Research

This case study is the first part of a two-part project, focusing on Strategy and Scope, while the second part will address Structure, Skeleton, and Surface.

Design Challenge

Our team envisions that the Healthy 365 app has significant potential for development and improvement, with the goal of strengthening customer relationships and reaching new audiences.

In this project, we aim to assess and describe the current state of app, while proposing and outlining the Strategy and Scope for a new or improved version. The goal is to present a compelling case that could gain stakeholder approval for the design and development process, supported by relevant research methodologies.

Background

Developed by the Health Promotion Board (HPB), Healthy 365 is a mobile app that helps Singaporeans to discover and access healthy lifestyle offerings that will help them to achieve their health goals through gamification and rewards.

We conducted desktop research and found that while most Singaporeans consider health important, they are often passive about managing their well-being. Furthermore, longer lifespans with poor health contribute to increasing government healthcare costs.

Based on this initial research, we set a business objective to boost daily app engagement by 50% and reduce government spending on chronic healthcare by empowering working Singaporeans parents between 25-40 to develop sustainable, long-term healthy habits early.

To achieve this, we propose targeting working Singaporean parents aged 25-40 with children under 12 years old to:

Instill preventive health habits early, before any health issues arise
Focus on younger users outside the government’s HealthierSG target segment
Inculcate and pass down healthy habits to future generations

Before delving deeper into the research, we created a proto-persona to ensure the team was aligned on the assumed characteristics of our target user.

We conducted user surveys and interviews to gain deeper understanding into users' thoughts and experiences, further validating our findings and informing our decisions.

To enhance the credibility of our research, we employed triangulation approach using multiple research tools to mitigate the limitations of each individual method.

Survey

We had a total of 90 respondents and we discovered 4 interesting points:

92% of respondents believe preventive health is important, but only 45% are motivated to work for it.
Almost 70% of respondents feel neutral or think they are unhealthy.
Easy to follow exercises, simple health meal preps, sense of achievement and looking and feeling good are among the top 4 motivators.
Perspectives on monetary rewards being an important factor is almost evenly divided.

User Interviews

Next, we filtered the survey responses and reached out to 5 participants. From speaking with the 5 participants, we discovered 6 interesting findings about our users.

Users leverage fitness health apps primarily to see and track their progress.
Users are influenced and motivated by true stories and testimonies.
Users are prompted to start doing something about their health only when a health concern arises.
Next to “family”, “me-time” is one of the top priorities amongst all interviewees.
Users cited the lack of time as the biggest challenge, but choose to indulge themselves if time is available.
Having help in taking care of the kids or meals is favourable for a healthier lifestyle.

Insights

Through affinity mapping, we derived at 4 key insights below:

User Needs

Following this, we proceeded to validate users' pain points, gains, motivations, and goals. We also created a persona based on the research findings and mapped out her daily journey.

From the user journey map, we validated the key factors preventing Rylene from focusing on her health, which include:

Lack of time
Ego depletion
Health conditions
Sync issues

We also identified factors that would encourage Rylene to prioritize her health:

Looking & feeling good
Sense of progress
Seamless integration
Success stories
Health concerns

We then employed the Value Proposition Canvas to refine our understanding and identify new feature opportunities.

With the variety of features proposed, we created feature hypothesis to help the team stay on track and ensure everyone is aligned.

Feature Hypothesis

We believe that increased app engagement can be achieved if hustling parents (Singaporean parents aged 25 - 40 yrs old) successfully achieve:

Content Requirements

Next, we examined gaps, redundancies, and opportunities through competitor analysis and SWOT analysis to determine our positioning.

Next Steps

Based on the insights we gathered earlier, we utilized Prioritization Matrix to evaluate and rank each feature based on its desirability, feasibility, and viability. Features that did not align with the identified insights were also removed from consideration.

We then mapped out a product vision to visualise where each feature would fit within the new user journey.

Lastly, we developed a release plan that identifies the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). We also conducted a content audit to determine which content to keep, update, or remove, and to assess where the proposed features would be integrated.

Disclaimer: This is a school project done by a team of 4.

Research | Fostering Healthy Habits and Mindsets with Healthy 365 Part 1