Olive
I explored multiple health apps that currently exist on the market. Depending on the user's needs, these apps focus on various aspects of our health.
In my review, I compared their practicality as well as looked for any areas of opportunity for future health apps.
What I found was a big hole within the marketplace. Although many of these apps are great for their specific purpose, none of the apps I came across provided a comprehensive approach.
The Olive application provides a holistic solution not found on the market.
My Process
Empathize
Primary Research
Secondary Research
Competitive Analysis
Analyze
User Personas
User Journeys
User Flows
Define
User Pain Points
Opportunities
Task Flows
Ideate
Site Map
Wireframes
Lo-Fi Prototypes
Prototype
Med-Fi Prototypes
Hi-Fi Prototypes
Test
Usability Testing
A/B Testing
Preference Testing
Always on the go... leaves little time for our health
We live in a digital age where everything is connected and virtual. This is wonderful in so many ways, but problem with this “always-on” lifestyle is that many people are suffering from burnout. Add to that the stresses of work and life in general, and it’s no wonder many people struggle to stay on top of their health needs or conditions.
People are seeking tools to help them with their health and wellness, as well as for greater balance between the challenges of health, wellness, work, and life in general. Often, this involves activities such as yoga, mindfulness, and therapy, but it can also include pragmatic methods for organizing commitments and needs.
The goal for Olive was to develop an app to cater to the holistic needs of users to help simplify the experience instead of adding yet another health app.
Our current options
I wanted to learn more about the health apps that were available on the marketplace so I conducted a competitive analysis. Many of these apps had great. Depending on what your needs were, you could find apps that focused on anything from your diet, to exercise, to meditation, to helping you remember to take your medication! However, I did not find any app offered an all-inclusive health solution.
Now that I had a good grasp on the various types of health apps out there, I wanted to find out which apps users were actually using. I also wanted to learn how users felt about their heath apps. I conducted interviews with 8 people who were current health app users to learn more about which apps they used and when and why they used them.
Food & Exercise Tracking
Many interviewees reported using apps to help track their food and liquid intake. Additionally, all those interviewed used apps track their exercise.
The screen below depicts a popular app that many mentioned to accomplish this task.
Meditation
Many of those interviewed reported using apps to practice mindfulness as well as apps that allowed them to connect to spiritual practices.
Health Well-being
When the discussion of medical records was asked about, many of those interviewed relied solely on their doctors to keep any type of medical history.
The interviews highlighted areas of opportunity for a more comprehensive app
Many of those interviewed enjoyed using their health apps. There were common themes that were discovered during these conversations - both positive and negative. Below are some of the quotes reflecting their pain points when using the apps as they currently exist in the marketplace.
"I can't stay motivated all of the time like I would like to. I need either my social network of friends, or even strangers may do if they are working on the same areas of health, to keep me consistent with the app and its workouts."
"I’m screwed. I don’t keep any of my medical records. I rely on my medical provider to give me a history of where I was. I have to contact my old doctors. I really should. I’ve gone to so many
places."
"I need help with accountability and I can’t figure out what would be the best. Each app I use only motivate one area of health. I need something that can motivate all
areas!"
I used these interviews to sum up the positives and negatives. The negative aspects were taken into account when designing Olive. I did not want to repeat the same annoyances. I used the positive aspects discovered through these interviews as opportunities and I carried these features into the design of Olive.
Negatives
- Multiple apps are required to meet all of their health needs; no one size fits all approach
- Boredom with apps. Nothing fun about inputting information.
- Users not capturing medical records. Complete dependence on medical professionals.
Positives
- Connection. Apps allowing Users to connect with friends
- Reminders to input information into apps.
- Ability to track steps, calories, etc.
Who is the Olive user?
Utilizing the information I gained during the interview process combined with the competitive analysis, I developed 3 different user personas to gain a better understanding of who would be using Olive.
Kat, "The Gut Eliminator", is a 30-something women in the medical industry who has started to gained some weight. Just like those interviewed, Kat has vowed to pay better attention going forward and to get back into her favorite pair of jeans!
Amir, "The Caretaking Techie", is a busy professional trying to balance the responsibilities of taking care of his family and ailing father. He needs support to better tend to his dad's medical needs.
Marissa, "Woman on the Go", is a very busy business owner who loves to use apps to balance her hectic work schedule with working out and connecting with friends.
To see these user personas more in-depth, click on the link below.
Check out the User Personas here
I wanted to better understand what each of these user personas may be experiencing as they use the Olive app so I developed user journeys to go along with the user personas.
Check out the User Journeys here
Site Map
With research that was conducted and user personas that were developed, I created a Site Map to depict all of the areas the Olive app would cater to. I wanted to make sure that all health aspects were represented to offer a holistic solution. Additionally, the site map includes the various ways in which users may reach out to others within the app.
Venturing on the user flow
To better understand how users would navigate through the Olive architecture, I developed flows for specific scenarios.
Below you can see the flow of Amir. Amir uses Olive to enhance his own health as well as the health of his father. This particular scenario shows how Amir utilizes Olive to enter in his father's medication and his reactions to it.
For more information about Amir or to see additional user flows, you may click here.
Drafting the look and feel of the information architecture
I sketched out the wireframes to gain a better understand of the various aspects of health the Olive app would support. The earlier research had shown that users wanted a holistic approach to their health apps. This was a huge challenge to figure out how to offer multiple aspects of health without the app becoming confusing or overwhelming.
An additional area the users stressed was important to them, was the ability to connect with other users. This was very important to the user and could be achieved in many different ways. I wanted Olive to allow the ability to communicate with others in various ways to give users their preference of choice.
