Project details

Type
Interaction Design

Project Length:
Three Weeks

Customer
WeightWatchers, Apple (Mock-project)

Role
Project Lead, iPhone Technology Feasibility, Project Management, Feasibility

Media
Presentation

Team
Emily E. Allen, Gopnaath Kannabiran, Lula Albar

Deliverables

Presentation Deck

Weight Watchers iPhone App

The application is designed for busy, professional women who may not be able to set aside the time necessary to attend weekly structured meetings. The application allows for flexibility in who the users interact with, when and where.

Overview

The MeToo! Weight Watchers iPhone app is aimed at attracting and retaining Weight Watchers members through leveraging the program's most effective cornerstone: the group meetings. Our application connects both new and existing customers to one another through a social support map. The map allows users to post and respond comments left by other users, allowing the feeling that they are 'not alone'. Registered Weight Watchers members have the option to contact other members via private message, find convenient group meetings in their area and connect to weight watchers mentors.

Process

The project was delivered as a real-world client project scenario. The customers were both Apple and Weight Watchers. Apple's needed to sell more 'best of breed' iPhone apps. Weight Watchers needed to retain existing customers and attract new ones.

We began our research from the Weight Watchers-perspective: understanding the strengths and pain points in the current Weight Watchers model. We found that Weight Watcher's group meetings acted as their biggest strength as well as weakness. Members enjoyed the social reinforcement of the group meeting, but often did not attend. The reasons for this were many: time constraints, social anxiety of the group, and the payment before each group meeting individually played a role.

Given these insights, our application focused on easing new users into the social model of Weight Watchers while allowing existing participants to contact mentors one-on-one, or attend convenient group meetings at their leisure. New members could be eased into group meetings through a public (and anonymous) "chat map" which would allow them to leave and respond to messages throughout town. Ultimately, the idea of the application was to allow WeightWatchers users to know they were not alone.

User Testing and Iterations

We held user testing sessions to understand how users responded to the device on a paper prototype. The usability testing covered a range of tasks, from finding a simple button to performing more involved operations on the interface.

Overall, the usability testing was a success, with almost all users understanding how to get around the interface. The only stumbling block came in the form of the user representations on the map. Users were confused as to their meaning: were these the actual locations of people, or just posts being left in that location?

Based on this feedback, we decided that future iterations of the design should incorporate a better graphical representation of a post. This could ease any potential fears about privacy concerns and ultimately help the user better understand their meaning.

Design

Our approach utilizes the successful support-oriented model of Weight Watchers to create a mobile social environment. The aim is to reduce anxiety that is brought about by life change and we are doing that by allowing the user to engage in a social support system that is accessible to the user on a larger scale.

Personal Connections, Digital World

The application works by allowing users to write anonymous posts day with their concerns, questions, and comments . Other users can in turn respond to these posts anonymously, or choose to to message the user privately. Posts are introduced through a GPS map, showing the latest posts relative to the users current location. Group meetings, both official Weight Watchers and informal, can be also be viewed through this mechanism The idea is to communicate to the user that they are, indeed, never alone and that there is always others in the same place with similar problems.

The goal is to slowly introduce new users to the support-oriented aspects of Weight Watchers while allowing for existing users to enhance their support-group experience on the mobile web.

Social Map

The social map is the core feature of our application. The speech bubbles along with the avatar display what another user has posted. The user can read a post by tapping on the avatar or speech bubble as well as respond by tapping on the area left for comments. Posts are displayed based location relative to the user with the newest posts displayed first. Only ten posts are displayed at a time to avoid screen clutter; however additional posts can be viewed by clicking on “10 more.” It should be noted that the avatars represent the at-time posts left by users, and not the location of the user themselves.

We chose to use avatars rather than pictures of the user to allow the user a sense of privacy. A person’s body is a sensitive subject and we wanted to allow the user to remain somewhat anonymous to avoid anxieties that would arise from full self-disclosure to strangers. Additionally, we wanted to allow the user to see where the posts were made in relation to their area to create a feeling of community and a sense that they are never alone in their anxieties and issues with regards to weight loss. However, we wanted to prevent the user from feeling like they were being followed; therefore, we decided to leave the avatars where they made the post instead of following them with their image.

Make it Fun and Fresh

Our research shows that most applications downloaded by users include games and messaging services. This implies that iPhone users are drawn to a ‘fun’ and ‘fresh’ experience on the iPhone. Our application appeals to this need by providing fresh posts each time the user log. In addition, the layout of the posts are presented in a human-centered manner, such as use of avatars, to peak the interest of the user.