CLIENT

The Agenda

Our client, The Agenda is a healthtech startup that helps women sync their menstrual cycle to their life activities by providing women resources, support, and education for each stage of their period.

The client is looking for a MVP solution to improve user engagement and retention for the wellness score of the mobile application. 

WHAT IS THE AGENDA AND ITS MISSION?

The Agenda emerged with a mission to empower women in understanding and navigating the complexities of their hormonal menstrual cycles. Initially conceived as a physical planner, it evolved into a comprehensive mobile application driven by customer feedback and market insights.

Most period tracking apps on the market were created by men which leads to a gap in truly understanding and addressing the unique health needs that women face with their menstrual health. With cycle syncing - the practice of aligning daily routines such as diet, exercise, and self-care with different phases of menstrual productivity, The Agenda is looking to provide innovative solutions for women’s health.

    • How? 

      • By revolutionizing how women approach their well-being

      • Offering products and services aimed at promoting physical, mental, and emotional health

      • Dedication to focusing on holistic hormone health and self-care practices 

PROBLEM

Effortless tracking

Manage with ease, including personalized goals in progress and view rewards to check off once achievement is completed

INFO

TEAM
Project Manager
UX Researchers (2)
UX Designers (2)

MY ROLE
UX Designer & Researcher

TIMELINE
8 months

TOOLS
Figma, Qualtrics, Google Drive, Slack

SOLUTION

Empower women to log their wellness score daily by providing the ability to create different categories and set up
personalized rewards to stay motivated as they work towards achieving their goals

View wellness score trends

Users can view logged data of wellness
score, identifying any irregularities or
areas for improvement for their overall
health.

My Approach To The Solution

GENERATIVE RESEARCH

  • Because UX research wasn’t previously done when designing the app initially, it was important to conduct generative research to ensure that the Agenda team not only has the information to reference in the future, but it also allowed me to create data driven designs.

  • The process in going about finding a solution in this project was to first understand period tracking by conducting generative research. First starting with background research of various menstrual applications. The apps focused primarily on the following: period tracking, ovulation and fertility tracking, cycle syncing, and family planning. Generative research included:

    • Market research

    • Competitive analysis

    • Survey

    • User Interviews

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

To gain more insight on the period tracking/menstruation app industry, I conducted a competitive analysis in order to gain insight on top competitors and products on the market. This product comparison helped to assess important services and features to be included.

Survey

Input non-numerical value

Easily log daily wellness score to help keep track of

overall well-being

Add new goals

Users can create different categories and set up
personalized rewards to stay motivated as they
work towards achieving their goals

A survey was then created on Qualtrics to understand what users are looking for in a menstrual cycle tracking app to improve the current app.

Purpose of the study was to learn the following:

  • What factors influence user’s motivation to track their menstrual cycle and what barriers do they encounter in maintaining this habit?

  • Learn the most important information users want to know about their cycles, symptoms, and trends

  • The importance of receiving personalized recommendations based on their menstrual cycle

  • Familiarity with the concept of cycle syncing - the practice of aligning daily routines
    like diet, exercise, and self-care with different phases of menstrual productivity

Overview

  • Total participants: 103 complete responses

  • Survey was administered to various online platforms including instagram, linkedin, facebook groups, and slack communities

  • The importance of receiving personalized recommendations based on their menstrual cycle

  • Familiarity with the concept of cycle syncing - the practice of aligning daily routines
    like diet, exercise, and self-care with different phases of menstrual productivity

  • Age range:

User Interviews & Affinity Mapping

From the survey, 3 individuals were interviewed via Zoom to get a more in-depth understanding of their experience using menstrual apps.

SURVEY & USER INTERVIEWS OVERVIEW

The responses gathered from the survey and interviews emerged into the 4 key themes below

USER PERSONAS

From the survey and interviews conducted, 2 personas emerged that would represent the target audience of the app.

Betty - 20s

  • Top priority: to get accurate predictions to help planning

    • Second priority: understand cycle, trends, prepare for potential PMS symptoms

  • Expect: simplicity

  • Actions to do: log period dates, occasionally log other symptoms (more out of curiosity to make decisions), read/view educational articles

Laura - 30s

  • Top priority: gain in-depth insights into cycle to make decisions to optimize overall health

    • Secondary priority: understand cycle trends, would make decisions (regarding to exercise, nutrition, professional) based on insights and recommendations

  • Expects: customization, personalization, easy navigation

  • Actions: logs daily health in detail

TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO THE WELLNESS SCORE

In addition to designing for the different menstrual phases the client asked for designs of the wellness score, a measure of one’s overall health condition. I took on the task of designing this by translating all the research gathered to create the MVP for the wellness score.

Looking over the research and themes that emerged, I broke down some ideas of what should be included as well as what I thought would be useful. The scoring document that was initially provided by the client was helpful, but after discussions with the design team, it was decided to take on a non-numerical scoring approach instead because seeing numbers could have a negative effect on users.

For instance, if the score is 50 out of 100, users may feel down upon themselves and decide to not use the app. Other questions that emerged was what if one category (mind, body, external impacts, etc) wasn’t logged in by daily by the user? That will affect the overall scoring. As a result, taking a non-numerical approach was best, aiming to address their overall mood possibly or feeling for the day (great, good, okay, poor). 

In addition, I wanted to include other methods into how one viewed their overall wellness score which includes a section for their own achievements to input their personal goals, track progress, and attain rewards after a goal was completed. 

USE CASE & JOURNEY FLOWS

Next, I created a use case to view the possible interactions that users may have while using the app which was helpful in planning the different types of screens needed while navigating the wellness score and achievements pages. 

In addition, I also created a user journey flow to help me visualize the sequence steps that a user takes in order to accomplish a goal with the app. 

SKETCHES

I then sketched out a couple of ideas based on the themes that emerged from research going into mid-fidelity wireframing.

MVP

Below are the mid-fidelity wireframes for the wellness score and achievements flow.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR NEXT ITERATION

I then presented the mid-fidelity wireframes to the next phase design team for feedback. Overall, I received a positive response of the flow, particularly the sections of allowing the users to create their own personal goals.

Below are some areas for improvement that the next phase will expand upon and improve from my designs.

NEXT STEPS

  1. Test wellness score and achievements flow in usability test

  2. Iterate and add UI design in next phase

RESULTS

  1. Because of our findings and work, the organization now has useful generative research to

    refer to as they continue to design and improve the app

  2. Designed an MVP for the wellness score and achievements section to help with user retention and engagement for The Agenda app

REFLECTION

  1. Conduct UX research

    • When possible conduct UX research because it creates a more comprehensive understanding of the target audience and ensures
designs are data driven


  2. Constant communication

    • Communicating with client and team members consistently ensures everyone is working towards the same goal. It also helps
 to clarify any uncertainties.

  3. Understand expectations

      1. Working with a team in different time zones had its challenges. What I would do differently is to set a designated time each week
for meetings and working sessions for more collaboration time with team members. Understand expectations with client to get an understanding of how involved they will be over the duration of the project.