INHABITAS
THE FUTURE OF HABIT-BUILDING
Every-day tracking turned engaging through smart gamification
Project Type: User Research, Brand Creation
Role: UX/UI Designer & Research, Brand Designer
Industry: Health & Wellness, Self-Improvement
Introduction
Problem Statement
Many adults around the world struggle with maintaining healthy habits on a day-to-day basis due to busy schedules and the pressures from daily commute. Furthermore, these same adults struggle to find any applications that provide multiple services, including both task lists and habit building in a way that feels rewarding for them to come back to every day, rather than something they are forced to do.
Proposed Solution
Inhabitas: a mobile application with both habit-building and a tracking feature, implemented in a gamified way through character levelling and other forms of gamification. Inhabitas does not punish people for not logging in, but does highly reward those who keep up with their habit promises, offering a variety of characters that players can level up like familiars in popular video games.
The final goal here to have an all-in-one app utilized by people who want to feel rewared for performing mundane tasks like doing laundry, finishing homework, or cleaning the house. Users are provided with statistics on their consistancy and performance with their tasks.
Information Architecture
Before even starting on anything visual such as sketches or wireframes, a graphic was made to better structure all the possible features that will be made, and how they all connect with one another. This is the information architecture:
Solution Sketches
To get the project started, I developed some quick sketches that would allow me to have a better vision of what to make when I get to the low-fidelity wireframes. Mostly going for shapes, positioning and how the tabs would work together.
Wireframes
Following the sketches, low-fidelity wireframes of the login process for the application were made:
High-Fidelity Wireframes
The first version of the application was made after the initial wireframes, including a boarding page, login process, and the bulk of the app’s main features. A basic logo was made, a happy face to relate to the mood tracker-focus of the app.
I am overall satisfied with this first attempt, although I do think it is missing a lot of polish. I am unsure if this will be the solution to the problem raised in this study, so the next step after the creation of these wireframes, will be to put them to the test with users in order to find out pain points and potential improvements.
Usability Testing
Upon completing the wireframes, I performed usability testing on individuals with ages ranging from 19-50, in order to check if the app’s layout was intuitive, as well as if they had any complementary feedback that could help with the improvement of the app.
Problems Arise
The majority of the data gathered within this case study was qualitative, asking questions that could point the project in the right direction. Here are the primary problems that were consistantly brought up by the respondants:
“The logo feels unnecessary”
“Mood tracking isn’t useful to my daily life”
“The logo looks way too bland and boring”
“I would rather have a to-do list in this type of app”
The first main constantly brought up problem was the logo being in the center of most of the pages felt distracting and unnecessary. And beyond this, it also was not appealing to the respondant’s expectations. Therefore, a new logo will be made that better reflections the app, as well as implementing it less intrusively.
Upon this feedback I decided to shift the app’s focus from mood tracking to a to-do list, while keeping the habit-building tab that was given positive remarks. I also received many comments about the cluttered feel of the app, and how it felt a bit overwhelming to look at at first. I will aim to make the app more sleek as a result.
Project Development
New Logo
The new logo was then created from previous feedback. It is made up of the nordic mythological creatures known as Skoll and Hati, two wolves responsible for the day and night cycle according to legend. This was chosen as it represents the daily habit building aspect of the app, with the wolves circling around each other chasing the sun and moon. A name was officially chosen for the app as well: Inhabitas.
New Wireframes
With the first usability test done, and all the feedback gathered, I created a new set of high-fidelity wireframes that had their focus more tuned towards the to-do list and habit building, all packaged in a sleek format, with the gamification aspect more clear.
Further Usability Testing
Upon completing the wireframes, I performed another round of usability testing on individuals with ages ranging from 19-50, in order to check if the app made meaningful progress in the areas where it was lacking, and of course to recieve any new feedback.
Problems Arise
The results of this usability test proved to be much more positive than the first round, with most participants commenting positively on the new look, layout, and logo. Based on feedback, we can accept this as a step in the right direction. Even so, there were still some relevant concerns with the wireframes. Those include the following statements:
“I’m confused about the familiars…”
“Mood tracking isn’t useful to my daily life”
“Do I have multiple characters?”
“You should better the size of features”
The main problem people were having was understanding the gamified aspect of the app, with the singular character feeling confusing to them as a user. Therefore, the next goal will be to create a clearer layout for that section within the next wireframe.
Only after the creation of the wireframes did I really notice this, how the text on the boxes looked off and the overall proportions of things in the app just didn’t look right. The goal here will be to review the position and size of all app features.
Finalized Wireframes
Using the feedback given in the last usability testing session, I created a much more intuitive section for the familiars, splitting them into different boxes with their individual details like level and names. I then went through the entire app and ajudsted the sizing of practically all assets: making the task boxes smaller, improving the layout of the habit page to feel more intuitive to use, and removing unnecessary clutter like the user name and title. The final result wireframes can be found below:
What is the future of Inhabitas?
Usability Test
Doing yet another round of usability testing could provide more information on which parts of the app still need adjustments or improvements. If that is not an option, tracking how long it takes for users to stop using the app may give as an idea of improvement points.
Specific Changes
Given the chance to further work on this project, I would definitely focus the home screen on just gamification things beyond the familiars, moving the stats to another tab in the app. I would also consider creative uses for these familiars beyond being virtual pets.
Learning Outcomes
There will be times where the initial solution to a user’s problem won’t be right. The quicker I can accept that reality and move on, the better it will be for the project. Hanging onto ideas without the data to back up such actions is unproductive, and leads to lack of efficiency.
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