Science-based techniques to build habits that stick
The challenge
Following through
We've all had lofty goals of changing our behaviours or starting new routines. Yet, even with the best intentions, building a new habit is something many people struggle to do. Why, when we know what we want, is it still so hard to follow through?
For my capstone project at General Assembly's Bitmaker, my challenge was find a way to help people build lasting habits. I set out to identify the problem and possible solutions, and create a mobile app over 4 week-long sprints.
The Approach
a scientific look at how we form habits
Building a new habit is anything but difficult. We do it all the time without even realizing it. The trick is being in control of which habits we build. I wanted to look into the biology and psychology of habits so I could get to the root of how habits are formed, and help users achieve their goals.
Photo from www.beyongbooksmart.com
Research and analysis
What do people want to do,
and what challenges do they face?
Survey
My research began with a survey of 60 people, to answer a simple question:
What habits are people most interested in building?
The most desired habits were associated with physical or mental wellbeing
Survey results showing the percentage of users who wanted to build habits related to wellbeing.
Interviews & findings
With some insight into what people were trying to accomplish, I conducted interviews with seven people about their habits and goals. I organized their comments by topic using Mural to see what trends would emerge.
Through interviews I learned about users' current habits and how they formed, what challenges they face when trying to build new habits, and what motivates them to keep going.
Meet Samira and Tarah
Using the key insights from my interviews, I created primary and secondary personas representing the goals and behaviours of my users.
Returning to personas throughout the project helped guide decisions, and keep scope creep in check
Samira
"I'm very motivated when starting new habits, but I find it hard to keep going."
Age 37, Financial Advisor
Wants to schedule workouts into her daily routine
Has a hard time prioritizing exercise when other things come up during the day
Is motivated by seeing progress, and tracking her results
Tarah
"With everything I have going on, starting a new habit seems impossible. I need to start small."
Age 26, MBA student
Wants to stay healthy and manage stress while she studies
Wants to minimize decision making
Is motivated by accomplishing small tasks on the way to achieving a bigger goal
The power of habit
As part of my research, I read "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg, which outlined some key concepts that posed solutions to my users' problems..
Key Concepts
Willpower is a limited resource that you can burn up quickly, but it gets stronger over time if you don't overexert yourself.
Habits exist as "loops" or cycles, and form most easily when they are repeated at the same time and in the same context.
Larger goals seem less daunting when broken up into smaller chunks.
PlanninG
Structuring the experience
Content card sort of the original features list. Going back to personas helped me narrow down the app's features to address the core needs of the user.
Feature list
Looking at the research on habit building, and the opportunities identified through my competitive analysis, I came up with a long list of potential features. Returning to the goals and challenges of my users I prioritized a much shorter list of features for the MVP.
Mapping the user journey
Creating user flows helped me map the user journey and identify the main screens I'd be designing for the app. Early flows included countless paths and possible detours based on options that were not critical to the user task. Returning to the main goals of the user, and subsequent testing, helped to make the user flows more straightforward.
Design & Testing
Problem-solving through
iterative design
Sketching & Wireframing
Because of tight deadlines I needed to iterate and test quickly, first ideating in low fidelity then testing in medium fidelity. My first challenge was designing the app's dashboard. The user needed the ability to view and complete challenges, and log and track habits that are done at different frequencies. Early designs worked for some use cases but not others.
After many iterations and rounds of user testing, the final dashboard design allowed users to view any number of challenges and log habits at different frequencies.
Visual Design
The interface design aims to be clean and confident. A simple colour palette, good spacing, and visual hierarchy give the user a sense of confidence and ease while using the app. Clarity is necessary to help the user absorb information easily and navigate quickly without confusion, so the app doesn't become a hindrance to achieving their goal.
Colour
Through attitudinal testing, I found that users preferred this cool colour palette with purple contrast over a warmer colour palette, as they associated it with energy and trustworthiness.
Typography
It was important to choose a typeface that was friendly but modern, confident but not stuffy. After some quick testing, Cabin was the favourite among participants.
Accessibility
My initial interface design used white text over white transparencies in most modules. Through testing I found that this posed many accessibility issues. I increased the contrast, and used a colour contrast analyzer to make my design visually accessible while still keeping a similar look and feel.
Hi Fidelity & Prototyping
Introducing, Hellohabit
Features at your fingertips
The main screen has been designed to allow users to access the app's primary functions quickly. Modules can be tapped or swiped, and the most common functions are the most easily reached. The layout is designed to accommodate one active habit, all the way up to five.
1. Progress circles show progress for current challenges. Users can click progress circles to see their progress history for that habit goal.
2. Add a habit. Users can add a new habit after they’ve completed a certain number of challenges. If they haven’t, habits will be shown as locked.
3. Each habit challenge is labelled so users know what their challenge is, and how much they’ve accomplished so far.
4. All active habits are listed on the dashboard. Users can swipe right to mark the habit as “done, and swipe left to edit the habit goals and settings. Affordance: If the user taps instead of swipes, the module will shift from left to right, so the user knows to swipe.
5. Every day a new quote is displayed on the dashboard. This is to motivate users, keep them engaged by having new content daily, and make a new dashboard with only one habit appear less empty.
Progress page. Users can view their habit goal, their progress history, and progress for their current challenge.
Users start with one habit. Additional habits are locked until they've completed a certain number of challenge in a row.
Prototype
To preview the application's onboarding and main features check out the demo video, or take a tour of the InVision prototype.
reflection
Takeaways
1. Personas are valuable tools for driving design decisions and keeping scope creep in check. Returning to the goals and challenges of my personas again and again resulted in a more focused app that addressed the user's core problems.
2. Iterating quickly and testing early speeds up problem solving. The longer I spent fleshing out an idea before testing with users, the more easily I became attached to the idea and the more difficult it was to pivot, based on time constraints.
3. As designers, there are a wide variety of testing methods at our disposal, and it's important to consider what we're trying to learn/test, and choose the method that is most suitable. Task oriented usability testing, A/B testing, attitudinal testing, and card sorting gave me the information I sought in each specific case.
Designing HelloHabit was an incredibly fun and rewarding experience, and I'm grateful to my instructors and classmates at General Assembly's Bitmaker in Toronto for their feedback and guidance throughout.
Questions or comments?
Get in touch and let me know what you think.