Levelet
Social habit tracker — UX case study
Mobile appUX designGamificationSocial
Background
This project was completed during the Google UX Design course. As part of the course, I brainstormed ideas for a personal design project and considered what was missing from apps I had used before.
My friends and I enjoy using an app called Stepup, where we track the number of steps we take each day. The app lets us compare step counts and invite friendly competition. I noticed that competing to walk more steps encouraged all of us to walk more — but there were things about the app I wanted to see improved. I imagined a more creative interface, more interactivity, and more possibilities to use competition and games for habit-building.
That’s where Levelet came in. As I began this project, I had in mind the question:
How do users stay motivated and have fun while making habit changes?
Research goals
I started with interviews to empathize with potential users. To guide my interview questions, I outlined the following research goals:
- 1Identify the pain points people experience when using habit trackers.
- 2Understand the goals and motivations that sustain new habit changes.
- 3Investigate the potential benefits and drawbacks of competition and/or social engagement with others when habit-building.
Interview questions
- 1In your day to day life, are there any habits you have been actively trying to change or have been wanting to change? What are those habits?
- 2Do you use any habit trackers, or have you used any in the past? This includes digital apps or websites, as well as physical trackers like a bullet journal.
- What motivated you to use a tracker?
- Were there times where you stopped using the tracker? What made you stop, or how did you lose motivation?
- What do you like about having a habit tracker?
- What are some things that frustrated you with the tracker? This can include things you didn’t like, or things that felt missing.
- 3Do you share any of your habit goals with friends and family?
- How do they play a role in keeping you motivated, or not?
- Have you used any social habit trackers with friends and/or family?
- When playing games with friends and family, do competitive or cooperative modes feel more fun for you? Why?
- 4Looking back on times you’ve implemented a habit change in your life, how did you identify the change? What were your thoughts and feelings when you recognised your success?
- 5Looking back on times you were unsuccessful with changing a habit, what thoughts and feelings did you experience when you recognised the habit was not sustained?
Participants
As this project was completed during coursework, I used convenience sampling and recruited friends as participants.
N
Participant N
Digital & paper habit trackers
K
Participant K
Digital habit tracker
L
Participant L
Digital & paper habit trackers
Empathy mapping
Participant N
Says
- –“Whenever things get more hectic in other areas of my life, I lose motivation to keep up with my tracking.”
- –“I like visually seeing the progress I make when using a tracker.”
- –“A shared tracker makes the experience of achieving my goals more enjoyable through friendly competition.”
- –“When I reap benefits in other areas of my life through lifestyle changes, it motivates me to keep going and makes me feel proud of the progress I have made.”
Thinks
- –Having visuals when tracking progress helps them feel motivated
- –Likes competitive modes more because it pushes them to do better, but co-op modes are nice too for group bonding
- –Successful habit changes have a cascading effect on other areas of life and encourages a positive feedback loop
Does
- –Wants to build a healthier lifestyle
- –Wants to wake up earlier
- –Wants to be more mindful with their diet
- –Trying to walk more as a form of exercise. Struggled to be consistent with exercise in the past
- –Using a digital tracker to track daily steps
Feels
- –Frustrated because the app doesn’t let you manually enter steps
- –Motivated and also pressured when friends and family are aware of their goals
- –Feels proud of their progress when they notice lifestyle changes
- –Feels shame when unsuccessful in changing a habit
Participant K
Says
- –“When they share their goals with me, especially when they align with mine, I feel even more motivated to follow through.”
- –“I find that being able to see each other’s progress keeps me accountable and encourages me to stay consistent.”
- –“It makes exercise feel more like a game, which I really enjoy.”
Thinks
- –Friends play a big role in offering motivation for a healthier lifestyle and staying committed to goals
- –Helps when friends also share their goals with them
- –Visually seeing progress helps accountability
- –Competitive mode is more fun and it’s enjoyable when completing a habit goal feels like a game
Does
- –Not engaging in physical activity right now and wants to incorporate exercise into their daily routine
- –Wants to improve their eating habits — have a more balanced and nutritious diet
- –Using a shared step tracker with friends to monitor daily steps, but not the first time they’ve tracked steps
- –Has used other trackers including the phone’s Health app and a Fitbit
- –Stops tracking when life gets busy or stressful
Feels
- –Happy and accomplished when they reach a high step count
- –Feels accomplished and proud when they successfully make lifestyle changes. Impacts their emotional and mental well-being
- –Feels discouraged and disappointed in themselves when they are unsuccessful with implementing change
Participant L
Says
- –“I didn’t remember to open my journal and track it after a few days.”
