Role
User Research
Product Strategy
UI Design
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
Tools
Figjam
Notion
Maze
Figma
Otter
Timeline
5 weeks
The Problem
Although the Wim Hof Method app provides a comprehensive guide to the Wim Hof Method, it may overwhelm some users with its extensive features, especially for developing habits such as cold showering. This can make it challenging for users to integrate the method into their daily routine.
The Solution
Our team simplified the user experience of the Wim Hof Method app by mapping the user's journey, ideating on ways to improve it, and designing and prototyping a more user-friendly solution.
Usability Review
Our usability review aimed to identify the challenges users face while navigating the shower flow. To do this, we conducted a usability audit by taking screenshots and analysing them to identify areas of difficulty and success. This allowed us to identify the pain points and wow moments in the search flow.
View the FigJam file here>
Business & User frustrations
There are a few main issues when it comes to the existing shower from of the Wim Hof app, read below to see our main two frustrations.
Primary Frustration
When trying to turn on the shower, people can be faced with confusing and overwhelming instructions, which can interrupt the flow and leave them feeling a bit flustered.
Secondary Frustration
When showering users are unlikely to look at their phone screens which results in a complicated method for activating the shower timer.
Competitor Benchmarking
Our competitor benchmarking consisted of an analysis of two different products:
A generic 'Cold Shower' App as a Direct Competitor - Chosen for the analysis of its cold shower flow and overall design.
Headspace as an Indirect Competitor - Chosen to understand how one of the best wellness apps presents its flows and overall design.
Our competitor benchmarking analysed the products in 5 different categories:
Learnability - How easy the product is to master.
Memorability - How easily users can use the product once revisiting it.
Efficiency - How quick users are to perform tasks after having familiarised themselves with the product.
Satisfaction - How satisfying the product is to use.
Errors - What types of errors users encountered while using the product.
In summary, our research revealed that while the generic 'Cold Shower' app offered a simpler version of The Wim Hof Method's shower routine by eliminating some exercises, it failed to deliver a satisfying user experience due to the simplicity of the design. As a result, users were less motivated to continue taking cold showers. In contrast, the Headspace app was found to be highly user-friendly and efficient, with a clear and memorable design, resulting in an immensely satisfying experience that was further enhanced by its strong and reassuring branding.
View the FigJam file here>
Problem Space
The Wim Hof Method needs a more efficient cold shower flow, with a cleaner and more efficient design.
How can we streamline The Wim Hof Method's shower flow and incorporate a calming and clean design, such as Headspace's?
Ideation
In the ideation phase, our team got the ball rolling by creating a mind map of features we could potentially add or improve based on feedback from our usability reviews. To keep the creative juices flowing, we shook things up with a 'Crazy 8's' brainstorming session where both of us let loose and tried to come up with as many ideas as possible in just one minute per idea.
After the dust settled, we sifted through all our feasible ideas and put them into a priority matrix to figure out which ones would have the biggest impact on the user experience. We weighed the potential benefits against how much work each idea would require and used that to decide which features we should prioritize for our minimum viable product. It was a bit of a challenge, but we're excited about what we came up with and think it'll be a hit with our users.
View the FigJam file here>
What can we add
A dedicated 'Community Page' allowing people to connect with friends.
What can we improve
The layout of the home page, making the shower flow significantly more apparent.
User Flows
The existing user flow required users to manually set three different options for the shower, including the difficulty level, countdown timer, and alarm option. However, we identified two major issues with this flow. Firstly, the countdown timer was unclear in its messaging and didn't offer the user the ability to control the shower once it had started. These problems could lead to frustration and an undesirable user experience.
View the FigJam file here>
Wireframing
For our wireframing section, we focused on creating rapid prototypes for each screen, accompanied by a rough layout guide. This approach was informed by the information we gathered during the previous section, ensuring that we included all the components we felt were feasible for us to design.
View the FigJam file here>
Styles & Components
When developing our colour scheme, we started with a primary colour, which we chose to be a harmonious blue, so as to reflect Wim Hof's brand and calming nature. We then carefully selected additional colours that complemented the primary colour to create a cohesive and visually consistent experience.
As for our fonts, we decided that a combination of Poppins and Roboto was the perfect choice for our design. This choice was influenced by the font's calming and easy-on-the-eyes qualities, which align with the tranquil nature of the app. Additionally, the font's elegant simplicity allows it to seamlessly blend with both our heading and supporting text, creating a cohesive and visually pleasing aesthetic. As you'll see in the final prototype, we've cleverly utilised bold and regular variations of the font to add depth and dimension to the design.
High Fidelity Prototype
Please find our final prototype below, feel free to click through to have a better, in-depth look at our redesign of the shower flow.
View the FigJam file here>
Outcomes
Our redesign of the Wim Hof Method app improved its usability by simplifying the user experience and streamlining features, resulting in a more intuitive and engaging interface. We focused on the user's journey, breaking down the process into smaller steps and offering clear progress tracking, making it easier for users to develop and maintain their wellness habits, specifically cold showering.
Three key learnings
1. It is easy to loose track of the problem space if you don't go back regularly.
2. Taking time away form your design is necessary to be able to catch the small things which are easy to miss.
3. As UX designers, it is our job to advocate for the user, which means making sure our users have the easiest time possible navigating our products.
Next steps
Had we had more time and resources, there are a few things we would have done differently:
Added a login/sign-up page to enhance user experience and facilitate personalized progress tracking.
Implemented premium features in the app, whilst considering the ethical implications of 'paid wellness' - wellness should be accessible to all.
Conducted further user research (such as interviews, in-person usability tests and wide-scale surveys) to ensure that the app met the needs and preferences of our target audience.
Incorporated more user input into the redesign of the Wim Hof Method app.