HumbleWorks.
Project Overview
To support their array of ergonomic workplace products, HumbleWorks. designed & built a companion app in-house.
But scant research & testing had been done prior to building the alpha and stakeholders were already noticing several usability issues. My team of three UX Designers was asked to test & iterate upon the alpha app.
Impact
“Your commitment to excellence has shaped the app into something we are truly proud of.
What we've achieved together is a design that is intuitive, clean, and above all, provides real value to the end user.”
Shaye Pathe, HumbleWorks. Founder
Company Vision
Business Goal
Project Goal
The Problem & Our Solution
The Problem
Through an internal audit, HumbleWorks. identified some issues with their alpha app:
Unknown user needs due to lack of user research prior to development
The current experience wasn’t engaging or intuitive
Data visualisation was confusing
The app didn’t provide any way to help users improve over time
Our Solution
A research-based design, combining business goals with user needs, helping users maximise their productivity & wellbeing during the workday.
User-focused design grounded in thorough research and testing
Enjoyable to use & easy to navigate
Simple & understandable data visualisation
Provides actionable feedback to help users meet goals & improve over time
DISCOVER
Competitive Analysis
During users interviews, participants said they use a combination of different apps to track their productivity, physical & mental health data during their workday. I did a feature inventory comparing HumbleWorks. to these competitors to help familiarise ourselves with the product offerings. It is a useful way to provide an overview of the founder’s intention for the apps: to do all this with just one app!
User Interviews
Parameters
Study Type:
Location:
Duration:
# of Participants:
Structured
Remote
20 mins
6
Pain Points
“How often should I stand? For how long?
Users aren’t sure how to make the most of their standing desks.
“I don’t know how to improve over time.”
Users are motivated & want to make continuous progress but don’t always know how.
“I just forget!”
Users found tracking their tasks & time spent standing really helpful, but they frequently forgot to check back throughout the day.
Discovering our Unique Value
Of the 6 participants who we spoke to....
DEFINE
Persona
Problem Statement
How Might We...
DESIGN
User Flows
Flow #1: Setting goals & creating a to-do list
Assumption: User already has a profile & is logged into the app. User is familiar with the app & doesn’t need onboarding.
Flow #2: Updating To-Do list & reviewing progress
Assumption: User is opening the app later the same day.
Design Iterations
Parameters
Round 1 Testing:
Round 2 Testing:
Formats:
Locations:
# of Participants:
Durations:
Alpha app
Mid-fi prototype
Moderated
Remote
6 per round
30 mins
DELIVER
Final Design
Creating Daily To-Do Lists & Movement Goals
HMW make it easier for users to plan their day quickly & effectively?
Time-blocking options help users to think through how long tasks will take & create an achievable list.
Simple language & clearly-defined metrics to easily set effective movement goals.
Easily move tasks to the following day if list gets too long.
Scroll forward to add tasks for future days, or scroll back to review tasks from previous day.
Reviewing Progress
HMW present data in an understandable way?
Easily check off completed tasks & see updated list.
See progress presented in a clear & simple way: simple metrics & visual progress bar.
Ability to switch between different views to see progress vs daily goals or changes in progress over time.
Next Steps
I feel really good about what we achieved during the 2.5 week sprint and our clients were so happy with final design! There's always more that can be done though- some of these next steps are the result of strategic decisions we made during the sprint due to timing constraints, and others from experience & skills I've gained since completing the project.
User Onboarding
We aligned early on to focus on the experience of a returning user, due to the tight timeline. Building an onboarding experience for new users is a critical next step which I am currently working on as a solo project.
Better Navigations
Since we completed this project, I've done a lot of independent study on mobile app best practices. Our current "Home" tab is primarily used to guide users through the other tabs, so users get bounced to other tabs without choosing to, which creates a jarring experience. I'd love to work on possible solutions to correct this now that I understand the problem.
Less is More?
During our interviews, users were least engaged with the "mood" aspect of the app. I'd love to A/B test this prototype against a version without the "mood" feature. Could we make that feature more engaging? Would the app be more powerful if it was more focused?
Employer View
HumbleWorks. always intended for this to be a workplace app, so a future version will have both an employee view (based on what we just designed) as well as an employer view. Building out the employer view & figuring out how the two views work together will be a challenging & critical next step.
Learnings
Align on project goals and constraints early. HumbleWorks. products are based in scientific research, so this project required quite a lot of subject matter discovery, as well as the expected user & competitive research. We knew it was a lot to fit into 18 days, so we aligned quickly on project boundaries. By following a narrower scope, I think we avoided spreading ourselves too thinly and produced a better product than we would have otherwise.
Working with new people, under a tight deadline, is hard! But I was lucky enough to have teammates, and truly wonderful clients, who showed patience, kindness & appreciation every single day. I am very grateful and will take this experience with me to future projects.
Thank you for reading!
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