The team
UX/ UI design, UX researcher with my partner Claudia Turner and Sladana Kozar, CEO of Holistic Living
Time
1 month (10 hours a week totaling 40 hours)
Programs and tools
Figma, Invision, Adobe Illustrator, Paint, Procreate
The objective of this industry design project is to:
-
Reorganize the information of the app and the way it's presented on the homepage and the list of herbs page.
-
Create a feature that would connect the users with Holistic Living experts for consultation.
Limitation:
-
A pre-set style guide
Week One
What is Holistic Living?
The first week was dedicated to understanding how the users find sought holistic information, and collecting enough user insights to redesign sections of the app and add the new feature for connecting with the experts.
Let's meet with the partner
The Seven Dimensions of Holistic Well Being are
A holistic approach means that all parts of you are connected
How do Americans feel about holistic health?
We need to hear from the users!
I created a screener and posted it on Facebook to different holistic groups to get their response to simple and direct questions about their lifestyle
Informative Determining Questions
-
Where do you find resources related to alternative medicine or herbal remedies? (please specify)
-
What botanical, herbal remedies, or alternative medicine do you use?
-
In your opinion, what are some of the challenges with alternative medicine?
Time to meet potential users
Awareness & preferences
How did you become interested in natural remedies?
What are the triggers to looking for the resources? Do you stumble upon or hear about something and want to try it? Or do you have a problem and are looking for a solution?
Where do you prefer to source your information and remedies?
Scenarios
Tell me about a time when you used alternative medicines or remedies.
How did you go about it? What was it, why, how, where, and for how long?
Is it more for healing ailments or preventative daily well-being?
Challenges
What are some of your frustrations and annoyances? In either finding information or sourcing products and practitioners?
Do you factor in any risks? What are they? Effectiveness? Health? Social? Financial?
What are the current barriers to you achieving your goals?
Opportunities
What would make your life easier when pursuing natural alternative medicines?
What would the ideal experience look like to you?
Any other comments?
What did we learn?
-
People who discussed their healthy habits with a person who understands a holistic lifestyle had better chances of improving their lifestyle
-
Users' state of mind and body determines their diet and health choices
-
Users find it hard to find specific information for their needs, and a lot of times, they feel lost
-
Users want to have easy access to something they are looking for regarding herbs or plants
-
Users who make one healthy choice are more likely to make a healthier choice on that same day
-
Some users do not trust the acclaimed benefits linked to the consumption of herbs, especially if they lack information
-
Users who have a friend living a healthy lifestyle are more likely to change to a better lifestyle
-
Users that are connected with their emotions are more likely to be conscious of their lifestyle choices
In summary: What do the users need?
Meet Ava & Luc
How could we make the process of introducing new information personal, engaging, and rewarding?
How could we connect the users with the support tailored for them?
Week Two
Creating a dynamic filter for users to capture their emotions
this week was dedicated to designing a solution to provide more structure to the skeleton of the app based on the insights that I found
Ideation for the homepage
The homepage needed to be reorganized because the homepage was just a skeleton of contexts.
In this ideation process, I worked on redesigning the home page to make it more interactive and offer some context without going to a different page to see the context.
I had the idea to include a filter that the users will use at the top page to organize the materials on the homepage based on their status and how they feel.
Dynamic homepage filter
There was a need to organize the contexts of the app more dynamically since the app contains articles, recipes, a list of herbs, and shop items.
The idea was to filter the context directly based on what the users were feeling or trying to fix.
I created a survey, and 20 users were asked to name an action or feeling to organize or filter the contexts of the app. The users named a few like:
After going through a couple of rounds of crossing out some reactions and adding necessary ones, I ended up with 10 that fit the needs of the daily users to find the context that fits their needs.
"Today I feel..." filter
The implementation of the functionality on the main screen which was designed by my partner, Claudia
The reactions are designed to filter the contexts based on emojis that the users choose to express their status. Then, the homepage will show the contexts that reflect or fit the status of the users. This process will present more tailored information to improve the experience.
