Overview
This case study explores the development of Pillar, a mobile app designed to empower individuals in their journey toward healthier living. Pillar offers customized plans and recommendations for diet, exercise, and sleep, providing support users need in setting and achieving their health goals. Through a user-centered design approach, Pillar seeks to address common barriers to lifestyle change, making it easier for users to take consistent, achievable steps toward lasting lifestyle improvements.
This project is a fictitious scenario, completed as part of Designlab’s UX Academy.
Role
Product Designer
Tools
Figma
Whimsical
Maze
Skills
UX/UI Design
User Research
Information Architecture
User Flows
Wireframing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Duration
6 weeks
The Challenge
Chronic diseases are some of the leading causes of illness, disability and death among U.S. adults. Among the many factors affecting general health and resilience to chronic disease, lifestyle is the most controllable and influential factor.
According to the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), lifestyle changes could reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58% in high risk individuals (source). Regular physical activity, a balanced diet, and sufficient, quality sleep all contribute to maintaining physical and mental health, which enhances overall well-being, reduces burden of disease, and improves community health outcomes.
Unfortunately, leading a healthy lifestyle is much easier said than done. Several factors make it difficult for people to prioritize a “healthy” lifestyle, such as environmental, socioeconomic and emotional barriers, just to name a few. Addressing these barriers require improving access to resources and education, nutritious foods and fostering healthy psychological environments that make healthy choices easier.
Empathize
Uncovering user needs in health management
To explore user habits, motivations, and challenges in managing diet, sleep, and exercise, I conducted interviews with a diverse sample of individuals across various life stages. The research revealed pain points, unmet needs, and tools users rely on for their daily routines. I synthesized insights using an Affinity Map and uncovered four key themes in user needs and preferences for health management.
Low priority due to high investment in time and effort
Users feel that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is time-consuming and mentally taxing, making it hard for users to want to prioritize.
Insightful data is more motivating than rewards
While rewards and gamification elements can motivate, users find that personalized, educational insights are more meaningful.
Desire for simplicity and personalization
Users want evidence based health guidance tailored to their own lives that doesn't require them to research or plan. They're happy with being told what to do.
Accountability is necessary for success
Users note that developing habits requires an accountability partner early on to motivate them when they feel lazy or discouraged.
Uncovering a significant market gap
I conducted a competitor analysis to assess unique offerings and pricing models available on the market and uncovered a significant market gap: existing mobile apps typically only focus on one or two areas of health, not all three. This presented an opportunity to create a comprehensive solution that combines all three aspects, providing users with a more holistic tool to support their health goals.
In summary, the research suggests that…
users need an integrated, personalized tool that offers simplified, structured routines and ongoing encouragement to help them develop and maintain healthy habits.
Define
Who are our target users?
To wrap up my research, I developed user personas to define the target audience for the solution. These personas represent users who would benefit most from simplified health decisions due to leading busy lives. Key elements for success include having a structured routine, an accountability partner, and receiving feedback on their progress, which fosters sustained engagement.
Understanding the design problem
Reviewing insights gathered from our research, we know the following:
Users find the startup costs of healthy living—the research and preparation— to be overwhelming and time consuming.
People struggle with finding sustainable ways to maintain healthy habits.
People are more motivated to prioritize their health when they are made aware of why and how the recommended changes would affect their health.
People who prioritize healthy routines related to their diet, sleep and exercise are able to decrease their risk of developing chronic disease.
With these insights in mind, we can develop a How Might We statement to guide the next step of idea generation.
How might we decrease the cognitive load associated with healthy living while and educate users on the impact of healthy habits to motivate them to lead healthier lives?
Ideate
Features to prioritize for maximum impact
With users' specific challenges in mind, I wanted to ensure that the inspired solutions would be both meaningful to them and achievable within the scope of the minimum viable product (MVP). The chosen features provide the general foundation that a user would need to build and maintain healthy habits.
Personalized plans
Personalized diet, sleep and exercise plans and recommendations that refresh on a weekly basis. Users will be matched with plans following an intake questionnaire / account set up.
Health profiles and scores
Users would have individual profiles for each pillar of health. These would document daily progress, goals and current health scores, which are a metric that would quantify an individual's overall well-being.
Data dashboard & insights
Personalized dashboard with overview of health scores and weekly insights that summarize a user's current state of health. These summaries would make recommendations based on current habits/patterns and offer encouragement where needed to help a user stay focused on their goal(s).
User flows
To guide the design process, I developed user flows to map out the steps a user would take to complete key tasks within the app. For the sake of simplicity, I chose to focus the MVP designs on just one out of the three pillars, nutrition. After conducting a card sorting activity to establish an effective information architecture, I created flows for three primary tasks: user onboarding for nutrition, logging a meal, and viewing insights.
Develop
Validating designs with low-fidelity user testing
With user flows mapped, I sketched rough ideas on paper, selecting the best to create low-fidelity wireframes in Figma for three key user flows:
Early testing surfaced three key considerations for revisions.
Early user testing at this stage provided valuable feedback, allowing me to refine the design and address comprehension issues before progressing.
