WHAT IS IT
Public Health England (PHE) has a series of apps designed to help people live healthier lifestyles. Couch to 5k is a tried and tested programme, but the existing PHE app was underperforming and suffered from extensive usability issues. They commissioned a complete redesign of the app.
THE APPROACH
Working in a team of two, we undertook a 6-week design and prototyping process to get from start to signed off production ready screens. This included face-to-face interviews with under-active 40-60 year olds in London and Manchester to better understand the needs of the audience.
The first round of interviews reinforced our hypothesis that the redesigned app needed to be super simple. With this in mind we stripped out any unnecessary functionality and focused on minimising the on-screen information. Over four 1-week sprints we validated the evolving design with new users, and gathered feedback on potential new features for the next generation of the app.
As well as user input, we worked closely with David Crane, a Behaviour Change Expert from UCL, to ensure that we had integrated evidence based behaviour change techniques into our proposed design. These included goal setting, action planning, social support and self-reporting.
THE RESULTS
The new version of the app has a 4.5 star rating on Google and Apple stores. The old version had 1.