Creating a healthcare water-tracking app that helps track a user’s hydration is a project that I enjoyed working on.
Initially at the beginning of this project I was unsure of the design concept that I would choose to work on, as in my research there was a wide range of areas to develop an app around. Doing some research, originally in a group then independently, allowed me to identify an area in which to narrow down on, which was the concept of gamification. Gamification is a technique used in many successful apps and brands, as a great way to keep users engaged and wanting to come back to the platform again and again.
Adopting this gamification technique was a good start, however I needed an idea for an app in the first place. So researching various health sectors that would be symbiotic with gamification, I came across the concept of a water-tracking app. So onducting some competitive analysis, as well as looking at articles and studies on the health benefits for hydration, I decided to develop my app around this concept.
After conducting some qualitative and quantitative research, I was then able to start working on paper to design some sketches and wireframes for the final prototype. I enjoyed working on this module, and getting feedback from critique sessions allowed me to make improvements and changes in order to make the best prototype design possible.
Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of this project. The final prototype that I created has a clean and organised brand design and a consistent colour scheme. With gamification features implemented such as points, badges, a leaderboard, and a Tamagotchi style mascot, it allows the user to effectively improve their hydration intake in a fun way.
If I were to begin this project over from scratch, there would be some things I would improve however. One thing I could do is to design more screens and features. There’s only so many pages you can have in a water-tracking app, however I believe there’s still room for one or two more screens. Perhaps a section dedicated to hydration health benefits or a ‘help’ section that would answer frequently asked questions about the app – or provide instructions on how to use the app. Or something else I could implement is a dark mode feature with a darker colour scheme.
Overall, this project was an enjoyable one to work on. This was one of the last modules of this year and was a positive experience. In the future, I hope to improve my Figma experience and create even better prototype app designs.