Streakers

Streakers is a mobile application for people with low motivation to connect with their friends and maintain streaks of healthy habits.

My Role


UX Researcher & Designer

Methods


User Interviews, Competitive Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, User Testing

Deliverables


High Fidelity Prototype

ABOUT

Let’s be real, sticking to healthy habits is hard!

I myself have tried many tried and tested ways, and sometimes invented my own tricks to make sure I lead a healthy lifestyle but only some stick after a lot of effort and some still don’t.

Streakers is the result of my extensive research with myself and with other potential users to try and provide extrinsic motivation, with the help of people you trust, to keep working on becoming the best version of you.

THE PROBLEM

Forming new routines is overwhelming, even more with a busy schedule. Add low motivation and energy to that and it becomes nearly impossible to go for a run every day, to finish that book you started, to cook healthy meals, to learn to play that old guitar you bought four years ago.

Recent studies (by Phillippa Lally) have shown that it takes about 66 days on average (not 21) to form a habit but in reality it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days, that requires patience!

RESEARCH

Behavioral Research Literature Reviews

I read these books and some research papers so my users didn’t have to. Streakers incorporates learnings from already existing research on Behavioral Psychology.

Competitive Research

I tried a combination of productivity, fitness and habit-forming applications to see what helped me stick to my desired routines.

Semi-structured Interviews

I spoke to 8 participants to understand their routines, what obstacles do they face and what works best for them when trying to stick to routines

RESEARCH INSIGHTS

General

  • Habit forming takes a lot more repetition than doing something for 21 days
  • It isn’t all or nothing, skipping days is okay
  • Taking it one step at a time helps stick to a set of habits more effectively
  • Learn to enjoy the process than the outcome

Interviews

Why do people not stick to healthy habits?

  • The habit is too difficult to start with
  • It isn’t an enjoyable habit
  • Starting too many habits at once
  • Busy schedule or many life interruptions
  • Not motivated to do anything (mental health challenges)
  • Availability of other easier distractions (Netflix, phone)
  • Getting discouraged after missing it 
a day or two
  • Expecting the result without enjoying
 the ritual

QUOTES

DESIGN PROCESS

Having a strong support group helps in adhereing to healthy habits. There aren’t many apps that cater to the social aspect of habit-forming and so I decided to explore along this direction.

Daily customized check-ins to nudge user to finish an activity without feeling controlled

Friends added in groups help keep user accountable instead of just the app tracking habits

Habit-tracking is less focused on numbers and more on evoking positive memories of doing the activity

USABILITY TESTING

PROBLEM

BEFORE

AFTER

Some participants wanted to separate activities by time of the day to get a sense of when the activity was performed.

Most participants did not read the onboarding text so they missed the fact that they need to complete at least one activity and share it to access the group messages.

The “New group chat” icon was confusing to some participants

Some participants did not realize that the contact list had friends you could tap to add to the group chat.

The habits did not seem like they were could be expanded on tap to most participants

Final Prototype