What did the users think?
%20(3)_pn.png)
Herbs Icons filter
There was a need to organize the list of the herbs more dynamically, especially after the addition of 90 more herbs. Holistic Living had action on top of the herbs list. The users will tap on them to show the herbs related to that filter. I thought this method was successful, but it needed to be more interactive.
The filter list:
-
Immunity
-
Weight loss
-
Digestive
-
Sleep
-
Energy
-
Heart
-
Brain
-
Stress
-
Skin
Final herbs icons filter
I used a similar method of assigning the color to the emotions. The color was decided by asking 10 users to name a color for each filter (word) via survey.
Redesigned herbs page and implemented the filter
Before
After
Week Three
Creating the prototype
The objective for week three was to make the prototype for the users to connect with holistic experts
General user journey
In the early sketch of the user journey for the Connect feature with the experts, I tried to imagine the process as direct and as simple as possible. The purpose of this journey is to understand how the prototype would function.
Connect with an expert feature user journey
Above is the sketch of the imagined Connect with the consultant service. The goal is always to keep the process very simple and direct. The goal is that the users complete the booking process with the experts using as little number of screens as possible. The objective also is to eliminate or shrike the learning process of this feature. Also, The Connect feature has to be compatible with the app. I shared this user journey for the connect tool with my partner and the CEO to see their opinion and make sure it is in harmony with the rest of the app. After getting the approval of the project supervisor, I tested this user journey with five users to see if there were any issues in the processes that I missed.
From the research that I have done, I realized the need to add three sections
Connect with an Expert feature user journey
%20(2)_pn.png)
Week Four
The results of the usability test
Week four is the last week of this project, and the plan for this week is:
-
Document the results of the first usability test
-
Finalize the design of the Connect feature
-
Test the iterated version of the prototype
Insights from the first usability test
-
The first concern one user expressed was whether the Connect feature is free and how much it would cost. The follow-up question from the user was about the payment methods that are going to be available.
After these notes from the first user, I added questions about
1. Possible preferred payment methods
2. The range or the amount they feel comfortable paying for a service like this.
The answers from the users were leaning towards apple payment or Samsung pay simply because they are easy to use. The answers from the users as a payment amount ranged from $ 25 to $ 75.
-
The users pointed out the need for an easy way to search for an expert based on the problem or topics they want
-
Users pointed out the need for a more intensive page for the experts to provide more details about their credentials and approach.
In summary: Primary pain points
In response to the notes from the users
After delivering the notes from the usability test to the product manager, she provided a map of the booking service. The manager asked me to implement the Stripe service.
The flow of the service that was provided in a response to the usability test
A Color Guide was also provided
.png)
The modified version of the design after implementing the findings from the users
Time to test again: Second usability test
The test was done with five users that are interested in the service. All of the users completed the action with no hesitation or confusion. According to the users, the process is direct. Most of the questions of the users were regarding the functionality of the comment action on the expert’s page. One of the users suggested having that personal information organized in a short more focused way. Two users were asking if the list of the experts would show the most recent available appointment. I noticed that the wording of the main action could cause confusion about the nature of the service.
The icon filter for the experts
In the final prototype, I managed to finalize the design and the color choice for each category of the experts' filter.
The categories were made by adding some elements from the definition of holistic living and other elements that would help the users connect with the experts. The categories that I decided to have are:
Mental, Emotional, Preventative, Intellectual, Physical, Diet and Remedy.
The user can use this filter to find the best fit for their consultation.
Before
After
The final look
Testimonial of the CEO
" With each task, you went beyond expectations. You delivered great work, awesome ideas, new content, and unique illustrations. During the time that you were on the project, you touched almost every section of the app. Thank you for all the improvements."
-Sladana Kozar, CEO of Holistic Living-