improving an app years in the making for the client kept me going and inspired me to push through. Despite these constraints, conducting user interviews, concept testing, and two rounds of usability tests on two different prototypes allowed my team to answer WeUp's call-to-action.
To fully understand WeUp, we first had to understand the existing game. We used these screens from the original design to simplify WeUp's original concept:
My team suspected the app needed a UI revamp and a reassessment of the overall goal of the app and the game mechanics. However, before crafting solutions, we needed to truly get to know our user and our client. After getting to know WeUp as a brand through an in-depth review of internal documents, we felt confident diving into a competitive and comparative analysis, user interviews, and additional internet research regarding habit building and behavioral science.
After conducting an extensive C&C analysis, comparing WeUp to 8 competitors and examining over 30 factors of each app, I compiled what I felt were the most important factors when comparing WeUp to its biggest competitors. After the competitive and comparative analysis we suspected the ability for users to engage in multiple challenges at once in addition to video verification were features that should be explored in order to give WeUp a leg up when entering the app market.
While habit building can extend to several audiences, our client wanted to focus on appealing to millennial women as a result of previous research conducted regarding gamification. To ensure we were not working off of implicit bias, we did include millennial men in our research pool while keeping millennial women our target audience. Due to the pandemic, all user interviews had to be conducted via zoom, but this allowed us to interview users from all over the world keeping these research objectives in mind:
After a good eight hours straight of several affinity map iterations, our user interviews informed some pretty definitive I-statements:
"I am motivated by my friends and family"
"I benefit from accountability (and verification)"
"I am motivated by material gains"
"I like to track my progress"
The I-statements that came out of our most frequent research insights inspired us to build two personas: Maya and Gabby.
Our user research inspired us to build two personas: Maya and Gabby. Maya, our primary user, and Gabby, our secondary user, came to WeUp with two problems:
“Maya, an educator whose routine has been uprooted, feels pressured to get in shape for her sister's wedding, but is having trouble holding herself accountable and staying motivated.”
.png)
"Gabby, a young professional that feels lonely after moving to a new city, needs a way to connect with old friends, but is having trouble finding ways to stay relevant in their lives."
To get a realistic feel for problems these users may face, we created a third proto-persona, Rachel, to help us follow these users on their journey throughout the current app and potential pain points they may have. This allowed us personify our research findings and present them to our client in a visual way.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
After securing stakeholder buy-in on a full revamp, the following three key takeaways were kept top of mind while tackling initial design iterations.
The existing verification system wasn't working. Research shows self-reporting is unreliable. That combined with the rating system allowed room for feelings to get involved (due to real money being involved) and for users to game the system.
The sun as a random reward added to the "game" aspect of the app and allowed users to make up for missed check-ins, but it appeared at random and had nothing to do with the goal itself, which could potentially frustrate users.
The goal was to bring friends together, but winning required benefitting from the failure of your friends. Additionally, the desire not to lose real money could be spoil not only to the user's view of the app, but also real life relationships.
Crafting the user journey gave us the momentum we needed to begin ideating solutions and prioritizing our main features:
Rather than just motivating for the sake of being a good friend, users would have more incentive to support their friends as their friend's success would be directly tied to their personal triumph. This would also give users the opportunity to compete for a much larger pot due to this solution including penalties from other groups as well.
We combined these proposed solutions to first reconstruct the game mechanics:
While we felt the new game mechanics not only better met user needs, but also the client's business goals, we didn't want to stray too far from the original app idea. However, at the end of the day, our job was to ensure the best user experience possible.
Wanting to keep both the user and the client happy, I proposed the idea of concept testing before jumping into ideating for this entirely new design. We conducted 10 concept tests, presenting participants with the overall goal of the app and the game mechanics for each concept separately (using identical language and switching the order in which they were presented each time), then asking users questions about each concept and questions regarding how they would compare the two.
10/10 users found the app with video verification more trustworthy
10/10 wanted the option to compete in multiple challenges at once
We also found that a majority of participants preferred the group vs. group concept as some wouldn't want to rate their friends badly while others said they simply wouldn't motivate their friends at the cost of winning. However, to satisfy the client needs, rather than eliminating the option to compete solo within a group of friends, we decided to provide both options to the user.
Using our concept test results, combined with the MoSCoW method, we identified must have, should have, could have, and will not have features. Finally, the team was able to divide user flows and dive into sketching and wire-framing a solution:
Once our wireframes were finalized, an interactive prototype was created in order to conduct usability tests. I recruited users and we conducted 11 usability tests in two rounds. Our first round of testing on our original prototype gave us a lot of valuable feedback, which informed the following changes:
To add another layer of gamification, we initially had tribe members vote on the challenge the originator invited them to, but users found the process to be lengthy and the language confusing. So we instead opted for a one-step invitation reply with "Accept" or "Decline" as options.
We originally thought checking in, being a primary feature, should be as quick and easy as possible. However, our usability test findings said otherwise. Users felt the check-in button should be within each challenge rather than being accessible at all times. This would allow, users to better track which challenges they have/have not checked in for.
Our original design had tribes within the challenges tab in the navigation bar. After noticing users fumbling through the corresponding task, we decided that not only should the "Challenges" page be at the center of the navigation bar, but that tribes should be more prominent as well.
Finally, rather than having components of the tribes and challenges on different screens, we decided to include high-level summary screens that were easily swipe-able.
After conducting a second round of usability tests, we reached our final design. During our initial meeting, our client requested that, if time permitted, we redesign the logo and overall branding for the app. Despite it being a long three weeks with several ups and downs, we still managed to find time to fulfill the client's request and give WeUp a new interface.
Not only did we give the app a new logo, updated UI, and game mechanics overhaul, but we also added a component that speaks to something our client mentioned in our initial meeting as future business goals.
We also wanted to incorporate some of the metaphors our client originally included when the app was more focused on gamification. To incorporate the tree and growth analogies, we made the streaks "s-tree-ks" and visually represented them with a chevron (which is used to denote rank) tree.
Our client eventually wanted to add a social good component to the app by collaborating with different companies and non-profits. While our current scope did not allow for this, we did incorporate the option for winners to donate some of their winnings to a charity or cause in our prototype.
The new WeUp is now ready to enter the app marketplace... but there are some go-to-market features that should be completed prior to release:
As for my personal takeaways, this project confirmed to me that I truly love UX and have found my passion. Despite falling ill with Covid-19, I woke up excited to get to work, for as long as I could manage, each day. I didn't push through because I feared letting down my team or the client (they insisted I rest every day), but because working on this project and seamlessly communicating with my team genuinely brought me joy.