Ikal- Eat Better, Feel Better

Contributor- Sonali Gupta (Solo Project)

Role- UX/UI Designer

Methods & Tools- Research, Empathy Map, User Journey, Competitive and Visual analysis, Brand Positioning map, problem statement, Ideate, Sitemap, concept validation, Low-fi, High-fi, and usability testing.

Time- 4 weeks

Challenge

Devise a design solution for people who are struggling with mental or physical health issues.

In recent years, there’s been a proliferation of mental health apps, but people still people struggle to lead a healthy life, which has not only caused the rise of not only physical but also mental health issues. The big question here is- Why don’t people use these apps?

User Research

Given mental/physical wellbeing is such a wide subject, I went ahead and performed secondary research. Following are my findings:

Root causes for demise and mental health issues:

To have a better perspective, I drilled down further to find the root causes for health issues people face. I found that almost 13% of the world’s adult population suffers from obesity which causes mental and physical health issues.

Some recent WHO global estimates follow:

• In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 years and older were overweight. Of these over 650 million adults were obese.
• In 2016, 39% of adults aged 18 years and over (39% of men and 40% of women) were overweight.
• Overall, about 13% of the world’s adult population (11% of men and 15% of women) were obese in 2016.
• The worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016.

Hypothesis

Almost 13% of the world population suffers from obesity, which causes depression, anxiety issues, diabetes, isolation issues, and much more physical and mental health issues.

Assumptions to validate through qualitative and quantitative data:

• Binge eating is a coping mechanism to overcome stress
• Unaware of the repercussions of unhealthy or binge eating
• Difficult to track day-to-day nutritional values

Qualitative and quantitative research

Following is my hypothesis for the survey and interviews I conducted:

User Interview- 3

No. of responses on Survey- 32

1. 84.8% of people consume fast food atleast 4 days a week.
2. 78% of people consider adopting a healthy lifestyle but due to lack of motivation, they are unable to.
3. 90% of people suffer from a lack of motivation.
4. 83% of people find it difficult to weigh food items they consume and then keep a track of them to lose weight.

• Will/Skill issues and Lack of Motivation- People don’t know know how to start, where to start. Which is understandable. When was the last time any of us had any course on nutrition? For most of us, it may have been in elementary school and how long ago was that?
• Misinformation about diet- People know nothing about diet programs. And they are scared that the diet programs might have negative side effects.
• I am too busy and it’s too much work (when I have more time I will eat healthily)- We are living in such a fast-paced life and people don’t get time to cook food.
• I don’t like vegetables — People don’t like vegetables at all! They think eating pizza is equally healthy coz it has veggies and cheese (Which they consider as good fat).
• The illusion of leaving junk food- People believe that they will have to stop eating things (pizza, hamburger, fries, cookies, chips, booze) — People have hardcore cravings for pizza, chips, and burritos.

My assumption

• No app with all the features in one place- There are so many apps out there and all the features are scattered all across different platforms. 1 app for water tracking, 1 for asking diet-related questions, 1 for calculating nutrients. It is difficult for people to download all different apps and use them simultaneously.

The big question which arose after conducting the research was, how to boost motivation. It is kind of a wicked problem. A wicked problem, may not be solvable but improvable.

Empathy Map, User Persona, and User Journey:

Problem Statement:

Needs of the user:

• Stay away from misinformation on diet programs
• Stay Motivated
• Improve food habits/consumption

An adult person who is concerned about his weight needs a way to improve their daily food consumption/habits and stay focused because they struggle to give up junk food and losses interest mid-way of diet.

An adult person who is concerned about his weight needs a way to analyze diet programs because they are often confronted with misinformation and they are well aware of the repercussions of following a diet program which will have negative effects on their health.

Competitive and Visual Analysis:

Competitors- Lifesum, myfitnesspal, yummly.

To gather more detailed insights about these apps, I held 3 interviews and asked users about these apps. Following are the responses:

1. The apps look really boring.
2. Too many choices which confuse me. “Choice overload”
3. The interface looks old. I don’t want to use it further. “The Halo effect”
4. Repetitive options. The same options are repeating again and again.
5. Technical glitches.

My findings: The app does not contain all the useful features which users might potentially use and the interface does not adhere to the design principles. Like contrast and proximity.

Brainstorming:

I took a piece of paper and a pencil and poured down all the wild and stupid ideas. One of the ideas was to introduce a virtual friend (Boba). Who will eat whatever the user eats and accordingly the mood of Boba will vary. If the user eats junk food then boba will feel sad and tired and the user eats something healthy then Boba will feel energetic and happy. I also drew the character on Figma and moved forward with concept validation testing:

Meet your virtual friend boba.

Concept validation results:

No. of responses- 39

1. 82% of users liked the idea
2. 76% of users probably won’t use this feature because of lack of time and the notification for feeding boba will be too distracting.

Hypothesis- Even though the idea is good but the reality is such features could be entertaining for Gen Z and not for millennials. This feature requires continuous user engagement which millennials might not be able to give because of other priorities.

Moving on to the next idea which yielded a 98% satisfaction rate as per the concept validation survey:

IKal App- A smartphone app that tracks diet, exercise and provides more than 2000 health recipes altered according to user’s taste. The app uses gamification elements to motivate users to stay consistent to lead a healthy life.

1. The user will be able to see the nutritional values of each food item and as per his body requirement, the user can track the number of calories he is consuming and make educated food choices.
2. To stay consistent and motivated, users will be able to challenge their friends to meet a specific goal
3. Based on user calories daily intake, calorie burnout, and accomplished challenges, a user will achieve a cheat meal. If the user meets the target or exceeds the target then he will earn a cheat meal, else user will have to continue with the diet program.
4. To stay away from misinformation, users can also ask questions in the app.

Low Fidelity:

Interviewed 3 potential users, gathered feedback, and applied on high fidelity.

Usability testing results on high Fidelity:

No. of users interviewed- 4

1. 100% of users were able to accomplish all the given tasks
2. 50% of users found the app difficult to read because of the small font.
3. 100% of the users found the app trustworthy
4. 75% of the users got confused with the back button

All the changes were implemented in high fidelity as per the feedback.

High Fidelity: