I led the design of a brand-new social collaboration feature for Kumanu’s health and well-being product, Purposeful. Challenges were positively received and adopted by buyers and users alike. Though usability issues were identified post-launch, Purposeful Challenges can and will be improved further, driving business and user growth for years to come.

Client

Kumanu

Roles

Lead UX Designer

Timeline

April - August 2023

Above: Challenges on mobile

Context

Spearheading UX for a health and well-being product

Purposeful is a health and well-being app designed to help users feel their best by checking in on how they’re doing everyday and helping them develop supporting habits. Purposeful’s buyers (clients) are mainly large organizations (companies, health systems, universities) while its primary audience are the members of these organizations (employees, members, students).

Throughout this project, I was the sole UX designer at Kumanu. I worked closely with a visual designer, a product manager, analysts, and developers.

Addressing a core business need

In 2023, corporate team challenges emerged as a priority on the product roadmap. Historically, examples of these challenges in the industry looked more like step challenges (where team members work towards a competitive or collaborative steps goal), such as those offered by Virgin Pulse [PDF], Limeade, and Fitbit.

The business needs listed below were gleaned from the sales and client engagement teams, whereas the user needs were synthesized from analytics and user feedback.

Business needs

• Address a gap in our product offering to potential buyers, improving market competitiveness.

• Strengthen relationships with existing buyers (through increased cooperation).

• Better support buyers' well-being goals and initiatives within the product.

• Drive increases in Purposeful’s daily user count.

Business needs

• Address a gap in our product offering to potential buyers, improving market competitiveness.

• Strengthen relationships with existing buyers (through increased cooperation).

• Better support buyers' well-being goals and initiatives within the product.

• Drive increases in Purposeful’s daily user count.

User needs

• Participate in a social experience in the app (optionally).

• Have a new, compelling reason to join or return to the app (for less-engaged users).

• See fresh content and events throughout the year.

User needs

• Participate in a social experience in the app (optionally).

• Have a new, compelling reason to join or return to the app (for less-engaged users).

• See fresh content and events throughout the year.

Process

Users want collaboration; buyers want to measure it

As a product team, we conducted several research and ideation exercises, including competitor analysis, brainstorming, crazy eights, and exploring potential buyer and user needs and wants. While this progressed, I synthesized my own ideas with the needs and ideas I was hearing, producing sketches and wireframes of different potential approaches.

Above: Research and ideation work (sample only; content hidden for confidentiality).

Above: Some of my initial sketches.

To begin fleshing out these ideas and discarding others, I presented sketches and low fidelity wireframes to developers to get development cost estimates and gut opinions. I also ran user surveys to get initial reactions from users and their preferences. For these surveys, I recruited current users as well as respondents matching our primary persona for this project – members of large organizations who have participated in corporate team challenges in the past. In the meantime, other team members connected with buyers and industry contacts to get their perspectives as well.

What we learned was the following:

• Users were generally supportive and receptive to new social features.

• Users were receptive to trying new, more collaborative kinds of corporate team challenges.

• Users showed interest in connecting with like-minded users (shared values or goals) and sharing tips with each other.

• Buyers want challenges to have measurable metrics of success, though using "steps" isn't a necessity.

• Buyers want to foster camaraderie and connection among employees/members by directing them towards a shared goal.

• Buyers want the flexibility to run different types of challenges, with and without offering incentives to participants.

• Users were generally supportive and receptive to new social features.

• Users were receptive to trying new, more collaborative kinds of corporate team challenges.

• Users showed interest in connecting with like-minded users (shared values or goals) and sharing tips with each other.

• Buyers want challenges to have measurable metrics of success, though using "steps" isn't a necessity.

• Buyers want to foster camaraderie and connection among employees/members by directing them towards a shared goal.

• Buyers want the flexibility to run different types of challenges, with and without offering incentives to participants.

This allowed us to make judgments on impact (potential benefit to users, buyers, and the business) vs relative effort (development cost), giving me a better-defined and narrower scope to work on.

Above: Impact vs effort evaluation.

Defining a novel framework for challenges

I decided early in the process that we’d use “actions” as the main component of the daily activity loop within challenges. “Actions” were action-oriented to-do items already present in the product experience, which users tracked and checked off to develop positive habits. Using this pre-existing paradigm conferred several advantages (see below), with the rest of the challenges user flow being built around it.

