HabitHero Pt1:

UX Discovery Research

The HabitHero app, developed by PrimeCare, is designed to make healthier choices the easier choices.

Through goal-setting and active participation, users can earn points towards rewards that support their health journey.

This aims to empower users to take control of their health, by turning positive behaviours into lasting habits - effortlessly, anytime and anywhere.

The Challenge

After MVP launch, HabitHero struggled to drive sustained user engagement and retention.

Users found it difficult to effectively track and measure progress towards their goals, leading to reduced motivation and disengagement.

The experience lacked the tools and feedbacks users needed to stay on track, highlighting that HabitHero was not meeting user expectations and requirements.

Timeline: 6 weeks (2024)

My Role & Objectives

I conducted user research, synthesised insights, and defined key opportunities to improve engagement, usability, and long-term retention. I translated research findings into actionable design directions to inform the next phase of the product’s development.

My objectives were:

Understand users’ health behaviours, how they track their progress and stay motivated towards their health goals
Identify pain points and barriers to engagement and retention within the MVP
Generate actionable insights to guide a more user-centred and impactful redesign that aligns with user needs
Support business goals by driving increased MAU and sustainable growth through user acquisition and retention

The Process

Step 1: Auditing the MVP to Identify Usability Gaps

Beginning with a heuristic analysis using Nielsen’s 10 Principles to identify high-level usability and design issues.

The audit revealed key issues such as inconsistent and ambiguous UI, and limited flexibility and personalisation options, together hindering usability and relevance for diverse users.

This helped inform my research plan to delve deeper into users needs and preferences and to validate motivations and expectations for health-tracking features - the critical areas of user engagement and experience.

"To understand users’ health goals, motivations and expectations from health-tracking apps, and define what features are most effective to engage and support them"

Step 2: Planning User Interviews to Uncover Real Needs

I critically assessed the problem statement by pinpointing knowns, unknowns and assumptions to formulate testable hypotheses addressing the areas most impacting user engagement, progress tracking, and retention. I used this knowledge to refine my research goals, questions, and strategies.

I compiled a user interview guide with open-ended questions that I used in 6 moderated user interviews; gathering qualitative data on users' health habits, challenges, and app preferences.

DEI principles guided participant selection to ensure diverse perspectives and inclusive design. This allowed me to better understand and empathise with our target user, and how they interact with HabitHero.

"What are users’ current health goals, habits and challenges?"

"What factors motivate and hinder users to work towards their health goals?"

"How do users like to interact with health-tracking apps/tools?"

"What information is most useful for users to gauge their progress?"

Step 3: Building Empathy Through User Persona & Journey Mapping

Based on my research, I created a clear, detailed and relatable user persona that effectively captured the key characteristics, behaviours, and needs of the target user.

I referred back to this persona during ideation to help focus my design decisions.

Then I integrated this persona into a comprehensive user journey map showcasing the user’s experience and interaction with HabitHero goal progression and progress tracking functionality;

from discovery → registration → onboarding → use → sharing

This helped to identify pain points throughout the experience, opportunities for improvement, and key touchpoints for engagement.

The Outcome

4 Key Findings Shaping Design Direction

I added tags to interview transcripts, to identify patterns and extract insights in the user feedback that were related to the research goals. The insights were prioritised based on frequency (%) i.e. how many times the theme came up out of total participants, to easily communicate to internal stakeholders the key areas that need to be addressed from a usability perspective; thus helping to shape the product roadmap.

I found these as a highest-priority insights:

Social connections, sharing achievements and personalised rewards are key to user engagement and enjoyment

100% enjoy involving others in their health activities, whether through shared goals or friendly competition
83% said rewards must be clear, engaging and personally meaningful to boost motivation and engagement

User satisfaction is dependent on the visual clarity of data, and how understandable and actionable feedback is

100% emphasised the need for clean, intuitive visuals—recognisable icons, colour-coding, and simple layouts with large, easy-to-use elements.#
83% highlighted the value of meaningful guidance– users want clear explanations of metrics and how to use them to improve.

Users value a holistic view of their health and progress over time, beyond just tracking capabilities

83% focus on both weight management and nutrition, but struggle to balance the two effectively.
63% value access to reputable nutritional information.
63% want to track and compare progress over time to stay motivated.

Simple, personalised and flexible progress tracking can improve user retention and inclusivity

63% indicated that lack of personalisation affects long-term app use and satisfaction.
50% highlighted the need to customise how they view progress — preferences varied between calendars, charts, and lists.

Turning Insights into Opportunities through HMWs

By reframing my research findings into actionable design opportunities, I established a focused direction for the redesign of HabitHero; setting a strategic launchpad for the next phase – ideation and prototyping (see project 02)

HMW build a supportive, and socially engaging community within the app so users feel confident to share and compare health statistics with friends?
HMW create a more detailed, engaging and personalised reward system so users feel motivated and informed about how to redeem rewards?
HMW offer a more a holistic and trustworthy approach to health tracking to stop users feeling overwhelmed with and relying on multiple platforms?
HMW make performance feedback digestible, more engaging, and easier to act on, so users can quickly understand their progress over time and stay motivated?
HMW enhance personalisation in goal-setting and progress tracking to reflect users' individual health needs, habits, and preferences?

Communicating with Stakeholders

Using a power-interest matrix I expertly mapped stakeholders to identify and understand the diverse groups of people who can impact or be impacted by my designs.

From this, I created a high-level engagement with each stakeholder, outlining their needs, timelines, and communication methods.

This helped me deliver an impactful presentation showcasing my work and securing stakeholder support and feedback.

The Impact

My work had significant impact on both the product and PrimeCare by refining the understanding of what users need and expect from HabitHero, and distilling research into clear strategic design opportunities for improving the app in the next phase of ideation and prototyping.

By ensuring that both user needs and business objectives were integrated into the design process from the beginning, I have ensured that the design decision made in the next phase not only better support and engage users, but also drive retention and acquisition for PrimeCare – effectively aligning the mission of empowering healthier lives with product goals. I have set the stage for a more effective and impactful design, increasing the likelihood of HabitHero’s success in the market.

Given more time, I would have also conducted unmoderated surveys via social media as part of my research, to gather broader insights into user opinions and trends, and complement the interviews with both qualitative depth and quantitative evidence. Despite this, this project has sharpened my technical UX research skills, deepened my business acumen, and improved my soft skills in stakeholder communication and team collaboration.

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