Reiterated Make it Better

Reiterated prototype
Essay

Deliverables

Prototyping
Product critiquing

My Role

Timeline

8 weeks

We all have that bad habit we have been trying to change

Countless digital solutions claim to promote behavioural change monthly, but their actual effectiveness remains uncertain. Despite the desire to break free from bad habits, people struggle to adopt new ones. So why do people remain stuck in their old ways? Many digital solutions overlook barriers to habit adoption, limiting their effectiveness in promoting healthy behaviours.

In "Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics," Brian Wansink's weight loss approach talks about mindless eating behaviours through the "Small Plate Movement," which encouraged people to use smaller plates for dinner to reduce food intake and prevent overeating. Wansink stressed the importance of product discovery to find the most suitable solution that aligns with users' behaviour and company goals, rather than simply opting for obvious choices like exercise apps.

With a deeper understanding of effective behaviour change, I have revisited an app I previously designed for this purpose. Rather than debating its necessity as an app, I will focus on enhancing its effectiveness. In this paper, I will critique various aspects of the app and propose improvements using behavioural change techniques.

Intended audience

The intended audience for this project included individuals who lead busy lives and are conscious of the social and environmental challenges facing our world. While they are motivated to address these issues, they often feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin. As a result, they may experience feelings of guilt over their perceived inaction and a strong desire to make a positive contribution, but they rarely have time to engage.

The Old Make It Better App

Make It Better is an app that encourages busy individuals to develop good habits for personal well-being and positively impact the world. It provides prompts, challenges, resources, and inspiration to motivate users to improve their lifestyles. The app's challenge feature allows users to compete with others, earn rewards, and redeem coupons at partnering stores.

Demo prototype

Problem 1

Too many focuses

The app's current approach to addressing multiple behaviours may hinder meaningful and sustainable change. Overwhelming users with numerous types of challenges can lead to cognitive overload and lack of focus (eg. water intake, plastic reduction, yoga). Short-term challenges often fail to translate into long-term habits as there is no opportunity for consistent development. To improve effectiveness, the app should focus on a smaller number of behaviours, providing targeted support and encouragement. This allows users to concentrate their efforts, increasing their chances of success and motivation. By completing one challenge at a time, users can achieve short-term accomplishments while working towards their long-term goals. When aiming to change behaviour, clarifying the target outcome, target actor, and target action is crucial in the discovery process.

If we look at Make It Better, we will be able to identify three areas:

The target outcome

People should start building better habits that benefit the world and themselves because of Make It Better.

The target actor

Busy people who want to improve their lives but don't know where or how to start.

The target action

Users can join challenges and compete against others to efficiently complete behaviours and be winners.

Recognizing the need for focused impact, I realized that prior research was essential to identify the most important user behaviours for Make It Better. This would have allowed us to narrow the app's focus and avoid discouraging sustainable change by having a vague outcome.

Problem 2

Unfamiliar Tasks Forced Into Current Routine

Unfamiliar tasks disrupt current routines, hindering the app's ability to cater to specific behaviours and meet user needs. The app's current design addresses multiple behaviours, resulting in low engagement and adoption rates. To improve, we should make new behaviours seamless and effortless, minimizing the learning curve and friction associated with change. Tailoring challenges by gradually increasing difficulty, and focusing on small steps rather than big goals can increase motivation and reduce fear of failure. By turning deliberate actions into automatic habits, users can successfully implement new habits and feel accomplished, aligning with their busy lifestyle.

Improvement 1

Specifying the behaviour

Now that we have established that it will be difficult and ineffective to change too many behaviours at once, it will also be difficult to continue critiquing this app if there is no clear behaviour it is trying to change. I have decided to focus the app on improving gut health by cutting out bad carbs, specifically simple carbohydrates. This choice is based on the user persona's goal of food discipline and the mention of a sweet tooth. Having personally taken on this challenge in the past, I understand the struggles and the benefits of making healthier dietary choices. While I was able to stick to my plan without an app, I recognize that many individuals need extra support. Therefore, the new concept for Make It Better will provide users with guidance and reminders to cut out bad carbs from their diet each week. This more specific approach allows for targeted critiques and ongoing suggestions to improve the app's impact on this particular habit.

Improvement 2

Competition

Currently, the app involves competing with other people in challenges and whoever wins receives the reward. This can be detrimental to the users motivation as competing with other people in challenges related to health and eating can produce negative emotions, such as envy or disappointment if users don't perform as well as they would like or are outperformed by others especially when there is only one reward to win. This increases the chance of the user feeling as if they failed, which could lead to disengagement or abandonment of the app (Orji, Nacke & Di Marco, 2017).

Instead of framing challenges as competitions with only one winner, the app can focus on social proof, showcasing the percentage of users who have completed the challenge and sharing testimonials to create a sense of social pressure and encourage completion. Additionally, incorporating loss aversion techniques like streaks can instill a slight fear of breaking the streak and create a sense of urgency to stick to the desired behavior. By tapping into users' intrinsic motivation and providing a fear of losing progress, the app can effectively encourage users to overcome cravings and achieve their goals.

Improvement 3

Personalization

Not everyone has the same diet, the same food in their house or struggles to cut out the same things. This is why we need to personalize the options available to adapt the product to serve its needs because if the application guesses wrong, users won’t see the value or trust of the product. Personalization does not have to make things too complicated or be too overwhelming to the point of choice overload, however, the product should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach (Cellina et al., 2019; Wendel, 2013). Upon sign-up, users will input their dietary preferences and health goals, allowing the app to recommend specific bad carbs to cut out. Weekly challenges will be personalized, providing information on the health risks and alternative options. Users can track their progress, earn rewards, access resources like recipes and nutritional information, and join a supportive community of like-minded individuals. By tailoring the app to individual preferences, it maximizes its value and builds trust with users.

Improvement 4

Cue building

To ensure users stay focused on their carb-cutting goals, the app utilizes triggers to remind and motivate them.

Location triggers send reminders and suggest healthy options when users are near grocery stores or restaurants.

Time triggers send notifications and snack suggestions during vulnerable moments, like late afternoons.

Behavioural triggers engage users when they exhibit specific eating patterns, reinforcing their goals.

Advice/suggestion triggers influence behaviour through suggestions without imposing specific choices. For example, it suggests placing tempting foods out of sight and offering low-carb dessert recipes.

By implementing these cues, users are prompted to take action, stay motivated, and successfully complete their challenges.

Make It Better had the right intentions but needed a focal point, action structuring and motivation techniques to allow users to gain support, long-term benefits and see the value in using the app.

The New Make It Better

I have incorporated the critiques and suggestions into a mockup and provided for your reference. Click on the button below to view the annotated version of the mockup to better understand the new content and features implemented.