Passion Project | Individual Project | Jan 2021
A social media style habit-building app to be integrated into Facebook
My Role:
Product Designer, Researcher
Duration:
2 Weeks
Tools:
Figma
Industry:
Social Networking, Productivity
01 /
Overview
Habitboard is a proposed feature for the Facebook app that provides users with a space to track and share their personal habits, as well as join public habits of various types. Upon completing a habit, users will be rewarded with Habitseeds, which they can choose to donate to Habitbank, a platform that connects with NGO organizations and converts the Habitseeds into real-world value. Habitboard aims to promote habit-building and support charitable causes.
02 /
The Challenge
I was scrolling through Facebook stories the other day and a story full of text caught my attention. A friend sincerely wrote a paragraph-long message about starting a 30-day reading club where they'd share what they learned on their stories every day.
"I’ve been reading a chapter or two every day in the book of Mormon and then condensing what I learned into one sentence, and I want to share what I’m learning here! DM me if you wanna join!" --- Xavier
Recently, I've actually noticed that a lot of people on my social media invite their friends to join campaigns like workouts or dance practices. It could be the combination of COVID-19 and the start of a new year that's causing this. People often make new year's resolutions, and with COVID-19 still around, it's understandable that they would want to find an online community for support and encouragement since in-person options may be limited.
As I thought more about it, I realized that a group habit-tracking feature would be a really strong angle for a product, especially on platforms like Facebook/Instagram that already have a large user base and a variety of social and interactive features. So, I started to wonder:
Problem Statement
How can I design a group habit-tracking feature within a social media app that is engaging and motivating for users?
03 /
Discover
To more effectively discover the product scope, I conducted the following user research: survey, undirected interviews, competitor analysis, and user persona. I wish to learn more about people's perspectives on their past habit-building experiences and the concept of habit tracking within a virtual community.
Survey
The purpose of the survey was to gather a qualitative understanding of people's past experiences with habit tracking, including when they started, whether they are currently pursuing habits, the platforms they used, their success rate, their concerns, and their hopes. I distributed the survey through Instagram as well as Wechat, and eventually received 84 valid surveys with the following insights:
Undirected Interview
To further understand the survey results, especially the low number of people who were able to sustain their habits, I conducted 12 personal interviews with 3 groups of people: 6 college classmates from the University of Virginia, 3 UVa alumni in the business and tech industry, and 3 family members in the medical industry.
I intentionally selected these groups to get a more well-rounded perspective. As expected, the interview results varied among the groups, but all were insightful.
One college student mentioned that it was difficult for her to sustain her daily habit-tracking. She found it especially challenging to get back into the habit of tracking after taking a break for a period of time.
🤷♂"My daily meditation plan completely blew off since the first midterm of my summer class. I took several days off to review and found it so hard to pick up again. I was just not motivated enough you know, and I feared failing again. ”
When I implicitly asked them about a group habit-tracking feature, they expressed great excitement yet pinpointed that they still need personal space.
🎉 ️“That’d be so great because in that way we can be easily encouraged! Even if I paused for some while. But it is not that I don’t need personal spaces. For some particular habits, I wish to pursue them myself.”
The alumni interviews revealed that older people tend not to focus on tracking habits on a regular basis. They are more accustomed to setting a big goal and choosing their own path to achieve it. However, they did mention that if a system could help them break down a big goal into smaller chunks, they would be open to it.
👩💻 "I set a 2021 goal to read one book per month, but my new job has kept me busy and I haven't started reading yet. I would appreciate notifications at smaller intervals, like every week or two weeks, to remind me of my progress."
The oldest of the interviewees claim that they don’t use any habit-tracking apps, and are not planning to use them. However, they still offered me a thoughtful perspective:
👨⚕️ "Habit tracking is too focused on details. As an older person, I prefer to do things that have a big impact, like giving speeches or working on poverty relief. I'm more interested in long-term projects or life goals." (Translated from Chinese)
While the third group of interviewees had some reservations about habit-tracking, they encouraged me to consider how to maintain the focus on self-growth while also making a positive impact on the world.
Interview Takeaway:
When it comes to habit tracking, users are looking for a comprehensive product with:
Competitor Analysis
There are many habit-building apps available online, so it's important to learn from their strengths and identify their weaknesses. With the 3 design needs in mind, I selected Productivity Habit Tracker and Daily Planner - Habit Tracker, the two most popular apps among survey respondents, as the competitors (overlapping pros and cons are listed in the dashed square).
