An app that would help with maintaining our habits & let us grow to be a better person
Habiticker is an app that allows users to track their habits with a single tick (mostly) and provides motivation to improve adherence to goals.
Why is it a problem to solve?
The challenge of adhering to habits is a widespread global phenomenon, as evidenced by surveys and studies indicating that a significant portion of the population grapples with habit consistency.
For instance, a survey by the American Psychological Association reveals that approximately 42% of individuals find it challenging to sustain positive changes. Concurrently, studies on habit formation, such as the one conducted by the University College London, underscore the difficulty in establishing new habits, with an average of 66 days required for behavior to become automatic.
These insights emphasize the pervasive nature of the issue, underscoring the global need for effective tools like habit trackers to assist individuals in overcoming these challenges and fostering enduring positive behavioral changes.
This is what I did to come up with an idea for the app
🏆 Goals
From the given assignment scope & a little bit of Googling, we will pick 4 main goals for this app
- Expedite goal tracking
- Engage & motivate daily usage
- Enhance adherence
- Educate progress
📑 How is the market now?
There are many competitors coming into the habit-tracking market. I have picked some of the best apps for reference.
Competitor A: Habitify
Strengths:
- Comprehensive Tracking: Offers a wide range of habit-tracking features, allowing users to monitor various aspects of their habits.
- Multi-Platform Support: Available on multiple platforms, ensuring users can seamlessly transition between devices.
Weaknesses:
- Complex Interface: The user interface can be overwhelming for beginners, potentially discouraging consistent use.
- Limited Motivational Elements: Lacks engaging features to motivate users and reinforce habit consistency.
Competitor B: Streaks
Strengths:
- Simplicity: Boasts a clean and straightforward design, making habit tracking easy for users who prefer simplicity.
- Positive Reviews: Receives positive feedback for its minimalist approach and user-friendly experience.
Weaknesses:
- Limited Features: While simplicity is an asset, it lacks some advanced features for users seeking more in-depth habit analysis.
- Visual Customization: Limited visual elements and personalization options might deter users who enjoy aesthetically pleasing interfaces.
Competitor C: Fabulous
Strengths:
- Engaging Design: Incorporates gamification elements and a visually appealing interface to keep users motivated.
- Guided Journeys: Offers pre-designed habit-building journeys with expert guidance, enhancing user experience.
Weaknesses:
- Subscription Model: Some advanced features are behind a paywall, potentially limiting access for budget-conscious users.
- Learning Curve: The guided journey approach may not suit users who prefer a more flexible and personalized habit-tracking experience.
Key Takeaways:
- User Preferences: Competitor A appeals to users who seek a feature-rich experience, while Competitor B attracts those who prefer simplicity. Fabulous targets users looking for a holistic lifestyle change.
- Motivational Elements: Fabulous stands out for its gamification and expert-guided approach, providing a unique value proposition.
- Usability: Competitor B excels in ease of use, but Fabulous and Competitor A have more advanced features that might require a learning curve.
- Customization: Competitor A provides more customization options, but Fabulous offers a balance between personalization and guided experiences.
Opportunities:
- Combine Simplicity and Engagement: There’s an opportunity to create a habit tracker that combines the simplicity of Competitor B with the motivational and engaging elements of Fabulous.
- Accessible Advanced Features: Offering advanced features in an accessible and intuitive manner could attract users who want more depth in their habit tracking.
- Personalized Guidance: Integrating personalized habit-building journeys while maintaining user flexibility could cater to a broader audience.
Threats
- Saturation: The habit-tracking app market is competitive, and standing out requires a unique selling proposition to avoid being overshadowed.
- Changing Trends: Rapid changes in user preferences and technological advancements may impact the app’s relevance if not adapted timely.
- Monetization Challenges: Balancing a freemium model with premium features is essential to attract a broad user base while generating revenue.
🧠 Psychological insights
- Habit Loop: Incorporating the habit loop concept of cue, routine, and reward. Design the app to trigger users with cues, track routines, and provide rewards for completing habits.