01
The more personalized, the better.
Users expressed a willingness to engage with a longer questionnaire if it resulted in greater customization. Expanding the questionnaire would allow for more tailored personalization.
02
Nutrition dashboard led to overwhelm
Users cited that the nutrition dashboard felt overwhelming and described it as a "wall of text." This highlights an opportunity to simplify the design and make it more visually approachable.
03
Users want bottom-line insights.
Some users preferred clear, bottom-line insights over detailed charts. Many just wanted to know if they were improving, rather than diving into detailed metrics. Some users shared that upon first impression, they felt like the app would be better suited for data buffs and not everyday users.
An approachable and professional brand
Before I could start on the high-fidelity mockups, I had to determine a name and the appropriate branding to use. The name Pillar was inspired by the core user need for support heading into the journey of lifestyle change.
A pillar is defined as a person or thing regarded as reliably providing essential support for something. Users need support to get started, they need support to stay accountable, and they need support to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The solution also focuses on diet, sleep and exercise, which happen to be three important pillars of preventive health.
The color palette chosen was primarily blue to represent calmness, trust and professionalism, however I wanted to throw in fun pops of color after being inspired by modern wellness brands. The semicircle in the logo was inspired by a gauge/meter, which is a nod to the health scores that users receive by using the app.
Hi-fidelity designs
Using the feedback I received from the low-fidelity user testing, I applied the necessary revisions and branding to a new set of wireframes.
To test these new screens, I chose unmoderated testing via Maze to replicate real-life scenarios where users wouldn’t have guidance or the opportunity to ask questions, allowing them to engage more comfortably with the app and in turn producing more reliable results.
I conducted unmoderated testing of these high fidelity screens with 5 participants.
I chose this method to best replicate real-life scenarios where users wouldn’t have guidance or the opportunity to ask questions, allowing them to engage more comfortably with the prototype. The testing provided 3 key insights:
01
Inconsistency in answer options
Some users noted that they felt some answer choices were inconsistent with the questions and felt they could be split into separate questions for clarity.
02
Clear visual logging confirmation
Users were confused when they returned to the nutrition dashboard and found that the recipe they logged was still showing. This indicates that a user expects there to be a visual logging confirmation that the recipe was more or less "completed."
03
How do we make logging easier?
Many users expressed their dislike for manual logging and shared that they would appreciate the least amount of steps it takes to log an activity as possible. At present, it takes at least 4 clicks to log a meal.
Final outcome
Incorporating the feedback from the second round of user testing, I refined the prototype further and finalized a solution ready for delivery. This final solution addresses the user need for a more personalized, intuitive restaurant discovery process, while supporting the business objective of increasing engagement on Yelp's mobile app.
Personalized plans tailored to your lifestyle
Plans are tailored to each individual's unique lifestyle, health goals, dietary needs and cooking styles.
Plans reduce the cognitive load associated with good nutrition and meal planning by giving users all the tools they need for success: grocery lists, recipes, and planned meals.
Users with weight related goals are directed through a nutrition calculator flow, which is essential to provide tailored nutrition plans to help the user achieve their health goals effectively.
Simplified tracking
Users are provided three ways to log their meals. The last screen showcases the late addition of the "shortcut" add button, which makes it easier for users to quickly log an activity right from their homescreen without having to navigate to another part of the app.
Ingredients and amounts are preloaded for users, which cuts down on the time a user takes to log a meal and the mental process involved to remember key ingredients and their amounts. Serving sizes are set to 1 by default, but the user has the option to customize this if desired.
Health dashboard with personalized insights
Users are delivered personalized insights at the end of each week, which can be accessed on their home dashboard. Clicking on the CTA at the top of the screen directs them into the insights experience.
Insights cover all 3 pillars, but focus on bottom line insights, paired with data visualizations that users can manipulate if they wish to dive deeper into the data. This strikes the perfect balance for all levels of consumers.
Next steps
Future phases of the Pillar app will focus on expanding features to enhance user experience and long-term engagement. Planned additions include item substitutions for greater inclusivity and customization, as well as social features to connect with or challenge partners, adding another layer of accountability.
Educational content, such as blogs and resources, will empower users with knowledge to support their goals, while monthly health challenges and a potential rewards marketplace will encourage sustained motivation and reward progress. These features aim to deepen user engagement and further support users in their journey toward healthier living.
Takeaways
This project provided valuable lessons about designing for complex challenges and staying user-focused throughout the process:
Healthcare is complex
This project underscored the complexity of addressing health and lifestyle changes. Supporting users in adopting healthier habits involves more than providing structure—it requires understanding the holistic interplay of diet, sleep, and exercise, as well as fostering gradual behavioral changes. For the MVP, I prioritized foundational tools to help users begin their journey, with potential for future iterations to include advanced customization and automation for long-term support.
Return to user needs
It's important to stay grounded in user needs. While it was tempting to explore ambitious features like a rewards marketplace, this approach risked losing focus and overcomplicating the solution. Refocusing on the core insights from user research ensured the final product remained practical, aligned with user priorities, and effective as a starting point for healthier living.