Above: Using actions to drive challenge completion.

Above: Overall user flow for challenges (simplified).

Above: Various explorations and iterations.

I took my designs through multiple cycles of iteration, presentation (to developers and other stakeholders), and testing (with users). Again, usability testing was mostly conducted with current users as well as targeted recruitment, though secondary populations were also tested for acceptance.

I had to make multiple changes to account for usability, scope, development cost, and visual interest. Most critically, we decided to drop teams and discussion boards for the MVP design due to its high cost of development and content moderation. With support from developers, I built out components and screens that accounted for a wide array of scenarios, states (e.g: user joined states, challenge timeline, challenge completion), and platforms (mobile app, responsive web).

Ultimately, I reached a point where my product manager and I felt confident enough in our prototyped solution to begin the development process. Though I was somewhat disappointed to have had to leave multiple features on the cutting room floor, I did feel that my team and I had produced a solution that was unique and appealing to all stakeholders.

Above: Evaluation of the final designs for initial release.

Initial release

Below are some of the main screens and components that went into the final challenges design, including the design reasoning behind them.

Outcomes

Launch results, and post-launch support

From a business perspective, the challenges rollout was a success.

• Immediate commitment by one buyer to run a pilot in Fall 2023.

• Commitments by multiple buyers to run challenges in 2024; one buyer committed to monthly challenges.

• Fulfilled an important prerequisite towards winning a major contract with a government agency in 2023.

• Immediate commitment by one buyer to run a pilot in Fall 2023.

• Commitments by multiple buyers to run challenges in 2024; one buyer committed to monthly challenges.

• Fulfilled an important prerequisite towards winning a major contract with a government agency in 2023.

For users, results were slightly more mixed. During the pilot challenge in Fall 2023, we tracked and made note of user analytics. At the end of the challenge, I conducted interviews with several users. Some findings were expected, while others were unanticipated.

Positive findings

• Users loved the flexibility to choose how they would fulfill the challenge (“made it feel more personal”).

• Users generally did the same action(s) each day once they found ones that they liked (and tried to actually complete that action in their lives).

• Large uptick in new or returning users for the duration of the challenge.

• The challenge gave a specific user persona (those not actively working on their personal well-being) a goal or reason to use the app.

• Some users used the challenge to engage on the topic in their workplace, outside the app. *(unanticipated)

Positive findings

• Users loved the flexibility to choose how they would fulfill the challenge (“made it feel more personal”).

• Users generally did the same action(s) each day once they found ones that they liked (and tried to actually complete that action in their lives).

• Large uptick in new or returning users for the duration of the challenge.

• The challenge gave a specific user persona (those not actively working on their personal well-being) a goal or reason to use the app.

• Some users used the challenge to engage on the topic in their workplace, outside the app. *(unanticipated)

Challenges and opportunities

• Most gains in the daily active user count fell off towards the end of the challenge.

• Many eligible users did not notice or find the challenge despite buyer promotions. *(unanticipated)

• Figuring out “how to play” the challenge was difficult. *(unanticipated)

• Users did not have much reason to “do more” beyond personal motivation or external incentives.

• Some users would like to see more ways to engage socially within the app experience.

Challenges and opportunities

• Most gains in the daily active user count fell off towards the end of the challenge.

• Many eligible users did not notice or find the challenge despite buyer promotions. *(unanticipated)

• Figuring out “how to play” the challenge was difficult. *(unanticipated)

• Users did not have much reason to “do more” beyond personal motivation or external incentives.

• Some users would like to see more ways to engage socially within the app experience.

Based on this feedback, I explored and designed several enhancements to improve the challenge experience. When I departed Kumanu in January 2024, some of these were actively in development while others were tabled for later in the product roadmap.

Rapid response in design

Though imperfect, I am proud of our successful launch of a major feature. You have to start somewhere, and this was truly my biggest takeaway from this project. I learned to be comfortable with rapidly prototyping different ideas and approaches, trimming and changing my designs as I responded to feedback. What mattered wasn't that we had to get it "perfect" for launch, but that we were ready to respond to users and maintain a long-term vision.