KCL, Habit Hero
Role
Tools
Context
Duration
UX/UI Product Designer
Figma, FigJam, & Miro
King's College London, UX/UI Career Accelerator
18 weeks
PROJECT OVERVIEW
I was tasked with creating a healthy habits app for fictional insurance company PrimeCare.
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Phase 1: Understanding User Needs (6 weeks)
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Phase 2: Designing for User Needs (6 weeks)
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Phase 3: Optimising for User Needs (6 weeks)
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Users of HabitHero struggle to effectively track and measure progress towards their goals, leading to a lack of motivation and difficulty in achieving desired outcomes. The current version of HabitHero fails to adequately provide users with the tools and feedback necessary to accurately monitor their progress towards their goals, resulting in frustration and disengagement.
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To address these issues, I began with a market analysis to understand how existing apps succeed and where HabitHero could stand out.
PHASE 1 - UNDERSTANDING USER NEEDS
MARKET ANALYSIS
My market analysis highlighted a range of habit and fitness tracking apps, each with distinct strengths. Apps like Habitica, Fabulous, and Apple Fitness leverage gamification and motivational design to boost user engagement.
In contrast, Productive, Habitify, and Tangerine prioritise clean, minimalist interfaces with effective reminder systems. Social features are rare, with only Habitica and Apple Fitness offering them meaningfully.
Ratings are consistently high (4.2–4.8), indicating strong user satisfaction across the board. This competitive landscape reveals opportunities for a habit app like Habit Hero to stand out by combining visual appeal, motivational elements, and meaningful community engagement.
HABIT HERO - MVP ANALYSIS
A heuristic review of the HabitHero MVP, guided by Nielsen’s heuristics, Gestalt principles, Rams’ design philosophy, and Bradley’s Hierarchy of Needs, revealed critical usability issues: inconsistent alignment and button hierarchy, unclear data visualisation, and a lack of contextual cues or feedback.
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Confusing question sequences and poor input formatting further disrupted user understanding. Applying design principles such as consistency, error prevention, proximity, and feedback identified actionable improvements, aligning the product with user expectations and creating a more intuitive, engaging, and accessible experience.
BUILDING A RESEARCH PLAN
To shape a product users truly need, I analysed key assumptions about HabitHero from the existing problem statement and mapped out known user challenges; like lack of motivation, difficulty tracking progress, and unclear goals.
From this, I explored the unknowns to develop five core hypotheses around personalisation, progress tracking, and flexible goal setting.
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I then designed a research plan that focused on:
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Understanding motivation, barriers, and current health habits
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Exploring users’ preferences for tracking, reminders, and feedback
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Testing assumptions through qualitative interviews
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User Interview Plan
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Conduct 7 user interviews (45 minutes each)
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Choose participants of varied lifestyles and fitness goals.
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Include incentives such as app subscriptions or small rewards.
DEI considerations guided participant selection to include diverse health literacy and accessibility needs.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
I decided to segment my participants by their capacity for goal setting, and current regular health and fitness habits. I recognised that although all participants wanted to improve health and fitness, some were more experienced than others and had varying executive function for setting goals and committing to them. Some also had grown up with regular exercise and healthy eating as part of their lives and to others those habits were completely new.
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The segmentation can be divided into three groups; The Habit Optimiser,
The Busy Balancer and the Goals Novice.
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User Persona
In this user persona I have chosen to represent the median group The Busy Balancer - this user segment group experience a great amount of drive for working towards goals but struggle to maintain consistency with their busy schedules.
Research Participants
Here you can see how the some demographical details about interview participants. From the initial screener survey.
User Journey Mapping
To see in more detail view on Miro
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Using the insights gained from the user interviews I created a user journey map to help further empathise with potential users of Habit Hero at various touch points with the following user scenario in mind:
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*Amy is a 38-year-old brand manager, who works on her feet 40 hours a week for a high fashion retail brand. Amy has tried multiple personal training programmes but has struggled to stay motivated on her goals after the programmes finish. Amy suspects that the goals set at the beginning of these programmes don’t fit in with her weekly schedule and she ends up too exhausted to commit and feels guilty when she slips out of her new routine. Amy would like to be able to set more realistic and sustainable goals to maintain a healthy weight, and feel energised and able to commit to weekly exercise even on her busier weeks. Amy is very tech savvy and clued up on why she should be making healthier lifestyle changes but when she works late and is exhausted, her self-discipline diminishes. Because Amy works in fashion it is important for her to feel confident in her body and her clothes, she takes pride on her appearance, especially at work. Amy would like a tool that keeps her on track with her goals, without shaming her for falling behind. *fictional name
PHASE 2 - DESIGNING FOR USER NEEDS
ESTABLISHING SUCCESS METRICS
The North Star Metric (NSM) for HabitHero is increasing Monthly Active Users, achieved through User Acquisition and User Retention. The outlined signals and key performance indicators (KPIs) track progress toward these goals.
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New feature-specific metrics assess usability and relevance. For example, measuring weekly review completion rates helps evaluate its impact on user engagement. The redesign prioritises dynamic tracking, habit autonomy, and seamless onboarding, including an improved habit-adding process from the Home Screen.