Competitor Analysis Takeaway:
In addition to the previous findings, users are also looking for a product with the following attributes:
User Persona
To create a more accurate representation of the target users, I created 2 user personas: a college student and a 30+ adult, based on the insights gained from the interviews.
04 /
Define
Based on the insights gathered from the research phase, the following design principles were developed to guide the design process.
Design Principles
01. Customizable
Offer a high level of customization to enable users to effectively establish new habits at their own pace.
03. Lightweight
Show habits based on clear information hierarchy to avoid cognitive overload.
02. Interactive
Create an interactive, community-focused habit tracking experience to provide positive reinforcement.
04. Impactful
Design an experience where habit tracking is connected to making a broader impact on the world.
05 /
Design
User Task Flow
The features inspired by user research are varied and the information architecture is complex. To better understand the user perspective, I divided my tasks into 3 stages: creating a habit, executing a habit, and completing a habit. For each stage, I created a user task flow to guide the official design process. I also included potential features that users might explore during each stage in the task flow.
Upon completing the user task flow, I determined that the two main features of Habitboard are: 1) a user's personal and public habit board, and 2) a community where users can see how their friends are tracking their habits and discover new public habits. Other important considerations for the design include making the 'create' button and the reward icon highly visible.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframe
01 | Create a habit ✍️
02 | Execute a habit 🚀
03 | Sharing to the community & explore 🎠
04 | Finish a habit 🎉
Logo Concept & Habit Seed Introduction
Before creating high-fidelity wireframes, I want to take a moment to introduce Habitseed, which was mentioned in the mid-fidelity wireframe, and explain the significance of the logo.
Habitseed is the concept I came up with as the reward for users after they finish a habit. The reason for it to be called the seed is that: seeds represent growth and hope. The concept is for users to feel that establishing a habit is like planting seeds in the soil. They must take responsibility and actively nurture the seeds in order for them to grow into a fruitful tree.
The logo colors are simple and earthy, with the main color theme being two shades of blue, and the brown representing the color of a seed. The blue sphere gives off an oceanic vibe, representing the earth and symbolizing peace and love. This ties in with Habitboard's mission of personal growth through self-discipline, community sharing, and charitable actions.
The circling shape of the Habitseed has the following two purposes:
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To remind users that habit-tracking is never-ending so as self-discipline.
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Seeds follow after one another, surrounding the blue sphere within — almost like a guard. The seeds users obtain are not only for themselves but also for the whole world, for the underprivileged and the poor.
High Fidelity Wireframe
01 | Create a habit ✍️
02 | Execute a habit 🚀
03 | Share Habit Execution Status to the Community 📲
04 | Save a Public Habit to your board ❤️
05 | Finish a Habit and visit your Habitseed Timeline 🌌
06 /
Reflection
What's Next?
01. Enhance user engagement by displaying the progress of their close friends and providing quick messaging options, such as "congratulations," "invitation to join," and "gifting Habitseeds.
02. Design a more detailed plan for Habitbank, including identifying NGO partners and establishing a system to convert virtual seeds into real-world value.
03. Come up with a plan for what users can do with their Habitseeds if they choose not to donate them. This could include using seeds to grow virtual trees within the app that can be turned into real trees once a certain benchmark is reached, or using Habitseeds to purchase real products through Facebook.
Personal Growth
This was the first time for me to work on a product design case study. From beginning to end, I worked non-stop for a week and gained valuable experience about user research as well as the mindset as a product designer.
Here are some of the key insights I gained:
1. Be sensitive towards what you see and how you feel about a product.
This is extremely important when it comes to product design. Ideas can often come from unexpected places, such as social media posts or comments. This project, for example, was inspired by a Facebook story I came across while lying in bed.
2. Have as few assumptions as possible before conducting user research.
It is important to be open to what you learn from user research and to try to incorporate it into your product design. As a beginner in product design, I had a preconceived idea of what my product would look like and what features it would include before conducting user research. However, the research results were often very different and more insightful than what I had initially expected. It is important to be open to these differences and try to incorporate them into your design.
3. Testing, testing testing.
In the future, I plan to allocate more time for usability testing in order to identify and address any potential flaws in my design. I will use methods such as A/B testing and exploratory testing to ensure the final product is comprehensive and transparent.
🏆 This case study is published on Bootcamp, a collection of resources and opinion pieces about UX, UI, and Product on Medium. 🏆