A mobile application designed to help individuals quit smoking through personalized tracking and community support.
GOAL: To develop an app that aids smokers in their quitting journey, addressing the lack of individualization and community support in existing quit-smoking apps
The journey to quit smoking is fraught with challenges, as most aids focus narrowly on physical addiction, sidelining the emotional and psychological aspects. This leaves a gap in support for smokers who need a more compassionate and emotionally supportive approach. Existing solutions lack the necessary personalization and community support, key elements for successful quitting experiences.
"Lung Love" fills this gap with a comprehensive, user-friendly app designed for quitting smoking. It merges health and finance tracking with gamification, creating an engaging quitting process. A key feature is its community support, providing a platform for shared experiences and support. Developed through user research and trauma-informed design, "Lung Love" offers more than just technical aid; it's a supportive companion, combining technology with empathy for a healthier lifestyle.
Why is it essential for smokers to have access to a quit-smoking app like 'Lung Love'?
Why do users need a dedicated quit-smoking app at all?
We found out.
UNDERSTANDING THE QUIT SMOKING JOURNEY:
Our team sought insights into the quit-smoking experience from the user's viewpoint. We immersed ourselves in their challenges: using quit-smoking apps, health tracking, and exploring cessation forums. This provided valuable understanding of their needs and frustrations. We crafted and distributed surveys via smoke shops and forums.
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY:
Follow-ups revealed quitting motivators—
health concerns and economic benefits—and preferences for gamification and visual tracking, cautioning against guilt-inducing designs.
From our individual projects, contextual inquiry, screener and interviews we encountered these findings:
Different colored Post-its refer to individual interviewees.
Awareness of smoking's health risks and success stories inspire individuals to pursue quitting.
Community support and digital quit-smoking aids offer encouragement and practical assistance.
The economic benefits of quitting, such as saving money, motivate individuals to consider a smoke-free life.
Peer influence and a smoking-prevalent environment hinder efforts to quit.
Emotional dependency on smoking and fear of failure are major barriers to quitting.
Doubts about the effectiveness of quitting aids and a lack of motivation challenge the quitting process.
A sample of our original flow.
We tested our prototype throughout the design process with 10 people. From testing we uncovered these important points (which we iterated and implemented):
Users did not want to log in as a requirement just to log and view habits.
Users wished their achievements showed up as badges in the community space.
Much of our informational text was too small & unnecessary
Instructions & tracking needed to be one, simple experience that allowed users to check off their steps while following instructions.
■ We removed the login requirement from the very first screen and kept it only for community posts.
■ We also added badges to the profile picture, which the user can pick from their achievements.
- Nope, nope, nope. Too much text! The users did not find value in the information these screens provided. We removed these screens completely.
The Evolution of our splash screen.
Info we nixed.
Displaying easily understood health metrics, such as "50% improvement in lung health," and focusing only on positive changes supports a trauma-informed design, fostering encouragement and a sense of achievement without overwhelming users.
Setting a tangible savings goal, like a TV, makes the reward concrete, boosting motivation and making the progress towards quitting smoking more rewarding and personalized.
Our achievements page rewards users for maintaining their streaks with fun names across different areas, creating a playful and encouraging environment that celebrates each milestone in the journey to quit smoking.
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- Include other addictive habits
- More usability testing
- UI design direction
This project has helped me gain a deeper understanding on how every detail of the design process greatly impacts the users experience. Dealing with a wide user base came with its own set of challenges as every design decision had to be made for a large group of users. Whether it's someone quitting smoking to improve their health or another person trying to save money by kicking the habit It was a big reminder of just how crucial it is to keep our users at the heart of our design, making sure we're really tuning in to what different people might need or want from our app.
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed learning about QUITOGETHER as much as I loved working on it. My door is always open for feedback and questions. If you would like to connect and possibly work together, hit me up!