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Future improvements could include time-blocking with calendar integration and a ‘core habits’ mode to support users during busy periods, reducing churn by allowing goal adjustments rather than penalising perceived failure. Research also suggests that a well- structured onboarding process enhances retention by strengthening goal commitment.
IDEATION - JTBD FRAMEWORK
Using the insights and analysis from the initial user interviews I proposed a selection of 'How Might We' statements to spark and lead the initial ideation phase. The table below explores how each statement aligns with user needs and business goals alike.
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How might we help users establish realistic, sustainable goals that align with their lifestyles and motivation?​
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How might we provide personalised feedback and progress tracking that feels rewarding without overwhelming users with data entry?​
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How might we integrate social accountability and community support?​
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How might we offer flexible, habits-based tracking methods that cater to users who find calorie or metrics tracking demotivating?
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How might we design solutions that adapt to users' fluctuating schedules and ensure they can maintain core habits during busy times?
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How might we make exercise and diet tracking creative, enjoyable, and aligned with personal preferences, such as cooking, gardening, or fun physical activities?
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How might we provide meaningful rewards or recognition systems that resonate with intrinsic motivators like self- confidence, social praise, or progress visualisation?
Low-Fidelity Ideation
EMPATHISING WITH POTENTIAL USERS
Storyboard
To visualise the challenges and pain points of potential Habit Hero users I created this storyboard illustrating the needs and goals of Sam.
User Flow Diagram
Reviewing weekly goals
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CONSIDERATIONS
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The language used in the initial pop-up can significantly influence whether users choose to review their goals or allow automatic adjustments.
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It’s important to provide flexible options - letting users return later or adjust goals without needing to review all their stats.
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Additionally, finding the right balance is key: adjusting goals to prevent feelings of failure while ensuring they aren’t removed too soon, which could lead to demotivation.
CREATING MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES & PROTOTYPE
I created a mid-fidelity prototype, with a few key tasks; adding a habit from suggestions, adding a personalised habit and reviewing weekly goals.
TESTING THE MID-FI PROTOTYPE WITH USERS
Research Goals
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The purpose of this study is to test the usability of the HabitHero prototype.
Specifically, this study aimed to understand how the user interacts with the habit adding feature and weekly progress review. Although some insights were made to which features should be prioritised.
Objectives
1. Evaluate the usability of the weekly goal review feature.
2. Assess how intuitive the manual adjustment and suggestion system is.
3. Test the ease of adding habits from the Home Screen.
4. Identify any usability issues before finalising the design.
Session Type
2 moderated in-person usability test sessions lasting on average 35 minutes.
Research Findings
User Persona 1 - Intuitive Tracker
This person is fit and healthy, but doesn’t really use many apps for tracking productivity – tends to keep progress in head as likes to limit screen time.
User 1 found HabitHero to be intuitive and motivating but suggested improvements to habit selection, feedback mechanisms, and progress visualisation. She emphasised supportive guidance, gamification without pressure, and community-based encouragement as key factors in user engagement.
User Persona 2 - Habit Optimiser
This person also maintains healthy habits but has more experience with habit tracking apps and puts a lot of emphasises on making their life more efficient.
User 2 has tried multiple habit-tracking apps but often stops using them when they push too much. He likes HabitHero’s simplicity and encouragement but suggests better habit reminders and habit-buddy features to keep him engaged. He sees habit-building as an identity shift rather than a strict task list."
Key Takeaways
✅ Fixing UI clarity & navigation (button visibility, scroll indicators).
✅ Providing a balance between structured guidance & customisation.
✅ Enhancing motivation through flexible tracking & habit reinforcement.
✅ Refining social features so they encourage users, not discourage them.
PHASE 3 - OPTIMISING FOR USER NEEDS
REFINING THE PROTOTYPE
Based on insights from the usability testing I made iterations to the mid-fidelity prototype to improve the functionality of the designs. Below is a selection of wireframes from the revised Mid-Fi Prototype:
HIGH-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES & PROTOTYPE
Creating a Design System
Before creating the high-fidelity prototype we were asked to create a design system, including typography (1-2 fonts), a colour scheme, and button states.
Refining the Onboarding Flow
As a way of playing around with the design system I has created and to create impact on reducing user churn during onboarding. I decided to re-design the onboarding flow, simplifying the process and using the heuristic analysis from the original MVP as guidance.
Setting Goals in Habit Hero
Here you can see how I improved the prototype using feedback from users.
CONCLUSION
The HabitHero project successfully evolved key usability challenges into a more intuitive, engaging, and visually cohesive habit-tracking app. Through user research, heuristic analysis, and iterative prototyping, the design addressed core pain points; improving navigation clarity, enhancing progress tracking, and balancing structured guidance with personalisation.
Evaluation
Usability testing validated the improvements, with users noting increased motivation, clearer goal-setting flows, and stronger engagement through supportive and non-intrusive features. The introduction of a design system ensured consistency across the interface, while refined onboarding reduced potential user churn.
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Future Suggestions
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Integrate social accountability features to foster community engagement without adding pressure.
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Expand gamification elements to maintain long-term motivation.
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Incorporate calendar integration and ‘core habits’ mode for users with fluctuating schedules.
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Continue A/B testing onboarding and goal-setting flows to further optimise retention.