H2O
An End to End Gamified Hydration App
Background
H20 is a gamified hydration tracking app that allows users to track their hydration intake across various different liquids, all while creating life on an alien planet. The more users log their hydration to reach their hydration goals, the more they develop their alien planet. The app provides interesting hydration facts throughout the process to keep users engaged. The intention is to be an app users don’t mind getting notifications from.
Challenge
Make drinking water a fun and informative - maybe even addictive experience.
Process
Empathy > Define > Design > Prototype > Test > Iterate > Reflect
H20 is a gamified hydration tracking app that allows users to track their hydration intake across various different liquids, all while creating life on an alien planet. The more users log their hydration to reach their hydration goals, the more they develop their alien planet. The app provides interesting hydration facts throughout the process to keep users engaged. The intention is to be an app users don’t mind getting notifications from.
Challenge
Make drinking water a fun and informative - maybe even addictive experience.
Process
Empathy > Define > Design > Prototype > Test > Iterate > Reflect
Role
UX / UI Designer
Interaction Designer
UX Researcher
Tools
Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Zoom
Duration
80 hours
UX / UI Designer
Interaction Designer
UX Researcher
Tools
Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Zoom
Duration
80 hours
1. EMPATHY
Research goal focused on uncovering users hydration practices and beliefs, health and tracking habits, and interest in games to determine whether bridging the two was desirable.
Objectives
- Understand users feelings toward health and hydration
- Understand how hydration and games fit into users’ routines
- Learn what features people use the most on a hydration or health app and what additional features would be useful
Process
- Competitive Analysis
- User Interviews
- User Persona
Competitive Analysis
I explored five of the most highly reviewed hydration apps on the market to determine how they were engaging users, their strength and weaknesses, and how H20 could fill those gaps moving forward.
Trending strengths
Focused features with visual aids, customized hydration goals / data, ability to sync with Apple Health app and fun incentives to reach goals, clean and pleasant UI.
Focused features with visual aids, customized hydration goals / data, ability to sync with Apple Health app and fun incentives to reach goals, clean and pleasant UI.
Trending weaknesses:
An unappealing and overwhelming combination of pop up ads, paywalls, hectic UI/UX and limited explanations of app / game features.
An unappealing and overwhelming combination of pop up ads, paywalls, hectic UI/UX and limited explanations of app / game features.
User Interviews
I recruited five participants to learn about their desires and challenges when it came to water drinking habits, health apps, and what types of games (digital or physical) they liked to play and why. I tried to keep the questions open-ended to leave room for their behavioral patterns and core beliefs.
- Method: combo of in person and remote via Zoom
- Participants: 5
- Age: 23 - 35
Findings
- Users are aspirational about staying hydrated, and were interested in a convenient reminder system that didn’t feel like an additional task to their day
- Users recognize that there may be other liquids they drink more than water itself
Findings
- Users prefer games that are social, visually stimulating, quick and challenging yet doable
- Users aren’t particularly knowledgeable about hydration and want to gain relevant information to help stay motivated
User Persona
To have a clear understanding of H20 users, I distilled the researching findings and interviews into a user persona to guide design decisions - meet Dalia.
