Vitality Health / Active Rewards / 2018
A platform app that rewards people for completing healthy actions relevant to them
Vitality builds health rewards products that are typically used on an enterprise level as incentive programs to accompany health benefits. Vitality partnered with WillowTree to create a concept and prototype for a consumer facing version of the product.
“When you have a health and wellness solution that works, healthy habits become second nature. A successful wellness plan is one that’s intuitive, is backed by science, integrates with other health initiatives and is reinforced by real results. A successful wellness plan starts with Vitality.“
The Challenge
The goal of this project was to create a prototype of a new consumer facing concept for Vitality Health—A platform app that rewards users for completing health actions relevant to them. Vitality executives had the idea to create their first consumer facing product, and hired WillowTree to utilize our user-centered approach to go from idea to prototype to user insight in 12 weeks. Before starting, we knew that there was risk in alignment around the term “prototype” which we had to mitigate throughout the duration of the project.
My Role
As design director on this project, I lead the planning, design, and client communication in coordination with a junior designer, and a partially-dedicated researcher. I was responsible for acting as lead facilitator for our kick-off, design reviews, and project updates to our client partner. I worked collaboratively with my design teammate to present a design direction that was within brand, but bespoke to this new product. I ultimately was responsible for the visual style, and my teammate was responsible for production and motion design. Later in the project, we brought on a Senior Designer who I coached into the lead role on the project as I transitioned into an advisory role.
Kick-Off & Project Planning
The goal of the kickoff was to align on business goals, project goals, and conduct a number of workshops that would help drive priority for the features we would prototype and test. The workshops included a journey mapping exercise, an outcomes workshop, and a visual direction workshop.
Journey Mapping
2. Concept Design
The images shown here are a subset of the concept board, or inspiration board, for the Active Rewards prototype. I utilized our in-person visual design workshop to align with Vitality stakeholders on their vision, and used InVision boards to present back our findings. This output was utilized throughout the project as a reminder for the desired direction and to realign as a team when needed.
3. Usability Testing
“I would absolutely use a program like this…getting gift cards for doing a thing (exercise) I already want to do is great!”
— Juanita
“I like that it has all my activities in one place AND syncs with my tracker.”
— Christian
Research Process
As a team, we conducted two phases of user research. We held unmoderated and moderated sessions with target users of the app. Each round gave us insights into what we needed to iterate on and improve in the next phase of design. To prepare for each phase of testing, we consulted a lead product researcher at WillowTree, and developed an organized testing plan to share with our client. After the tests were completed, we compiled our results and shared back recommendations with the client.
4. Final Output
When we started the project, we were under the impression the client needed a robust, coded prototype (or maybe a Framer prototype). After getting to understand the clients goals in our kickoff, we were able to save the client expensive development time and budget, and deliver a much simpler InVision click through prototype. The InVision prototype allowed the client to both demonstrate the concept of the app to potential funding partners, and test the product with potential consumers, which were the key outcomes we established at the start of the project.
