Design
Wireframes | Branding & UI Kit | High-Fidelity
Test
Testing | Iterations
Thanks for visiting! Let’s connect!
© 2024 Shraddha Shetti
Research
Competitor Analysis | Research Goal | User interviews & Affinity Map | Personas
Apple Health & Watch
Adding a Stress Monitor feature to Apple health with stress alerts on Apple watch
Project Type
Adding a Feature
Role
UX/UI Designer
Project Duration
6 weeks
Background
The concept of a stress monitor stems from the growing recognition of mental health's impact on overall wellness. Stress is an inevitable part of modern life, affecting our physical health, productivity, and emotional well-being. With the increase in digital health solutions, people are now looking to technology not just to track their physical metrics but to manage their mental health as well.
The Problem
Apple Health and the Apple Watch offer robust support for tracking physical health metrics like activity levels, heart rate, and sleep patterns. However, they currently lack a built-in feature for detecting and monitoring stress levels.
Without stress tracking, users are missing crucial insights, which limits the overall health data Apple provides. This gap makes Apple’s offerings less comprehensive compared to competitors, especially in a market where mental health is gaining increasing importance.
Target Audience
My audience consisted of fitness watch users and individuals who prioritize both their physical and mental well-being.
Solution
A Stress Monitor feature can support users in tracking and managing their stress levels and overall well-being through the following capabilities:
Users can set personalized activities that are tailored to help reduce stress effectively.
Users can receive high-stress alerts directly on their Apple Watch to manage their stress.
Design Process
Research
Define
Design
Test
Competitor Analysis
To assess if a similar gap exists in the market, a competitor analysis was conducted to answer the question: How are other products currently addressing stress monitoring and detection?
Fitbit
Whoop
Samsung
About
Fitbit is a leading brand in wearable fitness tech, known for its reliable, high-quality devices that set standards in tracking health metrics like steps, heart rate, and sleep.
Whoop is a fitness-tracking wearable and app that enhances performance and recovery by analyzing metrics like heart rate variability, sleep, and strain. It provides personalized coaching to optimize training and overall health.
Samsung Health is a fitness app that tracks health metrics. It offers personalized insights and supports wellness goals, integrating with Samsung devices.
Company Advantages
Fitbit devices offer comprehensive health tracking features, including activity tracking, sleep monitoring, heart rate monitoring, and guided workouts. These features provide users with valuable insights into their overall health, empowering them to make informed decisions about their lifestyle and wellness habits.
Whoop’s advanced sensors and analytics algorithms track key metrics like heart rate variability (HRV), sleep quality, respiratory rate, and strain, providing users with personalized recommendations to optimize both performance and recovery. This makes it an effective tool for managing stress.
Samsung Health is a fitness app that tracks health metrics. It offers personalized insights and supports wellness goals, integrating with Samsung devices.
Company Disadvantages
Fitbit’s stress monitoring relies on indirect metrics like HRV and sleep quality, lacking direct measurements such as cortisol levels. It also lacks real-time stress alerts and offers limited personalization, which may reduce its effectiveness in managing stress for users seeking more immediate and tailored solutions.
It primarily relies on heart rate variability (HRV) and other indirect metrics to assess stress, which may not provide a complete or accurate picture of a user's mental and emotional state. It does not offer real-time stress alerts, making it less effective for managing acute stress moments.
The app lacks real-time stress alerts and personalized stress management tools, limiting its effectiveness for managing acute stress. The insights provided are relatively basic and may not be sufficient for users seeking more detailed or tailored recommendations.
The opportunity for growth.
The opportunity lies in addressing the gap in stress monitoring features across wearable devices. A competitor analysis revealed that while current fitness trackers provide valuable insights into physical health, there is a lack of comprehensive stress tracking that combines both qualitative and quantitative metrics. By integrating real-time stress monitoring and personalized stress management tools into existing platforms like Apple Health and Apple Watch, users could benefit from a more holistic approach to wellness. Introducing a dedicated Stress Management feature could help Apple tap into a growing market of users seeking more accurate, actionable insights for managing stress.
Research Goal
The goal is to understand how individuals define and prioritize stress within their wellness journey, how it impacts their daily lives, and what routines or strategies they use to manage it. This includes exploring the methods people use to cope with stress, as well as the activities or tools they rely on to alleviate it.