- Visual Progress: Use visual representations to show adherence & bring in emotional triggers in the app. An example could be, Duolingo’s app has an owl that keeps users emotionally connected to the app
- Gamification: Implementing gamification elements to enhance user engagement and motivation. ( Badges, Achievements, Rewards, Streaks, Nudges)
- Accountability: Integrating social sharing for sharing progress, challenges, and achievements with a community. This can provide a sense of accountability, support, and healthy competition among users.
- Reminders and Notifications: Include reminders and notifications to prompt users to engage with the app and complete their habits.
- Personalization: Allowing users to choose their preferred color themes, set specific goals, or add personalized notes or images to their habits. Personalization enhances user satisfaction and the sense of ownership over their habits.
- Feedback and Insights: Providing users with feedback and insights on their habit performance, like data analytics, trends, or suggestions for optimizing their habits based on their progress and goals.
- Simplicity and Ease of Use: Designing a very simple app with easy tracking, that wouldn’t feel like a burden in their daily routine.
📱 User needs
- Users need an organized and intuitive method to track their daily activities and habits, with a visually appealing interface that motivates them to consistently track and maintain their habits.
- Users appreciate visual representations of their progress, such as streaks, milestones, and charts, to provide a sense of accomplishment and motivation.
- Users seek the ability to set reminders for each habit, ensuring they don’t forget to perform them and stay on track.
- Users want feedback and insights on their habit performance, including analytics, trends, and suggestions for optimizing their habits.
- Users value simplicity and ease of use in a habit tracker app, seamlessly integrating into their daily routine without feeling burdensome.
- Users desire personalization options, such as choosing color themes, setting specific goals, and adding personalized notes or images to their habits, to make the app feel more tailored to their preferences.
- Users may benefit from social sharing features to share progress, challenges, and achievements with a community, fostering a sense of accountability and support.
- Users appreciate a user experience that is both aesthetically pleasing and functionally rewarding, creating a pleasant and engaging habit-tracking journey.
👫 Target User Group
The target user group would include people goal-driven individuals, busy professionals, students, health enthusiasts, mindfulness seekers, etc.
This group
- Is motivated to develop new habits or maintain existing ones.
- Seeks an organized and intuitive method to track daily activities.
- Appreciates visual representations of their progress.
- Enjoys a user experience that is both aesthetically pleasing and functionally rewarding.
🗣️ User Stories
- As a user, I want to easily add new habits to my tracking list, so I can quickly integrate them into my routine.
- As a user, I want a visually appealing interface that motivates me to track and maintain my habits consistently.
- As a user, I want the ability to set reminders for each habit directly from the homepage, ensuring I don’t forget to perform them.
- As a user, I want to see a clear visual representation of my habit streaks and milestones, providing a sense of accomplishment.
I had 2 directions to move forward.
Direction 1
Does the user only want to track habits? Is it only a tick-based logging? It would be simple, but it only focuses on what is done & not done.
Direction 2
Does the user also need to add notes to it? It would be a little longer, but it would be better to look back at what was actually done & what was to be done.
Considering both scenarios, I went with a hybrid model, where the user can decide what he/she wants to do on each task. It can be either typable, tickable, or photo entry.
For example,
If the user wants to track healthy food habits, the user may take photos for reference.
If the user wants to track sleep habits, a tick would be enough.
If the user wants to track exercise, a typable field would be useful.
🗺️ User Journey
This would be the user flow of the app, with 2 main features: Creating tasks and progress tracking
〜 Designs
The progress page includes the progress of each week, each month, each task, etc. This can be socially shareable, & recommended insights can be given to the user to achieve the goals easily.
The community page can offer a leaderboard & friends/global progress for a competitive spirit.
The screen would have profile settings, accessibility settings like font sizes & light/dark mode, notification settings, etc.
This has a lot of room for improvement, maybe with widgets, a mascot bot that could help with the progress, etc. to make the app more lively & intuitive. Since this was just a short 3 hour project, let’s end it here 👋🏻
