I was given the task to create a mental health app. I first did a competetive analysis comparing other mental health apps. I've compared the Apple Watch's Mindfulness, the app HeadSpace, and the app Finch. Then I made a sketch of what screens the mental health application would have, created an interactive paper prototype of the app, created a video prototype, and finally created a higher fidelity prototype on Figma.
I did a competetive analysis comparing three apps together to come up with an idea of how I want to layout my app. When testing out the apps I evaluated featutures such as Core Functionality, Feedback Mechanisms, Personalization, the UI, and User Interaction. I have made a table showing the strengths and weaknesses from some of the feedback based on my testing of the app. I would explore each tab and each feature the app has to offer. I've decided to take parts of the strengths of each app and take note of their weakness that I can improve and incorporate it in my app.
I sketched up a general idea of what my app would look like. I drew a few screens of what the core fuctions would be on the app such as podcasts, the home screen, etc. Then I created a paper prototype of the app, cutting out each screen the size of a phone, drawing each page of the app and making it interactive. I used blue sticky notes to indicate to the user that it is interactive and they're able to click that button. When completed, I conducted a few usability studies with my peers for my app and they used it seemlessly when given the task to access the breathe function, listen to a podcast, and to add an event. My peers were able to complete each task without any issues and I was ready to move on to create a higher fidelity prototype on Figma.
Finally, I've created a prototype on Figma of the app. With the given feedback I got from my paper prototype, I included user feedback to ensure that the user is in the correct spot. The screen would change but also the icon in the navigation tabs, making the selected icon highlighted white. I tried making everything consistant as possible when it came to the text hierarchy and color scheme.
Once I finished that iteration of my Figma Prototype, I conducted another usability study where the user spoke outloud when given a set of tasks to complete. There were some troubles and confusion between the user and the prototype. The UI wasn't 100% clear to the user especially the name of the section or tab in the app. Other feedback was given to me and I took that feedback into account such as a shortcut to the homepage from the podcast page. So in the final iteration of the prototype, I added a shortcut so the user wouldn't have to hit the back button as much to get back to the home page, changed the wording of some sections such as "Reflect" to "Check-in", "Meditate" to "Podcasts", etc. I also added a an extra page to view previous entries from the user in the "Check-in" section, suggested by my peers.