Habit Hero Case study

Summary (speed-read approved)

HabitHero was a hypothetical app my course provided, meant to help users build healthy habits, but it wasn’t designed with real people’s motivation patterns or accessibility needs in mind. My task was to research user expectations, ideate inclusive improvements, and prototype a goal-tracking experience that supports long-term habit building.

Over the course of 8 weeks, I led research, UX strategy, prototyping, and user testing — culminating in a redesigned experience that better supports health goals, cognitive accessibility, and flexible tracking.

The Challenge

This was a solo UX project as part of a Level 7 UX Design course. My brief was to design a more inclusive, engaging habit-tracking experience for the fictional HabitHero app — with a specific focus on progress tracking, health goal customisation, and long-term engagement.

HabitHero users had diverse health needs, ranging from neurodivergent and chronically ill individuals to those new to wellness apps. Many existing tools felt inflexible, confusing, or overwhelming. My goal was to translate user insight into a flexible interface that accommodates real lives.

Goals

• Make habit and goal setting feel motivating, not clinical

• Support accessibility and inclusive defaults

• Align with real-world user behaviour — not idealised UX flowcharts
   

Constraints

• Feature scope limited to tracking and goal-setting

• Needed to demonstrate usability, accessibility, and visual consistency

• Prototype required both low-fidelity and high-fidelity versions, with usability testing, annotations, and handoff-ready assets

Original Designs

Research

To build a useful and inclusive foundation, I combined primary and secondary methods to understand real users’ needs, expectations, and blockers around building habits.

Research Methods

• User interviews (mix of experienced  health and fitness app users, non-users, and those with health conditions)

• Surveys to explore common motivators/barriers

• Competitor audit: Fitbit, Fabulous, Streaks, Done, Habitica

• Empathy maps and user task flows

• Affinity diagramming in FigJam

• Wizard of Oz-style walkthroughs with early wireframes

Key Insights

“If I mess up one day, I give up completely. The app should help me keep going — not shame me.”

Research Images

Strategy

Based on findings, I reframed the problem:

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"How might we make progress tracking flexible, forgiving, and motivating — especially for users with variable energy, memory, or accessibility needs?"

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I prioritised features that encouraged consistency without pressure, while also exploring playful and adaptive UI elements.

One standout idea that emerged was a virtual pet companion system. Users could “take care” of a digital pet by completing their health goals. This added a nurturing, gamified layer to the experience, turning progress into care and reward. It reframed habit tracking from a task to a relationship.

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Approach:

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• Built out a feature matrix (impact vs effort)

• Mapped journeys including happy path and alternative/unhappy path

• Created a storyboard to visualise emotional flow through the app

Design Process

My design evolved across several stages:

Low-fi Wireframe

• Focused on flexible layout and minimal cognitive load

• Explored different goal types: single action, repeating, adaptive

• Hand-drawn and digital sketches created with Procreate