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Habify

Habify is a habit tracking app with a twist, it ensures you stick to your habit goals by committing a financial stake & linking your journey with a friend to be accountable together.

  1. Client

    IDC Herzlya

  2. Date

    April 2021

  3. Based In

    Israel

  4. Status

    Development
Habify pages

How We Came Up With The Idea

It started with a conversation among our friends about habits, I’ve said that no matter how many apps I use, I struggle with keeping my routine going. That’s when we came up with an idea, what if we made a group chat where we keep each other accountable to what we say we’re going to do?

To our surprise, it was a success, each week we said what our goals for that week are, whether it’s to practice piano for 2 hours or write every morning, seeing each other’s tasks and knowing that people can see that I did not make it pushed me to want to try and stick to my goals at times I did not want to.

But, it had its shortcomings, we suddenly had ideas; one was that we wanted to track each other’s progress to see how we’re doing but as the group grew this task snowballed into a complex and time consuming chore.
Group progress graphWhatsapp accountability group

the Problem - Tracking your Habit Progress

We had to find a way to track progress, and add our ideas to our accountability group, but we couldn't find anything like what we were looking for on the market.At last we had a plan - what if we made it into a mobile app?

The Design Process - Research & Analysis

What we did:
competitor audit

Empathize - Who are our users?

We identified and created profiles of future users.
During the kick-off meeting, we defined three main user personas, with different goals:
User research helped us understand the habit adoption process, pain-points, and motivations of our target audience, and shed some light on why the previous app designs were underperforming.
User Persona oneUser persona two

Surveys & Interviews

To evaluate the best method for forming habits on a digital product, we relied on user interviews as well as surveys and 5 usability tests. This allowed us to gain deeper understanding through combining both qualitative and quantitative information.

Although users were able to get through setting up the habits, they continued to struggle with deciding on how much money to invest in each habit.
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Discussions with users revealed that oftentimes, users will have an easier time with pre-defined investment options rather than having to pick the amount they want to commit to in advance

Usability tests revealed that users had an easier time setting up habits with predefined options versus customizing each habit and investment sum themselves.

Impact of research on product development - We prototyped a new version of the habit setup experience, allowing users to choose from predefined habit and investment amount options.
Typeform questionI interview a user

Data Synthesis

During the brainstorming sessions we realized that we needed to design an app with two focus points:
1) Make sure our users are not overwhelmed by the user journey process
2) Have a commitment they feel responsible towards
Our stickynotesUser flow

Design Iterations

After organizing the bits of information we gathered in the data synthesis phase, we continued the design process with figuring out the app's main structure and sketching low fidelity wireframes. In this way we iterated through many design options and came up with solutions quickly.
Whiteboard wireframingLOFI prototype

Usability Testing

During this phase we continuously tested the prototypes with users and collected feedback. Based on the feedback, we iterated on the prototypes and tested again.
After 3 weeks of iteration we had a pretty good idea of how the app should function and what features should we scrapped or added (e.g. gamification) to help people adopt their habits
Usability testing summarize

The Solution - High Fidelity Prototype

During this phase we continuously tested the prototypes with users and collected feedback. Based on the feedback, we iterated on the prototypes and tested again.
After 3 weeks of iteration we had a pretty good idea of how the app should function and what features should we scrapped or added (e.g. gamification) to help people adopt their habits

What I've learned

Changing habits is not an easy task, different people have different motivations and incentives. But it seems like there are some common methods that can drive us. Having social & self commitment, changing the process into a game-like process and being able to track your progress in an easy way will help you go through the changes you are trying to achieve. I look forward to development of this product and putting it in the market, to help others in their habit forming process.