Creating a mobile app & responsive website for social good.
[Within You]
THE PROBLEM
Poor nutrition is a huge issue in the United States & while educational tools are prevalent in every corner of the internet not enough resources are engaging & exciting for users to connect & share with others.
My project prompt request I build a mobile app & responsive website to help tutor young adults in nutrition. I chose to take it a step beyond this and create an experience that provides tips & tools in nutrition but also created a community to challenge friends in a variety of different workouts. From their the tracking goals of the workout can be used to earn coins, much like sweatcoin, where the coins can be used to donate to local food drives for canned or dry goods.
TIMELINE
June 2022-July 2022
MY ROLE
Sole Ux designer & researcher.
KEY GOAL
Create an engaging nutritional & fitness experience.
MY ROLE
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Plan and conduct user research and competitor analysis.
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Interpret data and qualitative feedback.
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Create user stories, personas, and storyboards.
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Determine information architecture and create sitemaps.
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Create prototypes and wireframes.
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Conduct usability testing
This was my final project for my google certification course. I was to build a cross platform mobile app as well as a responsive website. As the sole designer & researcher of this role I found getting to the core of what people are looking for when it comes to nutritional information varies greatly & common themes with such a topic were harder to find.
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
For my user research I created a series of questions for an unsupervised interview for 10 participants to respond to. Participants varied in age, gender identity, & socioeconomic status. My goal was to find a middle ground of users understanding of healthy eating habits and fitness as well as what kind of information did each user seek out to know more about
Health & fitness is a very difficult topic to discuss in this current time what with the internet being peppered so much with toxic information, diet fads, trends and social media promoting unhealthy ideas of beauty standards.
I wanted the focus of the questions to be centered on the user's needs and desires for positive information for health, fitness, recipes and desire for stronger connection within their local communities.
Layout
Creating an interface for both mobile & web where users can find nutritional resources while also offering a more in-depth experience on mobile app to connect the user to fitness challenges with friends was my end goal.
BREAKING DOWN
THE PROCESS
Designing the app to have a feel of comfort & confidence was very important to me. I wanted users to feel that not only were they capable of easily navigating the app but the drive for giving back to their community would inspire them to continue their own fitness/health journey.
Educating adults on healthy eating habits & healthy recipes was a huge building factor for this app. However, encouraging people to stay active by allowing them to use their own step tracking as a means to donate to their local community outreach programs was just as strong as a desire for the app.
We're social creatures, and community is so much more than just who you connect with in the app to do a workout challenge with, community is everyone, including those less fortunate than you & in need.
THESE WERE SOME MAJOR LEARNINGS OR POINTS WE WANTED TO CALL OUT
Social good or not, design is crucial to user needs.
During my first usability study, I received notes that the design felt "dated" I needed to go back in revamp the design to make the experience feel more elevated for the user.
In health & fitness, themes aren't so clear.
When creating my affinity chart I struggled at first to find common themes between users. Everyone's health and fitness journey is very personal and different. The common theme was wanting to learn more and do better. Focus on the common ground and you're golden.
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
LESSONS LEARNED
Keeping up to date on trending designs, be it; color, font, motion & animations is crucial to staying relevant and engaging.
No matter if you think you're designing an app that will help better the world, if your design isn't engaging & polished to the user you're dead in the water.
Staying up to date with what is happening in the world of design, especially Ux and web design is so important. And the changes happen fast, stay connected, stay relevant and never stop learning.