Brighter
Helping those afflicted with addiction on their journey to sobriety
Brighter
Helping those afflicted with addiction on their journey to sobriety
Overview
opportunity
The journey toward sobriety requires vast amounts of motivation, social and behavioral changes, lifestyle changes, and consistency. These changes do not come easy, however, it is clear that having a plan and having support are both important factors in recovery success for those who suffer from addiction. Every person’s journey is different, therefore their plans should each look different.
Solution
Creating an app that helps someone on their journey to sobriety can help to create structure in their lives, facilitate new behaviors and healthy habits, and offer the support that they need in a non-judgmental way.
My Role
UX Designer, individual design project
Timeline
June-Sept. 2020
Tools
Pen, paper, Illustrator, InVision
Context
This project was the 10-week capstone project of the Interaction Design course that I completed in 2020. The brief was to create an interface that falls under the theme of ‘behavioral change’ from needfinding to visual design.
The idea for a sobriety app originated after speaking with a close family member who was lamenting on the lack of digital tools and support available for recovering addicts. Upon doing a bit of market research, I realized that there are very few apps available that offer tools for those struggling with addiction, and the few that do exist do not offer much tailored support.
1. discover
User Research
Because each person’s journey toward sobriety is so different, I wanted to gain insight from a range of people from different backgrounds who have recovered or are in the process of recovery from different substances. To do this I interviewed 8 different participants in their homes over FaceTime (because of COVID19 I was unable to do this in person). I followed them as they went through their morning routines and described what gets them going each day, in hopes of discovering how an app could play a role in their daily journey toward sobriety.
The research exposed a range of opportunities for how technology could further aid their journey. My key takeaways were:
Setting goals, making a plan to achieve those goals, and tracking the progress are critical ways that people can change their lifestyles and eliminate the bad habits that led them to their addiction.
The app should focus on goal setting and tracking
Having a community that holds you accountable without being judgmental can be very helpful in maintaining daily sobriety.
Allow users to connect and chat with others who are on the same journey
Use positive and sensitive language to reinforce inclusiveness
Mental, emotional and physical health are all important factors in sobriety.
Help users check in on their daily health and track how they are doing over time
Use positive affirmations
I then used storyboards and journey mapping to explore how users could integrate goal setting and tracking into their daily routine.
2. define
Design Principles
Based on my research and storyboarding, I identified a set of design principles that would shape the user experience of the app.
Flexibility
The app should cater to a range of addictions, should allow the user to tailor it to their needs while still being easy enough to use so that they continue to use it regularly
Accessibility
The app should be free and not make the user add account information for full functionality
Sensitivity
The language used should be positive and sensitive to the issues the users are going through
User Flow
After identifying a series of key features and design principles, I mapped out the initial user flow to show how I envisioned the app to work.
The user flow is meant to make the onboarding experience easy and stress-free to not deter any potential users. It will take the user through a series of information-gathering questions that will help identify their addiction and what the potential implications are for their life. It then walks the user through setting up goals and creating schedules.
The main screen that existing users will find is the dashboard that allows them to track how many days sober they are, do their daily check-in, and track their goals. The bottom navigation also allows them to easily modify their goals, chat with other users anonymously and update user settings.
3. ideation
Paper prototyping
By this point I had enough ideas to get started with a paper prototype. I used these sketches to get feedback on the onboarding questionnaire, what to have along the bottom navigation, and the process of goal-setting. I watched 4 evaluators as they ‘used’ the app, noting any pain points or heuristic violations. I learned that the goal setting portion was not very smooth, and therefore consolidated it to one scrolling page, with an option to create a schedule.
A critical question that remained was how to make the app social. The research showed that there would be a desire for this, but I was not sure to what extent and what form it should take. Should it connect users to other users? Or to professionals? Or both? What kind of support is most useful? I decided to initially implement an anonymous post wall for users to post and comment on. The prospect of connecting individuals to professional help seemed out of my scope of knowledge, therefore I have decided that should come in a later phase after the app has been launched, perhaps in conjunction with another platform that has already been developed.
Information Architecture
4. Prototype
After refining the sketched screens, I transitioned to creating wireframes in InVision Studio complete with user tasks:
- • Onboarding
- • Creating a new goal
- • Modify an existing goal
- • Perform the daily check-in
5. Validate
User Testing
I conducted user testing on five participants. Of the users I selected, two were those that I had interviewed originally. Because of social distancing in the time of COVID19, the participants tested the prototype on the computer and we used facetime so that I could observe and take note as they described their experiences.
The user feedback led to the following modifications:
- Further explain the purpose of goal setting and how it is useful, break down into more digestible pieces of text
- Streamline the user’s ability to create a schedule
- Incorporate more options for how the user feels in the daily check-in screen
- Change the wording and options for the onboarding screens that are sensitive to those with addiction
- Add a ‘back’ option for the onboarding screens
A/B Testing
After incorporating the above changes into the app, I conducted A/B testing via usertesting.com that was provided through the course. I decided to re-test my approach to creating a schedule. Option A took the user through each day of the week sequentially, while option B allowed the user to choose which day of the week they wanted to input their goal for.
I found that while users had an easier time navigating option A, it took much more time and they were frustrated that they felt ‘too committed’ to that schedule. Option B was slightly more difficult to navigate, but overall took less time and seemed to be more desirable.
Lessons Learnt
Through user testing, I learned how important it is to develop a protocol to implement consistency across all testers. This ensures accurate results with useful feedback that will be easy to translate and implement. In addition, the users should be briefed and then debriefed so that they feel like their feedback was valid.
6. visual design
Design Style
The guiding theme for the app is for it to reinforce positive change and support users on their journey. I wanted the app to have a professional appearance, with a muted warm color palette that signifies health, encouragement, and motivation. I also wanted it to have a bit of a playful element through animation and graphics to evoke optimism for the users.
Onboarding
This process allows the user to input information about their addiction and prompts them to set goals.
setting goals
Next the user will set up goals and have the option to create a weekly schedule.
setting goals
Next the user will set up goals and have the option to create a weekly schedule.
Daily check-in
From the dashboard, the user can complete the daily check-in to identify how they are feeling and track their progress toward their goals.
7. reflection
Challenges and next steps
Creating an app from beginning to end was indeed an arduous and rewarding process and I learned so much from this first project. While the design process is similar to what I have done in the past, the details for how it is executed vary drastically. I learned how very important the need finding stage is at the beginning, so that the product aligns with what the needs of the users. The exploratory phase needs to be broad enough to allow for options that I had not thought of, but still allow for useful feedback or how technology specifically can help solve their problems.
Due to time constraints, one of the critical challenges I faced was not having access to a professional network to receive feedback from. In future iterations, I would like to speak with mental health professionals who specialize in addiction and incorporate their input.
In addition, I think it would be useful to connect users with professionals that can help them, not just with the community of other users. I don’t yet know what form this would take, but perhaps the app could partner with an existing network so that both could benefit.
Lastly, with more time, I feel that the UI of the app could be further refined.