OlaOra
Award-winning app redesign
Copywrited by NIHI
(National Institute for Health Innovation)
Duration
November 1st - December 16th
( 6 week project )
Project Context
Collaborative Project
( 3 UX Designers )
Overview
The aim of OL@-OR@ was to design a mobile health (mHealth) tool in partnership with our Māori and Pasifika Communities to help reduce the risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
OL@-OR@ received a Bronze award in both the User Experience and the Public Good categories at the Best Design Awards 2019 by the Design Institute of New Zealand.
However, at NIHI, we are currently redesigning the app to add new features and increase user engagement in order to receive further funding.
The Problem
The current Ol@or@ app has not been updated since its launch in 2018. There was also no user testing involved during the design process or after the launch of the app. This resulted in a decrease in user engagement and no new users have installed the app.
The Solution
Uplift current design of Ol@-Ol@
Redesigning the app with a visually appealing UI will help attract new users.
New Features
However, designing the app with new UI is not enough to ensure users will continue to use the app. Our solution includes new useful features that will help our users stay engaged, challenged, and healthy.
Some of these features include:
1.
Set up Goals.
This app will generate a personalised feed for food and workouts based on your goals
2.
Quick add feature.
This is helpful as it allows a shortcut for users to access the most frequently used features. It also helps make navigation easier in a timely manner.
3.
Stay active with Whanau and friends
Invite whanau and friends to workout with you or schedule it for a different day
.4
Food & Calorie tracking
Get notified when food is high in saturated fat or if the user exceeds their calorie intake
Our process started with a Stakeholder Interview
Here, we confirmed the goals and expectations for the project. We were also given complete control to uplift the design of the app and as well as a suggestion on which part of the app to focus on, this being the Physical section as it was the most popular. It also not only aligns with the goal of the app to educate users about how to reduce the risk of heart, disease, obesity, and diabetes but also in secondary research where we found that the physical category was one of the most visited pages.
Insights gained from interviewing Maori and Pasifika users.
Participant 1
Pasifika user who has used Olaora for gym training purposes
"Signing in was really annoying, I didn't want to go back into the app and fiddle with it"
"It's so confusing to navigate around the app!"
Designs didn’t connect with the user, they said "I don't need an app to tell me who I am"
Participant 2
"Finding the app on the app store and signing up was a difficult process"
"The app is not challenging enough and doesn't push me to achieve my goals"
"I dont really understant the purpose of the app"
First time user for Ol@or@
(Pasifika user)
Participant 3
First time user for Ol@or@
(Maori user)
"The app is quite complicated to use, it's not very user friendly"
"There aren't many features that I would actually use, I find other apps more helpful"
"I can't find the app"
Personas
Problem Statements
Olaora is a health and wellbeing app for Māori and Pasifika communities to help reduce the risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, however, the app's navigation is not user-friendly.
Because of this, users are confused and frustrated when trying to use the app, and struggle to navigate through the pages.
As a result, users are not engaging with the app, and the number of users is dropping, which affects funding for the app.
Olaora is a health and wellbeing app for Māori and Pasifika communities to help reduce the risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, however, the app's features are not engaging or particularly useful compared to competitor apps.
Because of this, users get bored and are not motivated to use the app.
As a result, Olaora users decrease over time as they prefer competitor apps that have better, more engaging features.
User Story
As a Polynesian mother who wants to lose weight and get fit with my family,
I want an easy-to-navigate, user-friendly app with useful, engaging features,
so that we can achieve our fitness goals together and stay healthy as a family.
Site Map
Creating a site map for both the Pasifika and Maori versions confirmed to us that the app was repetitive, confusing and difficult to navigate.
Pasifika Version
Maori Version
Example of the app being confusing and difficult to navigate
When users are on the 'journey' page and click on open rewards, once they click back it takes them to the 'physical' page instead of going back to the journey. This makes the app confusing and difficult to navigate for all users.
User Flow
User flow of current app as well as the new and improved features that we added based on our research and competitor analysis.
Moodboards
We created different types of moodboards which we shared we our users during user testing. Our users thought the Pasifika and Maori versions looked too busy and wanted a more modern and subtle look.
Pasifika Version
Maori Version
All users liked the modern look
Participant 1
"I don't need an app to tell me who I am"
Ideation Sketches
Crazy eight sketches for dashboard and physical section of app.
Onboarding Journey
Login / Sign up
Improvements in the Design
The name Ol@-or@
66.66% of users were unable to search for the app due to its name Ol@or@. We wanted to take the name of the app into consideration and change the “@” symbol into an “a” instead to make this process easier for users.
If users are unable to find it on the app store, then they are more likely to give up and exit the app store, resulting in a loss of usage.
Onboarding journey
33.33% of users didn't understand the purpose of the app.
An onboarding journey helps users clearly define their goals and gain a better understanding of what they want to get out of the app.
Tutorial
All users found the navigation confusing as the app was overloaded with information and text. To improve this we created a quick tutorial that would guide the users through the app with a step-by-step tutorial.
Improved retention rate
Includes recommended workouts based on the user's goals. It also includes different fitness categories along with videos for users to follow. Users can also invite others to join them or schedule them for a different day.
UI Design System
Logo
Components
Typography
Colours
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Final Thoughts
This was my second project during my internship with NIHI (National Institute for Health Innovation). I am very grateful that I was able to be part of such a fun project with two other UX designers and the project sponsor. Prior to this, I had never collaborated with a stakeholder closely like this before. It was nice to get feedback and suggestions on what we could do better and improve and move forward as a team.
NIHI intended to obtain funding for the app to be updated. For this to happen, we needed to complete the new design system and show the sponsors what the app could potentially look like with the new design which we happened to meet. As a bonus, we also wanted to include new features in the app as we thought improving the UI was not enough to help increase user engagement.
Reflections
Never Assume!
The app was aimed at Māori and Pasifika communities. However, our design of the app was based on what we assumed their communities would like. However, during user testing, most of our users didn't like the design with a bunch of patterns. One user said the Pasifika patterns didn’t connect with him well, and he also did not need a bunch of patterns to tell him who he was. It was very surprising and interesting to hear.