User Interviews & Affinity Map
Based on interviews with users who each had a unique relationship to stress management, it became clear that a common concern was the lack of personalized tracking and insights available for stress levels in the current health apps. Participants expressed a desire for more tailored features that could better address their individual stress triggers and provide detailed, actionable data to help them manage their stress.
Persona
By connecting with users on an emotional level and synthesizing research insights, I created an ideal user persona that captures their behaviors, goals, and frustrations. This persona represents a comprehensive view of the user’s needs, allowing for a more empathetic and targeted approach to design.
Define
Point of View & How Might We| ProjectGoals & Feature Set | Information Architecture | User Flows
Point of view & How might we
Users looking to manage stress as part of their overall wellness need a way to monitor and track their stress levels. Without this capability, they struggle to understand their stress patterns and make informed choices for their mental well-being.
How might we enable users to easily monitor and track their stress levels?
How might we leverage data analytics to analyze stress patterns?
How might we provide personalised strategies for stress management that align with individuals needs?
How might we integrate real-time feedback mechanisms to provide users with immediate insights into their stress levels?
Project Goals & Feature set
I needed to assess both the business impact and user needs to ensure the project’s success. To align with the overall goals, I focused on key objectives that would meet both user expectations and business priorities.
Information Architecture
Since the project’s primary goal was to add a new feature, the existing sitemap remained the same. However, modifications were necessary to integrate the feature seamlessly into the current layout. By adjusting elements within the navigation path, I ensured that users could access the new feature easily and intuitively, without disrupting their familiarity with the app’s structure.
Now
The Stress Monitor is now located in the Health Categories section.
User Flows
To ensure a smooth navigation experience, I mapped out the user flow for a user aiming to integrate meditation into their routine for stress relief, while also tracking their stress levels. This process helped me confirm that the key wireframes were aligned with user needs and ready for the next stage of development.
Wireframes
I created the initial wireframes by incorporating key elements required for the first round of user testing. The aim was to pinpoint areas needing refinement before adding any visual design aspects. I experimented with different layouts and made some adjustments to bring my ideas to life more effectively. The early testing phase provided insights into whether users could intuitively navigate the intended paths to complete tasks, helping validate the design’s usability prior to further development.
Testing
I spoke to 5 participants and asked them to complete 4 task flows. My goal was to assess their ability to complete the tasks without encountering any issues. Additionally, I sought their overall thoughts on the Stress Monitor feature and any areas they would like to see improvement in.
Below are highlighted areas that need improvement:
Making it easier for users to access the stress tracking page.
Provide options for users to personalize activities by setting them manually.
Branding - UI Kit
I redesigned Apple Health’s existing UI elements, utilizing its color palette and selecting an equivalent typography to create a brand style tile for the High Fidelity wireframes. Since the Stress Monitor feature was new, I also designed a custom logo. For the logo, I introduced a new calming color to align with the feature's purpose of stress management and relaxation.
A brief story behind the emergence of the logo:
The heartbeat waves within the stress monitor logo symbolize the connection between the body and mind. Imagine a person feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of daily life - stressed, anxious, or on edge. Their heart rate fluctuates, rising with tension and calming with relaxation. The heartbeat wave in the logo represents this real-time emotional and physical response to stress.
This rhythmic pattern symbolizes both the essence of stress and the potential for control and healing, reminding users that stress is manageable and that they have the power to improve their well-being."
Watch Prototype
Text Elements
SF Pro Display / Regular / 14
SF Pro Display / Semibold / 16
SF Pro Display / Semibold / 14
SF Pro Display / Semibold / 16
SF Pro Display / Bold / 14
SF Pro Display / Bold / 16
SF Pro Rounded / Bold / 14
SF Pro Rounded / Bold / 20
Color
White
#FFFFFF
Light_1
#F2F2F7
Light_2
#E5E5EA
Light_3
#D1D1D6
Black
#000000
Gray_1
#1C1C1E
Gray_2
#2C2C2E
Gray_3
#3A3A3C
Secondary
#848484
Orange
#EC6330
Blue
#3A82F7
Turquoise
#81CFFA
Red
#EB4B62
Green
#67CE67
Yellow
#F1A33B
Purple
#B25FEA
Ocean
#87E3E1
Icons
18 x 18 px
Tapbar_Icon
Label
Label
Label
Label
Label
Label
Segmented_Picker_Component
D
W
M
6M
Y
D
W
M
6M
Y
D
W
M
6M
Y
D
W
M
6M
Y
D
W
M
6M
Y
StatusBar
9:41
TapBar_Component
Summary
Sharing
Browse
Heart Rate Variability
99
ms
Irregular Rhythm Notifications
No Data
Sleep
12:00
99
hr
750
500
250
2
9
9
23
30
0
Testing
I spoke to 5 participants and asked them to complete 4 task flows. My goal was to assess their ability to complete the tasks without encountering any issues. Additionally, I sought their overall thoughts on the Stress Monitor feature and any areas they would like to see improvement in.
