al
In-App Challenges
Date
April-June 2022
What I Did
Research, UX/UI
Team
Andrew Schwint
Colleen Curtis
Angela Lin
Bernie Smigel
Figma, Jira
Tools
The team at Well had been discussing the idea of in-app challenges for years. I was tasked with researching and developing the first MVP for in-app challenges and suggest future developments.
THE PROBLEM
How do we drive engagement with users to interact with app features such as our 21-day health journeys and habit builders for?
THE START
Learning how to unlearn, and the case of the ambiguous audience.
First was thinking about our existing offerings. Well was already engaging in challenges with their users via email. The product managers tasked me with thinking about how to bring those marketing challenges in-app first. What sounded like a simple solution was actually quite complex.
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I wanted to first understand Well's users and the psychology behind creating habits that could possibly sustain challenges. I was hit with a wall when my design director told me,
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I was taught in class that every company has a defined audience. Well had so many clients that each audience was different. We had to build something that would engage most users.
Well doesn't have one specific audience. It's for everyone.
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Some Requirements
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Establish baseline metrics for challenge participation
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Define intended metric increases in challenge participation (“KPI” lifts)
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Define a Well point-of-view for what a challenges experience can/should be
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Define and/or fortify the audiences
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Define the requisite user journeys and user flows
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Provide design artifacts to deliver on proof of concept and “pitch” your concepts
RESEARCH
So How Do People Build Habits?
Habits = Challenges
Understanding the psychology behind how people build habits was important. To build a habit, one must go through four steps.
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These steps reminded me of games; habits are essentially challenges. Since the audience was so broad, I started to research gamer types and their habits.
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HEXAD User Types
Developed by Andrzej Marczewski, there are six user types associated with gamification. I narrowed them down into two sections with five specific users that would be important to Well.
The goal is to convert extrinsic users to intrinsic users.
Extrinsic User
Motivated simply because there are rewards at the end
Consumer
Consumers will do what is needed to get rewards.
Self-Seeker
They will answer questions and help others, but purely to get rewards and visible status from the system.
Intrinsic User
Motivated because actions are personally rewarding to them
Socializer
Want to interact with others. They like to be connected to others.
Achiever
Motivated by Mastery. They are looking to learn new things and improve themselves.
Networker
Networkers are looking for useful contacts that they can gain from.
IDEATION
Weeding through the ambiguous problem.
Leaving Personas Behind
We decided we wanted to move away from personas since it excluded many user types and create levers. We defined levers as stackable personality traits. I led our design team in several workshops to create user stories for each lever. I marked user stories as red, yellow, or green based on how well we were serving those users to determine opportunities that challenges might be able to tap in.
Levers
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Age
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Location
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Socioeconomic Status
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Job
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Chronic Illness
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Engagement
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Comfort with Technology
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Extrinsic/Intrinsic
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Achiever/Socializer
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Motivations
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Comfort w/ sharing personal information
Presenting to Stakeholders
I discussed in-depth analyses on a couple levers, which included user journey maps through awareness, evaluation, adoption, engagement, and loyalty. Each journey had conclusions on how well those users were being served and what opportunities there were.
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I also outlined next steps for designers and PMs. After our conversations, I was able to move to the next stage of user flows.
Separating Out the User Flows
After workshopping again with my team members after the feedback we got from my presentation, we separated the project into challenges and offers.
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Challenges should engage the member to increase adoption.
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Offers may increase a certain KPI or specific goal (sign-up bonus, etc.) but may not affect overall adoption.
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Different types of challenges that either social and individual were also explored.
Challenges Flow
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Challenge Types
Offers Flow
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DESIGN
The beginning machinations of a challenges and offers system that rewards intrinsic and extrinsic users.
Deliverables
My design director asked me to incorporate our current designs and show how the challenges MVP would look in app. I created a mixture of lo-fi and hi-fi wireframes.
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(Bottom) Challenges would fall under in progress and lead to a separate screen which would show auto-enrollment, dates, rewards, and instructions. I resolved that rewards should have a "ready to claim" section to show users that they were gaining those points, since rewards would be automatic. As the tech isn't currently built to accommodate a lot of interactive and complex features, I had to work with the basic requirements.
Suggestions for Future States
Since the end of co-op was approaching, I wasn't able to iterate on the MVP or get to see the it get developed. I was, however, able to leave some insight from research and my process for the team to consider when moving forward with the challenges feature.
Ability for members to view their progress
A separate screen that houses a clickable details screen and in progress screen within each challenge
Giving members an easy way to find new/track their active/past experiences
Creating a cohesive discovery page
Activating intrinsic social and individual experiences
Introducing group challenges (leaderboards, etc.)
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Opt-in individual challenges geared more towards health and wellness goals
Different mechanisms of rewarding besides points
Badges, levels, unlocking exclusive rewards