Research
Research Plan
Research was a critical portion for building WorkitOut as we really wanted to understand the difficulties, benefits, and lifestyle changes for those who were forced to work from home as a result of COVID-19. What potential health problems have they faced and what solutions can be built to benefit them?
Prior to starting research, I wanted to make sure and outline my research goals and methodologies. Doing this ensures that the research will stay on track and better guide the application design later.
Research Goals
- Understand a core problem in the wellness industry: lack of activity during the workday
- Distinguish what competitors in the space are doing well, and what could be improved upon
- Learn why users stay active, both during and outside of work
- Find out how user behavior has changed since working from home
- Determine how users feel about features in existing activity applications
Methodologies
- Secondary Research (Market Research, Competitive Analysis)
- Primary Research (User Interviews)
Secondary Research
Market Research
In order to discover an issue in the healthcare industry, I began market research. Knowing that COVID-19 dramatically changed the workplace landscape, my research objective was to discover potential health problems that surfaced as a result of individuals working from home. Both the schedules and habits of these workers are as follows:
Work Schedules
- 40% of Americans now prefer to work from home full-time
- 35% prefer to have a hybrid work schedule (office & home)
- Only 25% of workers want to work in the office permanently
Work from Home Habits
- 74% of people are sitting for longer periods of time compared to pre-pandemic
- 52% of those working from home are sitting on their couch or bed instead of an office chair
- Americans now spend about 6 hours sitting down per day
Based on the above, we know that working from home is here to stay. As a result, the decreased activity levels of these workers will also likely continue to be an issue.
How might we help those who work from home build a healthy habit of staying active throughout the workday?
Competitive Analysis
With the core problem now identified, we wanted to research existing activity applications who might be trying to solve similar problems. We gathered information on their strengths and weaknesses and identified what they are doing well and what they could improve on so that we could apply these learnings to our own application. This process allowed us to see potential gaps in their strategy and opportunities for our own. We analyzed 3 direct competitors. A full competitive analysis can be viewed
here.Our Target Audience
The minimum age demographic for our responsive app is 22, as anyone younger is less likely to be working a full-time remote position. The upper age range is 55, as those older than this are much less likely to use a fitness/health app,according to a survey by AARP.
Defining this target audience helped us gather appropriate people for our primary research.
Primary Research
User Interviews
With a general understanding of the market and target audience, we wanted to gain insights from potential users by interviewing them.
We recruited 4 participants, all of whom worked from home and were aged 24-52. I created an
Interview Script prior to the interviews, with 15 open ended questions to learn about their activity levels and behaviors while working from home.
Research Synthesis
With our interviews complete, we needed to go through the process of research synthesis to discover key insights from the data we collected, which then translated into the primary needs of our users.
Transcribing Findings
To start research synthesis, I first transcribed all observations and quotes from user interviews and added them to sticky notes.
Identifying Patterns (Affinity Mapping)
After all sticky notes were created, I identified patterns and grouped them together based on common themes or relationships. 10 groups were identified: Remote Worker Habits, Frequency of Movement, Community, Frequency of App Use, Exercise Content Preferences, Thoughts on Activity, Functionality, Cost, Movement Goals, and Location.
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Uncovering Insights
With all data organized and categorized, | pulled out 4 key insights that allowed me to generate the user needs that would be addressed in my personas. The labels above correspond to each insight and need discovered.
Application Map
With our key features established, we wanted to finalize the information architecture by building our application map. The map below shows the hierarchy for the application, in terms of key screens and core features. We established this map prior to building our user flows to grasp the size and complexity of our application before diving into the various paths users could take to arrive at these screens.
Design
User Flows
Knowing both our key features and information architecture, the next step was to create user flows so we could visualize the decisions and actions users would take prior to landing on specific screens.
The flow below is for one of our key features - completing and customizing an activity from the activity library.
Wireframes
Low-Fidelity (Sketches)
The next step was to build an initial visual representation of the interface. We started with low-fidelity wireframes as they are quick and easy to both create and modify. Some of our key screens based on user needs are below.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
With initial layouts created, we started to add more details through mid-fidelity wireframes. Everything remained in greyscale so we could focus on the layout, spacing, and visual hierarchy of elements without being distracted by color. We used common design patterns from other activity applications to ensure a similar user experience.
High-Fidelity Prototype
With better outlined layouts, we started making our wireframes high-fidelity by adding all imagery, iconography, and text to our application. In this process we also turned our wireframes into a prototype, so we could better outline the functionality of the app.
Test & Refine
Usability Testing
Preparing for Usability Testing
In order to understand if our prototype was usable, we needed to test it with actual users! Prior to recruiting our participants, we created a
usability test plan that covered our goals, objectives, methods, schedule, and metrics for the tests.
