Enliven
Concept Project
Role
Sole UX Designer, Researcher
Platform
Mobile iOS App
Duration
September 2022 (3 weeks)
Goal
Make spending time in nature accessible and exciting to promote a healthier lifestyle.
PURPOSE
Nature experiences: a safe haven for stressed, busy people
With busy schedules and overwhelming responsibilities we often neglect our health. Anxiety, depression and low motivation often snowball into helpless chaos.
In light of this discouraging reality, research shows that spending time in nature decreases stress levels and improves mood amongst other numerous wellness benefits.
This spurred me to create Enliven: encouraging busy, stressed people to spend more time in nature through accessible navigation information and engaging gamification. As a result, we can finally feel motivated, healthy and productive in daily life.
THE PROBLEM
Difficulty finding suitable nature spots and low motivation prevents busy, stressed people from spending time outdoors.
“How might we make it more convenient to find the perfect nature spot?
“How might we increase motivation to spend time in nature?”
THE CHALLENGE
Busy students and working adults need a way to spend more time in nature unplugged from digital devices. The resulting refreshment in nature encourages a more joyful attitude, focused productivity and holistic wellness in daily life.
GOALS
Addressing this challenge required proposing solutions to high-level questions. I then broke down each question into simplified ideas to better understand problem scope and eliminate ambiguity.
Goal 1: Accessibility
Eliminate nature barriers-to-entry via accessible location details (ie. cost, parking, hours).
Goal 2: Motivation
Increase user motivation and excitement to spend time in nature.
RESEARCH
Upon user interview findings, I initially focused on female students and adults who want a safer nature experience.
100% female interviewees mentioned that fear for their safety strongly decreased motivation and increased accessibility to time in nature.
However, I widened user scope to busy, stressed adults and students because cross-validating academic and metric insights revealed parallel pain points and goals with this wider audience.
PERSONAS & USER INSIGHTS
Insight #1- Users primarily value:
Accessibility
Clearly communicated location details
Personalized recommendations based on filter preferences
Convenience
Nearby distance
Easy nature spot discovery
Insights #2- Users feel held back by:
Busy schedules cause stress
No comprehensive, easy way to find nature spots
USER JOURNEY
Insight #3- Users' motivation levels change upon challenges.
Discovering motivation low point #1: Finding suitable nature location.
Users feel overwhelmed and struggle to find a suitable nature location. As a response, they decide to stay indoors and planning a nature outing becomes increasingly daunting.
Discovering motivation low point #2: Overcoming distraction once arriving at nature location.
Users feel distracted and restless when first arriving in nature because wellness benefits are experienced after spending time in nature. so users struggle with delayed gratification.
As a result of delayed gratification, people leave nature prior to feeling rested, and are less likely to spend time in nature again.
This brings upon an underlying challenge within the wider motivation goal: How might we more closely associate spending time in nature with satisfying emotions?
GAMIFICATION
Gamification Solves for Low Motivation Points
Why? Based on the SAPS Model, gamification augments user experiences at difficult touch points. And so, gamification will strengthen association between nature experiences and positive emotions, increasing user motivation.
Upon a competitive analysis with gamification applications, I considered consider:
Positive Reinforcement (Plant grows when challenge is met)
Positive punishment (Plant dies when goal is not met)
100% of users wanting to feel achievement, motivated and peaceful, rather than fear and disappointment (via user interviews).
Solution: I implemented positive reinforcement gamification at the two primary motivation low points.
Users are more inclined to habitually complete difficult tasks through new associations of accomplishment, fun and productivity.
USER FLOW
I created a streamlined flow to map users’ goal for accessible location details and convenient nature spot navigation.
SKETCHES
Sketch Iteration #1
Prior to broadening audience scope, I envisioned a safety-centric navigation app upon this insight:
100% of female interviewees don’t spend time in nature due to fear for their safety.
Sketch Iteration #2
I usability tested prototyped sketches to quickly evaluate if current direction met goals for accessibility and motivation.
Problem: The primary goal to motivate busy students and adults to spend more time in nature was not being effectively solved for.
💡 Solution: Widening scope via increasing accessibility to location information and gamifying points of high action resistance.
WIREFRAMES
I then translated the iterated sketches into wireframe prototypes for immediate usability testing.
USABILITY TESTING
Usability Testing Reveals Gamification Flaws
Users expressed dissatisfaction with the initial flower-growing flow, so I sought to understand why. After further analysis of gamification best practices and test findings, I pinpointed the underlying problem: users desire rewards that require more direct engagement from them, rather than passively watching the flower feature animate.
💡 HIGH FIDELITY SOLUTION
WHAT I LEARNED & NEXT STEPS
While initially overambitious with extensive feature ideas and project scope, I learned that users find most satisfaction in simple, intuitive experiences. They want to reach the end goal as efficiently as possible.
With all of this in mind, I plan to build out a community-centered feature to aid green space accessibility.
I plan on conducting additional usability testing on the high-fidelity prototype to solve for remaining user frustrations and ensure streamlined usability.