Mental Power - A Wellness and Self Improvement Application

Overview

The mental power application is a wellness and self improvement application that combines the capabilities of three synergistic apps, empowering users with globally recognised techniques to train, transform, or enhance their realities through a series repetitive activities.

The Problem

Analytics showed that more users are quitting the app before completing key actions. This behaviour implied that users may be struggling with the app's design or finding it hard to achieve their goals. This was a serious threat to the company’s business strategy of converting new sign-ups into premium subscribers. A redesign of the app onboarding will enable users to reach their Aha moment quickly thereby increasing the potential of converting new sign ups to premium customers. This project had me on the tough edge of managing stakeholders expectation and deliverying high quality work within a tight timeline.

Solution & Impact

I conducted user research to uncover user frustrations and underlying problems leading to the increased drop off rates. Through a detailed UX audit, I evaluated the application's usability, interactions, information architecture, and customer journey. These insights helped me to simplify the complex onboarding curve and also enhance the overall intuitiveness of the app which led to a substantial growth of 29.7% in daily active users

My Role

My role in this project was centered on strategy, In addition, I facilitated Ideation workshops with stakeholders, ux audit, information architecture, customer journey mapping, branding, lo-fi and hi-fi wireframing, spot insights and opportunities. While my awesome project manager , Shereen played a huge role in organising the project in bits which helped me to manage shareholder expectations.

The Problem In Context

After the release of the first (beta) version of the mental power application to users, the company observed through its analytics dashboard a decline in the number of daily active users of the platform. It carried out further research which revealed a very high abandonment rate after sign up. They discovered that 1 out of every 20 users completed the onboarding experience of the app and as shown further by the analytics no usage activity was recorded afterwards.

This raised serious concerns because the revenue model of the application was tied to subscription and if users were not engaging with application there won’t exist any opportunity to convert them to premium users.

To approach the problems effectively, I summarised them into key questions that will enable proper understanding.

Key Questions

1. Why were users not completing the onboarding process?
2. Why did users abandon the app there after?
3. How can get users to the AHA moments quickly?
4. How can we make the app engaging to support the revenue model?

My Approach

UX Audit of the App

Firstly, I conducted a detailed ux audit on the existing app experience. I was able to take on all touch point of the experience from when the user comes in contact with the app to when the user leaves the app.

Key Findings

There were series of findings from the UX audit, top on the radar were;

1. Complex Onboarding Curve: The onboarding experience of the app was such that required a huge amount of effort to get to the AHA moment in the application.
2. Home Page Usability: It was quite unclear how users were expected to navigate the home page of the app as it had this static feel.
3. Poor Visual Experience: The visual experience was such that missed out on the basic principles of design. The design had this crowded and busy feel not evoking qualities that appeals to wellness.
4. The App was not Intuitive: The experience required people to initially watch a total of 10 minutes video guide to learn how to navigate the experience

Information Architecture Review

I reviewed the information architecture of the app, while I considered all the possible touch points in the User Journey my main focus was on the user onboarding. My thought process was to provide immediate value through simple initial activities while clearly communicating the app value proposition.

Below I have extracted just the onboarding section of the Information Architecture for context.

Old I.A Structure

As shown in the IA. structure above, new users go through a hurdle to sign up and then to the homepage where they are left to watch a 7-10mins video that explains how to use the app. There was no sight of what how users could derive value from the application. I noted this as one of the flaws of the onboarding and proposed a solution.

Lo-Fi Wireframes - Onboarding

I presented the proposed IA to the stakeholders together with lofi wireframes of the onboarding to inform on my thought process and the expected effect on the app user experience.

Hi-Fi Designs - Onboarding

I took on the HIFI designs of the app under several constraints bordering on; stakeholders requirements; limited time to research; process constraints resources constraints.

I evaluated the visual experience for a quick fixes and here are a few findings;

1. Accessibility Issues - The text and UI elements overlaid on a detailed or high-contrast image suffered from poor visibility.
2. Distraction - A detailed background can sometimes draw attention away from the primary content or functionality of the app, especially if users are trying to focus on tasks.
3. Inclusivity: The visual elements used could pose a serious threat to how it is received by the target audience.

Key Takeaways

1. Together with the stakeholders and the team we got rid of the background image and introduced a cool background color with a refreshing feel. We also leveraged the color wheel and psychology to pick a primary color associated with calmness, modern and futuristic, mood boosting and focus.
2. We stress tested several typefaces and replaced with a more legible typeface to combat legibility issues.
3. Designed new UI components in a bit to standardise the design.
4. Introduced detailed and short copies to make the app more intuitive.

Hifi Design - Homepage

The stakeholders maintained that they needed to completely overhaul the homepage because of the usability issues I outlined above but they needed changes that will require minimum development effort. I had very little creative freedom due to this position but I could convince them core functionality updates that affected the app intuitiveness and usability.(Reference the Home page image above for the old design)

Key Takeaways

1. I repositioned and redesigned core homepage UI components to improve the visual hierarchy
2. I improved the affordability of the design.
3. I gamified the experience as a hook to enhance motivation and boost engagement.
4. I provided clear labels and instructions to further enhance the intuitiveness.
5. There were several other improvements like categorizing the sections and introducing independent model managements etc

Monetization & Referrals

I received a blueprint on the monetisation model of the app. I designed the flow and fleshed out the visuals. I can’t display the cores flows of this section due to it’s sensitivity but I have attached the few screens of the HIFI designs accordingly.

Other HIFI Screens

Results

• The application was developed and deployed to the app store. It recorded a substantial growth of 29.7% in daily active users.
• It recorded it’s first sets of premium users in the first 2 months after deployment.

Recommendation

• I recommended further tests on the effectiveness of different motivation techniques.
• I recommended the introduction of social features for community support and accountability.
• I recommended user research on the data visualisation models used in the application.