Finding participants in our target market was critical to understand if our app was meeting their specific goals and needs. We found 6 workers between the ages of 25-40 to match what was laid out in our business requirements document.
Conducting Usability Testing
After finding our 6 participants, it was time to conduct the tests! We had both in-person and virtual sessions, each lasting about 20 minutes. We followed
a script to stay on task and recorded all sessions per participant consent. I also took note of facial expressions and body language during the session that were not captured in the recording.
Research Synthesis
With our tests complete, we needed to go through the process of research synthesis to discover patterns of behavior from our users, which will indicate adjustments that need to be made in our application for a better user experience.
Transcribing the Sessions
To start research synthesis, I transcribed all my video/audio and notated behavior from testing sessions. Then I added them to sticky notes.
Identifying Patterns
After all sticky notes were created, I identified errors, observations, positive quotes, and negative quotes and then further grouped them together based on common themes or relationships. Positive quotes are excluded from the image below as they didn't give insight into changes that should be made within our application.
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KEY FOR FINDINGS:
Pattern
Theme Identified
1. Pattern
Insight
2. Insight
Recommendation
3. Recommendation
Community / Friends
- 5/5 users clicked on the ‘invite’ button and don't understand the friends list between actions
- Users don't understand if there is a difference between adding & inviting a friend
- Add a new and separate “invite” section and adjust verbiage to differentiate between actions
Element Selection
- 5/5 users had difficulty selecting scroll elements for height and weight in onboarding
- Selection of height & weight in the onboarding process caused lots of frustration
- Use an input field instead of a select field on these questions for easier entry for the user
Activity Suggestions
- 5/5 users paused and were confused on what to do on the activity suggestions screen
- Users don't know what action to take once presented with activity suggestions
- Revise the verbiage in the sub-headline to give clarity into the action users should take
Prototype Revisions
After uncovering key errors with our prototype and brainstorming recommendations, we needed to implement those new solutions in our prototype to increase the usability of our application.
Community / Friends:
Insight: Users don't understand if there is a difference between adding & inviting a friend
Recommendation: Add a new and separate "invite" section and adjust verbiage to differentiate between actions
Element Selection
Insight: Selection of height & weight in the onboarding process caused lots of frustration
Recommendation: Use an input field instead of a select field on these questions for easier entry for the user
Element Selection
Insight: Selection of height & weight in the onboarding process caused lots of frustration
Recommendation: Use an input field instead of a select field on these questions for easier entry for the user
Activity Suggestions
Insight: Users don't know what action to take once presented with activity suggestions
Recommendation: Revise the verbiage in the sub-headline to give clarity into the action users should take
Branding
With testing complete and a refined UI, we began the branding process. Before creating our branded elements, we came up with our app’s core values, knowing these would dictate the logo, color, and typography choices for our prototype. In order to come up with these values, we revisited the core problem we were trying to solve as well as our target audience.
Our Core Values
When brainstorming what we wanted our brand to represent, we listed out keywords that combated user frustrations or met user needs based on our research at the start of the project.
Logo Design
WorkitOut’s logo direction was inspired by a primary symbol that not only represents life, but movement and motivation - a heartbeat. Taking this symbol into account and incorporating the name of our application matches what we want to represent and follows the design patterns that competitors have established in the space.
Color Palette
When deciding on a color palette for WorkitOut, we also looked to our brand values and what colors they represented. Our primary color, orange, takes the passion of red and joy of yellow to represent motivation. Our highlight color, purple, represents creativity and innovation. The rest of our palette has neutral tones that represent our core value of modern.
Typography
Wanting a modern and clean font that is easily legible, we chose Source Sans Pro as our primary typeface. Throughout the application, it is used for all headers, subhead, and body copy. With 8 available weights, visual hierarchy can be easily established on all of our screens.
Style Guide
With key branded elements complete, we needed to build a style guide that the team could reference when building the application. This helps safeguard the integrity of our design by giving direction and guidelines for typography, colors, Ul elements, imagery, icons, and copy.
Final Prototype
I created our final prototype by applying our branded styles, learnings from usability testing, as well as accessibility guidelines. In addition, we also made slight adjustments based on final design review from our internal teams.
Learnings & Next Steps
Learnings
Throughout the full UX process, the main thing I learned is that design is iterative. You simply cannot get attached to your designs, because they are meant to change and evolve over time.
In addition, an important thing to remember is that we are not the user. Gathering data and insights from your actual users is the best way to provide an experience that is not only usable, but useful to them.
Next Steps
With the mobile prototype complete, official development would begin. Once the app is developed, it would be important to do further testing and iterations to provide a continual good experience.
