YEAR + TIMELINE

2017 /
4 months

AGENCY

Frog design,
Munich studio

TOPIC

Healthcare, Insurance, Tracking, Fitness, Diet

MY ROLE

Visual direction,
UI design

TEAM

Project lead,
UX designer (2)

OUTPUT

Mobile app, DLS,
Prototype

¶  Kick-off

For the first time, I experienced working with a truly diverse team outside my home country. I followed this project from the Frog Munich office, enjoying some bits of Baverian culture. 

So, what was the project about? Dacadoo, a Swiss-based startup, develops technical solutions for digital health engagement and health-risk quantification.  They partner with insurance companies, as well as corporate health service providers, to motivate users to start and maintain healthy lifestyle habits. The request was to redesign their mobile app, given that their preposition resonated with B2B clients, while the app however struggled with actually getting people to engage with the platform. 

Considering the complex nature of the topic, and the multitude of features we had to handle, mainly focusing on establishing trust, as to be seen as a health partner worth long-term engagement.

MY CONTRIBUTION

Starting the project from the research phase, I helped prepare materials and interview users. During the design phase, I was in charge of UI design, taking care of every particular within each screen we detailed, and building the entire visual language system. Lastly, I provided internal documentation to the main stakeholders.

INTRO & APPROACH

Small steps toward users' self-realization

During the research phase, we focused on defining a more specific target audience and catering our design to their particular lifestyles, behaviours, and needs. The goal was to create a level of engagement that would set Dacadoo up to become a leading platform provider in the healthcare industry, specifically for 40-60 year-olds, whose risk of health problems is higher.

So, how does our solution help people take the first step toward improving their lifestyle?

Who the users are

By easing the user through an assessment phase, the app learns about the user in-depth and provides more accurate content.

Daily steps

By applying a baby-step approach to behavioral changes, the app encourages slow-building habits that stick.

Always actionable

By utilizing daily action steps, the app offers users a clearly defined and actionable goal with every launch.

ONLINESS STATEMENT

Dacadoo is the life coach for 40-60 year-olds — helping them to live a healthier life by easing them into new habits through personalised assessment & goal setting, and continuous positive feedback.

UI DIRECTION

Being friendly and positive, but damn accurate! 

For the general Dacadoo look & feel, our goal was to be: A. positive and optimistic to invite users, B. simple and clean to effectively communicate important matters, C. friendly and human to engage users, and D. credible and accurate to gain users' trust with their health.

Simple and clean

through big titles, colourful calls-to-action and light backgrounds.

Friendly and human

through round shapes, illustrations and moments of celebration.

Credible and accurate

through the use of numbers and select data visualisations.

What dictates an appropriate tone of communication

Throughout the app, the user will experience different layers of communication: the content's nature and purpose will dictate the tone of voice, while maintaining an overall friendly touch. Delving deeper, the user will notice the UI tone matches the content and intent of said level — more technical for data visualization, more playful for moments of achievement.

Typography

I chose Lato font-family for three reasons: A. the semi-rounded details of the let­ters gives Lato a feel­ing of warmth, while the strong struc­ture pro­vides sta­bil­ity and seri­ous­ness, B. the font sup­ports more than 150 lan­guages, and C. it's a Google font, free and thoroughly tested in digital projects.

Color palette

There will be three different colour palettes, divided by functionality: A. actionable components (buttons, links, functionable icons), B. Health Score representation (an entire app section), and C. secondary UI elements (texts, backgrounds, lines, icons, etc). 

ONBOARDING

A fast, fun, educational introduction

We decided to use onboarding to educate the user about the app's core function. It triggers the first self-reflection moment for the users to consider their health goals.

HEALTH ASSESSMENT

Self discovery through awareness

To get an accurate overview of users' health, we opted to gradually know them through a series of 3-day learning evaluation for each Health Score component – nutrition, indulgences, activity, mindfulness, and sleep. This gamification would lead the user to an increase in awareness.

Questionnaire UX model

3-day mini challenge related to the topic

Physical health questionnaire

Lastly, the body assessment, which weighs heavily on the final Health Score. This would prevent, for example, someone with diabetes being advised to limit sugar.

HEALTH SCORE REVEAL

It comes down to splitting hairs!

By requiring the user to complete all assessments, the final Health Score is significantly more credible, emphasizing its holistic nature.

Behaviors vs. States

Health is a holistic pursuit comprised of both your genetic factors and your daily behavioral choices. While there isn't much we can do about our genes, it's our behaviors that make the difference – and that's where Dacadoo comes in.

Nutrition

All food and drink consumed

Indulgences

Caffeine, nicotine, alcohol consumed

Activity

Any kind of physical activity done

Mindfulness

The practice of being fully present, aware

Sleep

Any kind of activity related to sleep and rest

'TODAY' SCREEN

Staying focused on what's relevant

The Today screen is where the user is engaged most with the app and is guided through their journey. The goal is to keep the focus only on what’s relevant in that moment, providing tailored “next steps”, just like a real coach would do.

What’s next

Guide the user through the principal steps of the journey: assessment phase, Health Score reveal, challenge phase.

Challenge check-in

The daily check-in is the highlight of the Today Screen, giving users a sense of accomplishment by reviewing and completing challenges.

Recommendations

Articles, media, factoids. Relevant content users may be interested in which could help them with their behavioural changes.

Feedback

Help the user know themself by providing feedback on their progress and areas of improvement.

Celebration

Reward the user on every important step in their journey. Improvements and milestones will be celebrated here.

Emotional check-in

At specific moments (e.g. end of challenge) a short 2-3 step questionnaire will be provided to assess the user's feelings.

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE

Building new healthy habits: small changes at a time

Each challenge lasts 3 weeks – research has shown that this is the minimum length of time required to establish a new habit. Types of challenges will vary across the different health components and each one will be clear, achievable, and easily trackable. The difficulty level should also be tailored to the user to increase their feeling of self-efficacy.  

Starting a challenge

Dacadoo's signature moment: an easy and satisfying check

We decided to add a subtle, brandable, micro-interaction that gives users a moment of delight and gratification: the daily check-off. Making progress is very important for users, so a gesture-based interaction will prompt the user to check in daily, while also giving Dacadoo another branding moment.

Checking the challenge's completion and starting a new one

CORPORATE CHALLENGE

Let's boost healthy engagement within the company!

Given Dacadoo's potential to be a corporate health service provider, we also reshaped corporate challenges following the same principles previously explained. For larger companies, we recommend dividing employees into subsets to ensure everyone feels included.