iOS Health App
Case Study 2021
The iOS Health app aggregates data from different apps & shows the overall summary to users.
During the pandemic, it is a difficult to keep active, especially when we’re confined. I gave myself the challenge to improve the iOS Health app to help find a meaningful and usable solution for the users.
The Overall Plan
Understand the value proposition
Understand the Users and Existing Experience
Create a problem statement
Know the business outcome
Create a target user persona and their outcomes
Create a hypothesis to test
Create the solution
Understanding the Value Proposition
Building an integrated ecosystem which can consolidate huge amount of small pieces of data collected from different apps, and transform those to a meaningful health guide to our everyday's life.
But do their target audience actually agree in this Value Proposition? I created a survey to better understand the users who uses this app.
Understanding the Users
I have formulated a survey and sent it out to a group of random people over the internet. I received in total of 12 responses within 1 day.
General Results
Main age ~19-30
Mainly living in an urban city
Use the app to mainly track their activities because for their own knowledge and its convenient to have it on their phone
They are some what ‘sporty’ people
They use it from time to time because they are curious on their progress
They mainly use the health app when they are outside traveling
Pain Points
Do not understand the data that is being displayed
They don’t see the purpose with the data
They need a goal to keep motivated
They want to have recommendations related to their goals
Auditing the Existing Experience
❌ Over complicated dashboard
❌ Do not know the purpose of the data that are being shown
❌ Do not understand the progress, if it’s going well or not
✅ Gives an understanding on the highlights of the activities that have been done
❌ But what do they mean? shows avg, but does that mean I have to do more activity? Am I unfit?
❌ What does stand hours mean? what’s the benefit for this data? I have to sit all day because of my job
Problem Statement
The iOS Health app is intended to make an all-in-one, integrated ecosystem, to seamlessly view your important health data, and give a meaningful health guide.
It seems like the Health app is not making it an easy and useful experience to view all your health data that have been saved as well as having the motivation and purpose to continue using this app which is causing a decrease in user engagement.
How might we improve the iOS Health app so that our customers are more successful based on the # of daily user engagement and the # of the completed user goals?
Business Outcome
Now, what would we consider as done and what measurement to use to know it has been a success for the business and users?
But let’s dig into this outcome a bit deeper and really understand our active users.
Who are the active users?
People that are sporty or want to be.
What are they doing with the app?
To track activities to know their data.
What behaviours will predict greater usage? More specifically, what measurement can we use to increase the # of daily active users.
Task success rate: # completed user goal
Proto Personsa
Let’s get to know our target user’s behaviour, needs and their goals.
Caroline, 30 years old
lives in the suburbs
wants to get fit
tried some 3rd party apps
but needs more motivation
needs to be able to understand the data easily
User Outcome
We understand that Caroline wants to get fit and has already tried some 3rd party apps, but how might we be able to keep her motivated to continue using the iOS Health app?
✚ Need useful data
I want to be able to quickly and easily understand the data that is being shown to me.
I want the data to adapt to my progress so that I feel motivated to keep going.
✚ Need a purpose
I want to have some recommendation to meet my goals
I want to be asked what my objectives are before it starts tracking any data to get me motivated.
I want to be able to compare my progress from yesterday to today in one view.
✚ Need trust
I want to trust the app to work even if I do not have an Apple watch
Potential Feature Ideas
It’s time to begin thinking about what tactics, features, and services that we can put in place to achieve the business outcome and the user’s needs and goals.
⚑ Give useful data
In the Highlights section, shows data that the user only is interested in seeing by first choosing what activities they want to see
Show a status of progress until they reach their goal.
Give a tone of voice that they have achieved something or is almost there.
⚑ Give a purpose
Show comparison to other data that have been previously recorded to give some feeling of achievement - all on one screen
When an activity has started, automatically detect whether they are outside taking a bike ride, running or at home working out.
Ask what the objective is from the start to program a goal.
⚑ Give trust
Give a notification that the phone is starting to track their movement
Hypotheses
Let’s start coming up with some hypotheses to potentially test out. By doing this, it organises our material into a set of tactical, testable hypotheses.
It combines:
the business outcome we want
the user
the user outcome
the feature
☘︎ Hypothesis #1 - on giving a purpose
We believe that we will reach a higher # of completed user goals that will increase retention if Caroline can have the app ask what her objectives are before it starts tracking any data for motivation with the feature of option of asking what her objectives are to set a goal.
☘︎ Hypothesis #2 - on giving a purpose
We believe that we will reach a higher # of completed user goals that will increase retention if Caroline can achieve having some recommendation to help meet her goals with the update of having a recommendation section based on her progress and goal.
☘︎ Hypothesis #3 - on giving trust
We believe that we will reach a higher # of completed user goals that will increase retention if Caroline can trust the app to work even if she does not have an Apple watch by sending her a notification that the phone is starting to track her activity.
☘︎ Hypothesis #4 - on giving a purpose
We believe that we will reach a higher # of completed user goals that will increase retention if Caroline is able to compare her progress from yesterday to today in one view with having a display that compares other data that have been previously recorded to give some feeling of achievement.
☘︎ Hypothesis #5 - understand the data
We believe that we will reach a higher # of completed goals that will increase retention if Caroline is able to quickly and easily understand the data that is being shown by reading a progress bar that shows her progress until she reaches her goal.
Prioritising the Hypotheses
We need to figure out which ones are the riskiest ones - so that we can work on them first. The goal is to prioritise which hypotheses to test based on their level of risk and how much value we believe this idea will generate.
Let’s start with Hypothesis #1 because we believe that this will be the first step to test out to see if Caroline will set up some goals first, in which will give them a purpose to keep returning to the app.
Creating the Solution
The Main Idea: Option of asking what her objectives are to set a goal.
How to Work on This Idea
Step 1: MVP
As a user, I want to first see if I can set some goals that I want to succeed in.
As a user, I want to easily understand and read the data on my progress once I open the app.
Step 2: Iteration #1
As a user, I want to get recommended apps that are based on my progress and goal.
Step 3: Iteration #2
As a user, I want to easily have data that compare my recent activity that I have done to an activity that I did previous to see my progress.
Step 4: Iteration #3
As a user, I want to get notified when the app is starting to track my activity so that I am aware that it is working.
Next Steps
Beta test this hypothesis and start measuring to see the amount of task success rate: # of completed user goals.
Check the # of DAU on a monthly basis.
If the # of completed user goals are above 90%, keep going with the iteration plan, which is to add recommended 3rd party apps that are relevant to the user’s goals.
- If it is not, try to understand what went wrong via sending out a user survey + interview and ideate