MTL Health App

BACKGROUNDThrough the Marshall International Summer Internship Program, I had the opportunity to intern at Fuchsia Innovation Centre, Muang Thai Life Assurance.

During my internship, I worked on developing features for the MTL Health App, which is an app that encourages users to exercise by setting weekly exercise goals and rewarding them with benefits. I had a great learning experience while working on this project because I had to create designs that followed design guidelines and work within constraints.

Problem

Since the product was at an early stage of development, I had the opportunity to work on various features of the app.

I mainly worked on improving these 3 features:
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1. Creating a clear and effective reward system
2. Simplifying the visual representation of the user’s exercise data in History feature
3. Developing a user profile page

Initially, the reward system was only based on the number of points a user earned through working out; based on the number of points, the user could reach a certain level in the app.

The app provided several ways to achieve different levels, but this was confusing for users since there were too many options.

After interviewing users, we noticed that the current reward system was not effective at keeping users engaged and motivated to workout since there weren’t clear exercise goals or regular reminders in the app.

In the History feature, users weren’t able to view the exact number of steps they took based on the bar graphs, so we had to find an effective way for users to view both details and summary of the data.

Process & Final Designs
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Even though the initial design does use extrinsic motivation to encourage users by rewarding them with points that can be converted to tangible rewards, I realized that the app lacks features that act as an intrinsic motivation for users.

To boost intrinsic motivation, I developed a badge system where users would receive badges once they attain a certain goal. Because it is often difficult to workout regularly, game elements can act as a motivation factor to help users stay engaged by recognizing the user’s achievements and progress. Also, since users can view badges that other users achieved on the profile page, the badge system acts as virtual indicator of status, distinguishing badge-holders from others.

On the profile page, users can view their badge progress, recent groups, how many points they’ve earned, and upcoming events. This page can also act as a shortcut to move to specific sections if users want to view more details.

In the History feature, I combined the separate bars into one graph so that users could hover over each bar to see the exact number of steps that they took, allowing users to keep track of their exercise data. Originally, users had to use the dropdown function to view the details of the walk history. However, this required users to make several clicks. To create a simpler way to view the data, I inserted a menu bar for weekly, monthly, and yearly below the graph so that users can swipe to instantly view the exercise data they are looking for.
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Moving Forward
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While working on this app, I participated in several meetings with the actuarial team to understand what improvements to make. One of the challenges that I faced during meetings was the language barrier. I faced difficulty in understanding problems that had to be fixed on the platform and clearly communicating my ideas with other teams.

However, through this challenge, I realized that visual representation is key in effective communication; when I faced difficulty in communicating, I tried to use more visuals in order to explain my ideas and to suggest improvements during meetings. Eventually, this helped me create simpler designs and focus on identifying key features that needed to be further developed.
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Overall, I had an unforgettable experience with my team, friends, and the program. I'm truly grateful that I had the opportunity to be a part of this program over summer.