Below are highlighted areas that need improvement:
Making it easier for users to access the stress tracking page.
Provide options for users to personalize activities by setting them manually.
Branding - UI Kit
I redesigned Apple Health’s existing UI elements, utilizing its color palette and selecting an equivalent typography to create a brand style tile for the High Fidelity wireframes. Since the Stress Monitor feature was new, I also designed a custom logo. For the logo, I introduced a new calming color to align with the feature's purpose of stress management and relaxation.
A brief story behind the emergence of the logo:
The heartbeat waves within the stress monitor logo symbolize the connection between the body and mind. Imagine a person feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of daily life - stressed, anxious, or on edge. Their heart rate fluctuates, rising with tension and calming with relaxation. The heartbeat wave in the logo represents this real-time emotional and physical response to stress.
This rhythmic pattern symbolizes both the essence of stress and the potential for control and healing, reminding users that stress is manageable and that they have the power to improve their well-being."
High-Fidelity
In this phase, I focused on incorporating Apple Health’s visual identity to design the feature integration with the existing interface. The goal was to ensure that the new stress monitor feature seamlessly blends with Apple Health's established design principles, such as color schemes, typography, and overall aesthetic.
Design Challenges
Creating a seamless logo that aligns with Apple’s design language was essential to ensure consistency with the brand’s aesthetic.
Additionally, crafting intuitive, visually engaging graphs to illustrate stress level fluctuations posed a challenge in balancing clarity and functionality, providing users with easy-to-understand insights into their stress patterns.
Testing
Apple Health & WatchTesting
5 participants
Video call through Zoom
Designer & Developer
Task flows tested
Accessing the Stress Tracker
Set the personalization
Set the notification
High stress alert on the Apple
watch
Success Metrics
All participants successfully
completed all the tasks
All participants completed the
tasks within 3 minutes, with
minimal errors.
What went well
Users responded positively to the use of familiar color coding to represent stress levels. Also, they were excited to see the stress summary reports. It gave them another layer of analysis that improves the way they get to see their progression.
Challenges Faced
Users had difficulty locating the stress summary page, indicating a need for clearer navigation cues. Additionally, they expressed interest in brief explanations of heart rate variability and resting heart rate to better understand these metrics and their connection to stress
Iterations
Based on user testing feedback and observations, few sections were modified and added to improve user interaction.
I've added the time and arrow icon just to
let users know that this card can be clicked,
allowing them to view more details on the
Stress Summary page.
I've included information about heart rate variability and resting heart rate, as users were unsure about their purpose. This section provides explanations based on the data presented above.
Reflection
Project Highlights
This project focused on adding a stress monitoring feature to Apple Health, highlighting the importance of understanding user needs in managing stress and overall well-being. By incorporating user feedback and analyzing competitors, I was able to design a feature that seamlessly integrates with existing Apple Health metrics, providing personalized insights.
Challenges
Designing for Apple products presented a greater challenge due to the existence of multiple apps managing various features. I encountered the difficulty of locating the appropriate app within Apple to integrate my new feature effectively. While I was determined to showcase the stress alert feature on the Apple Watch, the challenge arose in incorporating the supporting features, such as displaying detailed reports and settings. It took some time for me to navigate this challenge, but once I found a solution, designing the subsequent parts became much easier.
What I enjoyed
I enjoyed the design and prototyping aspect of this project. It was fun creating the new elements into the existing product.
Growth and learning
This is my first capstone project and it has sharpened my skills in Figma. Engaging with diverse users provided me with valuable insights for my research and enabled me to design with users in mind. Through this project, I gained insight into both my strengths and weaknesses as a designer, fostering personal growth.