- –“…there was no goal that I was reaching. I was just filling in squares each time I did something.”
- –“It’s also funny when one of us would be really bad at games… and it keeps you more invested in getting a better score.”
- –“I know it’d be better for me and I want to do it, but I guess I just don’t feel motivated enough to commit to it, cause realistically, what’s going to happen to me right now if I don’t, you know?”
Thinks
- –Using a habit tracker can provide more motivation to commit to habits
- –Needs a better way to remember to use the tracker
- –Likes cooperative mode more because of teamwork but competitive is fun too
- –Humor and teasing makes games fun with friends
- –Success with a habit change makes it easier to complete the tasks over time
- –Not having immediate punishment or reward for not completing tasks leads to less motivation
Does
- –Wants to sleep earlier
- –Wants to avoid doom scrolling
- –Successful with going to the gym more — going consistently a few times a week
Feels
- –Happy about successfully making a habit change. Success with the habit also made it less daunting.
- –A lot of guilt when habit changes are unsuccessful
- –Disappointed in themselves for not being able to change
User persona
Natalie
25 years old · East Asian Woman · Toronto, ON
- –Currently in graduate school with a busy, packed schedule
- –Has trouble finding time to meet personal goals outside of school — including exercise, hobbies, and building relationships
- –Has used digital habit trackers before but always fell off track with her goals
Problem statement for design
Natalie is a 25-year-old graduate student in Toronto who wants to have a better balance between school and other areas of her life. As a busy full-time student, she wants to find a way to commit to her exercise and hobby goals. She needs an app that helps her track her daily habits that feels fun and exciting, so that it keeps her motivated and engaged.
Low-fi wireframes
Initial handwritten wireframes
My first set of wireframes as I pictured what the app would look like. I made several changes as I ideated some more, and eventually created the following set of low-fi wireframes in Figma.
Revised low-fi wireframes in Figma
Main changes I made
- I decided on the name of the app and created welcome screens that will walk users through how to get started.
- Co-op games are called Quests and users will choose from a drop-down menu a list of weekly quests.
- The habit goal for races will also be chosen from a drop-down menu because not all goals are suitable for a “race”.
- I removed the check-ins on the pet’s profile page. My initial idea was to motivate users with mandatory check-ins to keep their pet healthy, but on second thought, I wanted to remove this pressure and simply encourage consistency with gamification of their habit tracking.
- I added an ID number for each user and their pet so they can search for their friends and add each other to join races/quests.
- The weekly stats page includes circles that represent whether a goal was met during each day of the week. I initially considered showing the progress of each goal within the weekly page, but felt that would be too overwhelming. Instead, users can click on each circle to view the daily stats page for their specific progress.
Low-fi prototype user testing
I created a prototype in Figma using the low-fi wireframes and invited the same three participants to participate in moderated usability studies. The link to the low-fi prototype was shared with them, and I either met with them through a video call or in person. A moderated study was chosen over an unmoderated study as I wanted to allow the participants to ask questions and for me to follow up with them in real time. Beyond that, I limited how much guidance I would give them so they can click through the app without my influence or bias.
Feedback from usability testing
- Users really liked the gamification of habit tracking and the app’s use of a virtual pet to motivate users. They were excited by the idea of being able to race with friends.
- Users pointed out there’s no option to create a race name on the New Race page.
- Users also pointed out that a drop-down menu to choose the race time on the New Race page would not be as effective as letting users customise their own start and end time.
- The intro instructions said to add friends before joining any races or quests, but the New Quest page asks the users if they want to do the quest with friends. This was confusing because it raised the question of whether you can do a weekly quest solo.
- Overall flow of the app went smoothly. Users were able to click to the appropriate pages and go back and forth without guidance, and said the flow made sense to them. However, since they cannot input actual text or values, I instructed them on where to click to move forward — for example, clicking “Save” on the New Jolt page to see the list of jolts with a sample walking goal.
High-fi design
Created a sticker sheet to keep all my visual design choices consistent. This includes the typography, colour palette, buttons, and the Levelet characters I drew.
Changes from low-fi wireframes
- The quest page now makes it clear that quests must be done with friends.
- Jolts listed on the Jolts page now includes a progress bar.
- The Levelet starts as a creature already — not as an egg. I think this makes it more interesting from the get-go.
- An additional screen showing the Levelet level up!