These were the preliminary ideas of how to showcase all of the different features on Olive.
Sign-in
Home Page
Health Tracker
Connect
Additional feature added
As the wireframes were further developed, I continued brainstorming to make sure that Olive was offering a fully comprehensive approach. I considered my market research and interviews and thought about some of the hot topics going on in many of our work and schools and realized that another aspect of health was very important and needed to have its own feature on the main health screen. The emotional side of health deserved its own distinct section. "Emotional" was added to the Health Tracker frame.
Sign-in
Home Page
Health Tracker
Connect
The overall architecture was complete for Olive, but would it be usable?
I conducted usability testing to assess the learnability for new users interacting with the holistic health application Olive for the first time on mobile. I observed and measured if users understood the app, its value, and how to complete basic initial functions such as logging in and searching for and navigating to a desired health experience.
Users were asked four different scenario questions that required the user to sign up for an account, explore new health articles, record migraine information, and join a chat group. I used these scenarios as they were probably actions that would be conducted by the user personas. The testers' responses were recorded along with any thoughts they share while using the prototype.
I used an affinity diagram to learn what users liked, disliked, and where they made mistakes. I also took notation of any notable actions and reactions to make Olive more user-friendly.
Positive Quotes
Negative Quotes
Observations
Errors
Common areas of contention
During the usability testing, there were areas the testers struggled with. Changes were made to these wireframes to allow for a more logical journey.
Issue #1 (Left)
Tracking Term "Migraine" as "Medical Health" entry Terminology was not intuitive.
Participants viewed "Medical " as an area where medical professional s would input information - not where they could input their own information.
Solution (Right)
I developed an additional Tracker option of “Symptoms ” Terminology was changed from "Medical " to "My Medical " to illustrate to users that this was an area they could input information. Not just medical professionals.
Issue #2 (Left)
Participants did not relate the word "Migraine" with the term "Vitals ". Terminology was not intuitive.
Participants were not aware when they were in the Tracking area of the app. They would forget after making a selection.
Solution (Right)
Related to Solution #1 with the addition of the term “Symptoms”. Migraine was added within Symptoms All Tracker screens are a deeper color so users know they are within the Tracker area of the app Tracker icon along the dashboard is emphasized when user is within the Tracker When Symptoms i s selected, a drop down appears with the types of symptoms so that Users will continue to see they are in the Tracker while offering ways to further identify what types of symptoms they are having.
Issue #3 (Left)
Related to Issue #2, Participants needed a place to add body and mind issues that did not fall into the other categories .
Solution (Right)
As discussed above, Symptoms is broken down into various areas of experience. For "Migraine" it falls under "Physical" . Here Users may move the toggle for the symptom they are experiencing.
Finalizing the Core Design Concepts
Tracking your Health
Connecting with Others
Exploring your Health
Those interviewed described the various ways they used existing apps for different aspects of health. A pain point shared by many was the single-focused nature many of the apps bring to the marketplace.
Olive allows a holistic approach to health where one's emotional state, medical records, physical activity, nutritional intake, and spirituality can be tracked.
Additionally, the app provides support for those experiencing any symptomatic responses within their bodies. Female Users will also be able to track their health needs that are specific to their bodies.
An important piece of holistic health is the connection we experience through interacting with others.
Olive supports connection in a variety of ways to cater to all types of Users. Friends and family can be added as connections on your app so that you may participate in activities and competitions together.
Online chat groups as well as in-person activity groups are available so that Users may connect with like-minded individuals both in-person and online.
Lastly, professional coaches may be accessed should the User want expertise in anything related to health. This includes professionals in the areas of mental health therapists, nutritional coaches, and private trainers.
The aim of the Olive app is to bring all aspects of health together in one place for easy accessibility.
For the Explore feature, articles and videos relating to the User's health are brought together in one place.
The more one uses the Olive app, the more tailored the experience becomes. As the Users' interests and health focuses become more defined, so will their information feed.
All health topics remain discoverable.
The testing scenarios iterated into high fidelity frames
Recording a Physical Ailment
Additionally, Users may wish to record the severity of their symptoms and any other accompanying problems.
The Notes section allows Users to record any other issue they feel is significant that may be related to their ailment.
Olive allows Users to record their symptoms.
Olive breaks them down by category.
Within each symptom area, Users may get down to specifics to help track their health experiences.
Checking the status on an in-person competitions
Connection was an attribute mentioned by all of those interviewed. Olive provides various ways you can connect with friends, family, professionals, and strangers.
In-Person Activity Groups are separated from Online Interest Groups. One may choose from a variety of activities of their choice.
These activities may be further separated into groups based on Competition.
Within each Competition, Users can view their current status in the event as well as track specific competitors.
View the Prototype
Retrospective
FINAL OBJECTIVE:
Olive solution provides a comprehensive approach to one's health. This app differs from other apps in the current marketplace by its shear magnitude of capabilities. I was able to successfully allow Users to make Olive a central hub for any health area they wish. This includes medical records, emotional states, physical activity, nutritional intake, spirituality, women's health, or any type of illness or symptom a person may experience.
Additionally, Olive allows Users to connect with family, friends, health professionals, and strangers with similar interests. Human connection is an important part of holistic health and Olive aims to fully support its Users.
MOST CHALLENGING:
The most challenging part in creating Olive was developing a comprehensive health app that was not too cumbersome. Adding in all of the various elements of health can bring a lot of complexity to the app. Users do not need another app that is difficult to figure out. It must be streamlined to create a user-friendly application.
Also, the distinction of the different ways in which Users may connect brings a unique offering, but was also challenging to create. Keeping logic at the forefront while undergoing User Testing was key.