Using UX research methods to create a behaviour changing app that delivers control

As part of my Fieldwork module within my UX Design Up Skill Programme at Hyper Island, I was given a challenge and this is how I went about solving it…

The Challenge

How might we create a behaviour changing app that delivers control?

The Target Group

• Busy professional living in the city
• 27–32 years old
• Attends a lot of social events
• Stress hinders them from enjoying their life to the fullest
• Hobbies: travelling, shopping, galleries, clubbing and social media
• Devices: iPhone, Macbook, iPad

Needs

From looking at my target audience I established these needs to inform my hypothesis, and plotted them on a graph to determine the most important to focus on and to help write the hypothesis.

Hypothesis

We believe…

1. that users are short on time and need help with managing their time due to their busy lifestyle.
2. that users want more control of their life day to day.
3. that users need a way to handle their stress levels & mental health due to their demanding work life.

Research & Results

Screening survey — Quantitative

Before I started my user interviews, I sent out a screener survey to determine that the users I was interviewing fit the profile of my target audience. The full survey can be found here.

The qualitative results I collected from the survey determined that:

• The majority of users were around the ages 26–30, lived near a city and were male,
• The users worked full time and had professional jobs,
• They said they had on average medium stress levels and spend over 1 hour a day on their phone.

User interviews — Qualitative

Before interviewing my users I put together a discussion guide with my qualitative interview questions based around my hypothesis. The full discussion guide can be found here. I went for a semi-structured approach so I could ask follow up questions if I thought they were needed.

I interview 6 professionals, however have removed their names, images and transcripts to keep them anonymous.

I decided to include a pandemic related question, as the target user would usually be at events throughout the week/seeing friends at the weekend, however, due to the lockdown restrictions in some countries this would be affected at the moment. Therefore, I wanted to get a view of how this affected them day-to-day.

Empathy Map

Empathy map based on findings from the interviews

Card Sorting

After the interview, I then asked the participants to do a closed card sorting activity to get an idea of what initial ideas the users liked/didn’t like and their opinions on certain features. Find an example of the card sorting board I used here.

Table to show what users loved, liked and didn’t like

Key takings from the card sorting activity:

• The most favourable app ideas where the time/event tracker and the habit/behaviour trackers
• Users said that a simple design is crucial and that both web and mobile apps are desirable. However, from the survey and interviews it showed that users were more likely to be on their computers for a longer time during the day than on their mobiles, which could be a result of more people currently working from home and not being ‘on the go’ as much.

I would say a web app is essential… Because I don’t tend to use my phone as I’m working. If it was integrated, my work tends to drop fully into my computer. So it’s kind of helpful. So for example, I use Google calendar, on the website, and on my phone. (User 1)

• The least liked options were the meditation trackers and relaxation tools, which users said they didn’t like and probably wouldn’t use. Which is backed up by the interviews when the users said that they were good at managing their own stress levels.

…similar to meditation tracker. It’s just not something that I find that I would ever really use. Um, I think there are better ways to relax outside of using an app. (User 3)

Insights and Principles

Synthesis

Insight — Structured work life

Users prefer more structure in their work life and need help managing their work schedules, as working remotely can make it harder to work together as a team.

Principle

Let users collaborate with other team members to make sure that work schedules stay on track.

Insight — More control over work related incidents

Users would like more control over their work life and projects, so that it doesn’t affect their personal life.

Principle

Let users have control over work life and processes.

Insights — Low work stress = good mental health

Users actually have fairly low stress levels than previously believed and are able to manage their own mental health when they are in control of their own schedule. Work positively affects their mental health as it is a big part of their life and is something they are passionate about.

Principles

Let users keep on top of their busy work schedules and expectations in order to maintain their balanced stress levels.

Recommendations/Next Steps

• Schedule a focus group with more users to build on the idea of a work related scheduling app to keep the user and their team fully organised when working from home. To get the user into the habit of collaborating with their remote team mates and have more control over their work life.
• Possibility to be integrated with calendar apps the user currently uses e.g. Google Calendar.
• Users currently spend more time on their computers than their phone, so focus on a web app or intergraded web and mobile app so users are able to easily switch between devices.