Initial Goal
For my UX Design course I chose project Olive. The objective was to design a responsive health and wellbeing portal that would allow users to "record their health and medical information, and access general physical and mental wellbeing features". I chose to align this project with my passion to advocate for health through being tobacco-free. Because vaping has a strong presence among my peers, I was inspired to design an app that could help teens-young adults quit vaping.
Testing Process
To gain insight on the vaping experience in my target demographic, I reached out to folks with varying proximities. Through direct outreach, I was able to arrange one-on-one interviews with three participants: Participant A who has never vaped, Participant B who vapes causally/socially, and Participant C who vapes daily.
Interview Findings
While the findings weren't surprising, they gave me a serious look at what users up against in their quitting journey:
- Users report getting introduced to vaping in early adulthood, between high school and college.
- Vapes are easy to use and access, even for minors.
- Users who report frequent use enjoy the physical feeling of vaping.
- Users who report frequent use can feel ashamed of their use when reflecting on it, but enjoy doing it in social settings.
- Users who report frequent use can feel attached to vapes and actively seek it out when they don’t have immediate access.
Design Persona
I can't thank my interview participants enough for their honesty and vulnerability. Through our interviews I developed the Design Persona, Yani Jones.
User Journey
After honing in who Yani is and the problem's she's experiencing, I developed a user journey that focuses on how UrLife can work as an easy to use resource when users are craving nicotine.
Early Wireframes
Because UrLife will be personalized to the user, the flow of creating an account became the next priority to design. It's imperative that the process gathers information about the user's vape use without being too personal or overwhelming.
Final Mockups
Following a round of remote usability testing, participants were excited about the idea of an app designed to help them quit vaping! They were generous with their time, and had valuable insights on how to present asking personal questions about someone's vape use. It was helpful to learn that the app was on the right track, and just needed some tweaks.
During ideation sessions on what type of features could be helpful, users brought up the need for intervention due to the robotic nature of vaping. Vaping has been described as something users fall into, and often develop an addiction before they realize. This experience inspired the Reminder feature. Users can set messages to their future selves at times when they're most likely to vape.
As the focus shifted towards designing the aesthetics, I conducted research on using font and color intentionally to design according to accessibility guidelines so that UrLife can be used by all.
Create an Account
Check out the clickable prototype here.
Set a Reminder
Check out the clickable prototype here.
