Pelvina
Pelvic floor training app easy and fun
Pelvina is a mobile app that offers pelvic floor training in affordable and fun way. The videos teach users how their pelvic floor is constructed and how they can strengthen the muscles – during or after pregnancy – in order to prevent urinary incontinence.
The Challenge
How to improve the user experience and motivate the user to continue watching the videos?
Based on previous analysis, it was found that after downloading the app, the users were not continuing watching the videos from the course. The challenge was how to make it more interesting for the users.
My Journey
UX Process
I got this challenge in May 2021 and it was part of the process for a Senior UX Designer position.
The process that I suggested to tackle this challenge was:
Understand - Product & Problem
Research (Interview & Usability Testing) - to get insights
Refine - Create a problem-centric hypothesis.
Design - Low & High Fidelity Prototype
Test again - And keep improving!
Research
Understanding Product
& Problem
I always like to start writing down some existing information:
Product: App for pelvic floor exercises
Business model: A paid subscription fee of €75 yearly
Business goal: Collect user’s data & have them paying for the subscription to motivate them to finish the courses.
The Users
By doing a quick research on woman giving births in Germany, I found out:
Each year, there are about 700k births here.
The average age of woman giving birth is between 30 - 35 years old.
And based on this information, I decided to create two initial personas:
The assumptions to be validated
After analysing previous documentation and testing the product, I came up with some assumptions and how I could get it validated. The top three were:
Does the structure of the components create a clear path for the users in the user flow? - Usability testing
Is there any pain point during the journey that would make the user feel confused and not motivated to continue the modules? - Usability testing
What would make the users feel motivated to continue doing the modules? Qualitative
User Profile (target group criteria)
We decided to use the following user profile:
Woman between 30 -65 years old
Mother
Have experienced urinary incontinence or would like to prevent it
User Interview & Testing Main Goals
Besides the assumptions that I wanted to validate, the goals that I defined for the user interview & usability test were:
Understand what is important for the user in order to motivate them to continue watching the videos
Test the overall usability and the structure in each module by asking the users to complete tasks.
Interview Insights
In total, 5 woman were part of this interview & usability test. I made some questions to better understand their profile and what is important for them. The key insights were:
Pelvic floor exercise - All users find important the pelvic floor training and they see it as a self-care moment.
Willingness to do the courses - All of them said that they would do it but only if it doesn’t take much time and if it is not too complicated.
Motivation - They would feel motivated if they could see progress in the course.
Usability test insights & problem-centric hypothesis
After we finish the user interview, I asked them to download the app. We had 4 in iOS and only one in Android. The screen shots that I made was on iOS just because of the majority.
They completed the tasks related on user flow and how to start a course. I also asked them to watch videos. The main insights collected were:
Everything
looks pink
First impression of the users.
UX Writing
The description gives the impression that the whole module is about anatomy, however, there is only one video related to this topic. The next ones are actually the exercises. It confused 2 of 3 users..
Video component
The video component looks pretty small in this card. Also, The user needs to click on the video if they want to expand on the screen.
Interaction
There is no interaction/transition to the next video.
The next video starts automatically and does not give time to the user to get ready for the next exercise.
The Solution
After analysing the insights from the user interview & usability test I decided to work on a solution focusing on the information architecture.
Creating a sequence that gives some kind of a path for the users.
Users would go step-by-step through content to accomplish the task they need.
Besides the information architecture, I also see the opportunity to improve the UI with plain white background, better color contrast & design new components.
Sequential Information Architecture
Starting with a friendly, motivational & personal message to invite the
user to continue watching the video.When clicking in the module, a video gallery opens highlighting the video that should be watched next and hiding the one already watched.
When playing the video, it expands automatically in the screen.
Motivational & interactive messages
When starting a training video, a message communicating what the user
would need to use will appear. And the video will only start when the user clicks
on “I am ready”.After completing a module, a message will appear congratulating
for the achievement and also will give the option to continue with the next one, or
continue later.
Better interaction
Before starting a new training video, this screen will show up to inform the user what comes next and that it will start in 30 sec. The user can use this time to get ready for the next, drink some water or just relax a little bit. There is also an option to skip the 30 sec, pause or close a do it later.
In case she wants to close and do it later, the latest video will be shown on the screen. The next ones will be below with the image blurry - to keep the mystery :)
Next Step:
Test the new prototype
As much as I like the result, it still need to impress the users! My recommendation is repeat the usability test to check the new functionality, new design and UX, before coding the final solution. And for that, new hypothesis should be created.