A design study is a great way to show an alternative approach in UX for an existing application. In this Project, my tasks is to analize an exsiting mobile application( It can be IOS, Android, and a web app to naive) to redesign the user experience. From there, I will outline what changes, why and add explanation to support my ideas.
MyFitnessPal is a mobile application designed to help users keep track of their nutrient intake by providing nutrient trackers based on their daily meals.Overall, Myfitnesspal has offered a variety of features that assist users in keeping track of their fitness and nutrition. With 1.4 milliton download on App Store, it shows that myfitnesspal has done some grat jobs on assitisitng user on thier fitness journey.
However, there is still room for improvement in regards to the user experience, allowing for a more pleasant experience. I want to reduce the number of steps the user has to process in order to reach their goal, minimise confusion while they are using the app, highlight main features or in other words, be more centric on how the user focus on their path throught the app, and encourage them to react to their achievements. As a starting point, I would like to point out some features an e-commerce app needs to have in order to succeed:
Therefore I would plan my my design process how it can it user process through the app easily and how the UI help the user to make their decision.
In a short time frame, it was difficult to conduct actual user research and gain access to user data, so I looked at feedback on the AppStore. Their feedback is really valuable from the user's perspective, particularly for those who already use the app.
From my experience with the app and users feedback I have point out some main feature for the app (non premium version) with a matrix of painpoints:
• Log nutrient intake (Diary).
• Calorie tracker. Calculate nutrient needs.
• Monitoring nutrients macros.
• Weight tracking.
• Workout routine.
• Blog.
• Water intake.
• Food recipe.
Based on my findings and takeaways from user feedback, I developed a persona that I hope will help me better understand user needs and behaviors.
Overall, myfitnesspal provides users with a range of features that can assist them on their fitness journey. After analyzing the app and developing a user flow, I noticed that some flows required more steps to get the user to their main feature, while some irrelevant features appeared more prominently on the screen. Thus, I will redesign some screens to provide a better user experience by eliminating redundant steps and bringing the most valuable feature to the front.
• The main feature of the app is hidden behind other screens or takes a long step to access, while some less important • features take up a lot of space on the main page which should be devoted to the main features of the app.
• There are so many features in the "More" button, even some important features/screens in the app (User settings, Nutrition) which should be separate on a separate page. This is also a cognitive overload pain-point for the users.
• Some features are repeated and hidden behind other pages, which is confusing for the user.
• Users would give up on their diets if they didn't get reminders about their progress or goals.
• No user profile section.
• A large amount of content on one screen.
• Enhance the user experience by arranging the elements in such a way that they focus the user's attention on the most important features of the app, thus decreasing the time they need to spend reaching those features.
• The "More" button has so many functions that it should be moved to another screen.
• Display the number of calories remaining in the current day.
• In order to motivate them, it may be helpful to create a diagram depicting the process they went through.
Due to the fact that the main screen is the first one the user will see when they open the app and the one they are most likely to see, I wanted to make sure they had access to the most useful features. According to user feedback, the features I would like to highlight are the calories remaining and nutrient information. These two features have been featured prominently on the home screen.
For the diary screen, I added a visual progress meter to the diary page so the user can easily keep track of their progress
Users' information is now included in the progress section. Some of the features from the "More" screen that could be of benefit to the users have been moved here and they have been grouped into categories to prevent cognitive overload, as the "More" button has more than 20 sections in many categories. The detail button on the user's profile allows users to see more information about their progress.
The Setting section is now only contains the app setting.
Through this project, I have learned that users get confused when they search for information but cannot locate it easily. There are some features that do not have a logical flow, because they are hidden or located on another screen, causing confusion or causing people to ignore them. With my design solution, I aim to minimize the steps that take the user to their desired location and to the main features of the app. In my experience as a UX designer, it is impossible to create a good UX without user involvement. Whether we redesign an existing app or not, we still can't simply assume it's what the users want. It is vital to know what the user wants and what the app should do best to create a better user experience by analyzing and empathizing with them.
