Project Description
The "Dwell Habits" app is a food tracker and wellness mobile app created with a non-diet approach to holistic health. It is intended for the user who want to build a lifestyle of habits that serves their body well, but doesn't want the diet-culture focus of tracking calories and weight loss.
The app is able to integrate with a professional care team, and even friends, so that you can create the habits in community. It is able to be used by those recovering from an eating disorder (e.g. Does not include triggering features or numbers focus) and those who want a platform that is inclusive to bodies of any size.
On the technical side, the app is able to integrate with a desktop app for professionals, Dwell Habits Pro, so you can coordinate with doctors, nutritionists, therapists, etc. It includes reminders for tracking, a chat area where you can reach out for support, and customizing features - like the ability to turn on/off tracking features based on need.
The Team
Jessica Hardin - Project Lead, UX Designer, UX Researcher, UI Designer
Skills
Research and Analysis
Organizing Information
Wireframing
Prototyping and Testing
Visual and UI Design
Project Management
Tools
Adobe XD
Miro
Photoshop
Internet
iPad
Google Trends
Google Keywords
Google Suite
Understanding the Audience
Creating this app comes from a personal experience that the apps designed for people recovering from an eating disorder often have a poor user-experience, and the user interface on most of them pales in comparison to the mainstream apps that the millennial generation is downloading. I decided to start looking at what it would take to create an app that can seamlessly integrate with the recovery process, but would also be attractive to an audience that simply wants a body positive option.
Personas
As the first step, I wanted to understand where my audience is coming from. I had my personal experience, but I wanted to broaden my empathy and open my eye to other's experiences. I read recovery stories, listened in on a recovery group, and browsed social media for insight.
Lola represents the person who has a healthy mindset and perspective around food and her body. She is able to celebrate her body for what it can do for her and food is a way to nourish her body and enjoy life. Ray represents the person who has started in the recovery journey from a struggling relationship with food and her body. She used food as emotional soothing, and her body was a chaotic space to be in relationship with. She is working with a professional team to help her heal.
The common struggle between both types of people is that they want to create a healthy lifestyle around food that is not simply connected to weight, but takes a "health at every size" (HAES) approach.
Trends and Keywords
Jumping online, I wanted to search for, and consider, what Lola or Ray might search for if they jumped on Google to find an app to for their health journey. A few questions I pondered while starting my search are: What specific search phases do they use when searching for recovery or food apps? When they search, what do they find? How many of them search for these phrases?
Researching with Google Trends search results, I discovered an upward trend in people seeking apps around food tracking (seen in the top right image, in Green). To reach the biggest audience with the app, it would need to fall into that category. Before concluding my search, I wanted to compare it against a few other results. The search phrases that I compared are:
- Best Wellness App (in Blue, bottom of graph)
- Best Health App (in Red, mid graph)
- Best Recovery App (in Yellow, bottom of graph)
- Best Food App (in Green, top of graph)
- Best Nutrition Tracker (in Purple, bottom of graph)
The results where pretty shocking with more then double the searches being conducted, from 2004 to now, on the "Best Food App". The majority of apps that came to the top of Google when inputting this into the search are apps for food tracking and meal planning. Shift the way the app is categorized from a recovery app to a food tracker app opens up the potential for a greater audience and impact.
App Comparisons
After seeing the results from Google trends, I started to look at apps that were along similar lines to the one I wanted to design. Since my idea was fairly uncommon, I looked at apps with features in common, and that were very popular between both iOS and Android platforms.
In my search, I discovered an article that stated:
“In one study of people with eating disorders, 75% of participants reported using My Fitness Pal, a calorie-counting mobile app that allows users to track and input their daily food intake. Of these users, 73% believed the app had contributed to their eating disorder. “ - Very Well Mind
Apps that have a non-diet approach are needed; whether someone is struggling with an eating disorder or not.
On my comparison chart below, here is a quick description of each app:
- Noom - a weight loss app that takes an approach that is root in psychology and habit change. I included it in the list due to their unconventional route of focusing on habit change, rather then calories.
- Recovery Record - a eating disorder recovery app and desktop application that is used in the community, but the user experience and user interface are lacking.
- Rise Up + Recover - a eating disorder recovery app that allow you track food and mood. The user interface needs an update, but the user experience is fairly intuitive.
- My Fitness Pal - I included this one because it is the most downloaded fitness/food tracking app on either operating system. It has a strong focus on calorie counting, but the user experience is fairly intuitive. The user interface is fairly simple with minimal colors and patterns. It can sync with many different devices.
- Koso Food Journal - I appreciate the simplicity of this app and the beautiful user interface. It has a clean design, and the functionality is simply to track food. It does not have any tracking for calories or weight loss. The down side is that the only thing it does is photos of your plate and how you felt. There is no way to add other factors that might contribute to the experience.
Audience Sensitivity Considerations
For those in recovery, self-monitoring of food intake without calorie counting is key. Self-monitoring is a well-researched and important element of eating disorder treatment. Calorie-counting, however, is not recommended because it may increase obsessive thinking and a focus on numbers, rather then how your body is feeling.
Fields to log behaviors, thoughts, and feelings help to cross reference, for a cognitive behavioral therapy approach, to get to the root of an compulsive or restrictive response. Recovery involves becoming more aware of feelings and thoughts as well as changing behaviors. Thus, an app used for recovery should have fields to log this information.
Motivation and/or coping strategies can bring the tool full circle. Apps that incorporate ways to remind you of what you might want to try or already know (but can need a reminder at the moment) can be supportive.
Brand & Visual Identity
In creating the visual and brand identity for the Dwell Habits app, I wanted it to be a calming palette - almost as if it was a safe, retreat space for the user. I looked at color theory and how colors affect mental health - blue being calming, browns and warm tones being grounding, and oranges stimulate appetite.
For the logo, I wanted the brand to have a focus towards habits and creating healthy rhythms for mental health. The calendar comes the perspective of both blocking out space on your calendar for you, and adding in the rhythms that are going to fill you up - mind, body, and soul.
The lower set of images is an exploration of the color palette from the perspective of someone who has various color blindness. I wanted to make sure the palette would work since red, blue, and green are the most common types of color blindness, or challenges.
Blue Blind - Tritanopia
Green Blind - Deuteranopia
Red Blind - Protanopia
Monochromacy/Achromatopsia
Information Architecture
For the mapping of the site, I knew that I wanted to have a welcome sequence that is an introduction to the user; allowing the user to put in their basic information, goals, lifestyle, vision, so that the app can customize notifications to their specific experience.
The top set mapping is that "hand shake" between the user and the app. If the user desires, they are able to skip right to the log-in screen, and come back to the "on-boarding quiz" later.
See the Information Architecture in more detail here: Dwell Habits Information Architecture
Creating the App
Wireframe
The wireframe, made with Adobe XD, allows for a clickable walk-through of the app experience. You'll see a few select static screen shots below the low-fidelity interactive wireframe.
The tracking, which will be used multiple times per day, is located where your thumb can easily access the quick action button. The user is able to search the app for blog post, their journal posts, and other resources. The other menu buttons allow the user to easily navigate to journaling, meditation, community, and their profile.
Sign-In
Welcome
Welcome 2
Mood
Meals
Cycle
Movement
Community
Add Friends
Messaging
Find a Group
Journal Monthly View
Journal Weekly View
Journal Daily View
Journal Post View
The Solution
The Dwell Habits app offers a streamlined option for the user who is wanting create new habits with a non-diet approach. It integrates with their lifestyle and offers customization unique to each user that downloads the app.
