May 2021
QUAN WELL-BEING
Quan’s well-being platform struggled to keep users engaged. I redesigned its onboarding, navigation and content into a simpler, motivating system — cutting onboarding time an estimated 30% and reaching an 80% task-completion rate in testing.
Role
UX Designer and Researcher
Duration
16 Weeks
Tools
Figma, Adobe XD, Miro, Blush
The redesign came down to three concrete moves.
Simplified, Persistent Navigation
A bottom nav plus Continue, Recommended, Saved and Completed tabs replaced cluttered pathways and cut navigation errors.
‘Singles’ & ‘Courses’ Content System
Quick ‘Singles’ for small actions and step-based ‘Courses’ for depth — so users engage on their own terms of time, energy, and mood.
Gamified Progress
Streaks, emotion check-ins, achievements and celebratory cues that make habit-building feel light and rewarding.
Impact & Challenges
~30%
Faster onboarding (estimated)
80%
Task completion rate in testing
Beyond the numbers
Stakeholder Alignment
Developed a clear roadmap and presented findings to Quan’s leadership, aligning the platform’s features with business goals.
Challenges
Catering to Diverse Needs
Serving both novice and experienced users risked making the interface overly complex.
Limited Time for Quantitative Research
With a tight timeline, research prioritised qualitative depth over scale — so insights are rich but drawn from small samples rather than statistically robust numbers.
Testing in a Remote Environment
Remote Zoom testing made it harder to read non-verbal cues and immediate reactions.
A flexible structure that builds sustainable well-being habits through autonomy, motivational cues, and behavioural design principles.
Intuitive visual cues over text-heavy guidance, so users act independently and with less cognitive load.
A dual content system and exploratory layout that adapts to users’ time, energy, and emotional context without complex setup.
Before
After
Context
Quan wanted to support mental health through habit formation, but early engagement showed the platform wasn’t guiding people through lasting behaviour change. The real gaps were in usability, personalisation, and the timing of support — so I went back to the foundation and redesigned around them.
Problem Statement
Workplace mental health tools often miss individual needs, so people disengage and stop using them. Quan set out to help users improve their well-being across five dimensions — Mind, Body, Meaning, Self-Fulfillment, and Social Connectedness — without piling on complexity.
Project Aim
To design an intuitive system that motivates users to adopt healthier habits and sustain them long-term.
Research
Main Research Question
How might we create an intuitive system that facilitates and motivates the user to work on their well-being with Quan?
Sub-Questions
What makes a system feel intuitive, and how does that apply to Quan’s ”Journey”? What do users expect from a well-being platform, and what tools do they already use? What features would actually motivate them to keep coming back? And how do other well-being platforms structure their user flows?
Methodology
Primary Research
🎨 Workshops: Ran Miro-based sessions — brainstorming, card sorting, cognitive mapping — to surface expectations, needs, and behaviours.
🎙️ Interviews: Semi-structured interviews on motivation, platform expectations, and what triggers behaviour change.
🧪 Usability Testing: Tested prototypes across sprints to check usability, clarity, and whether the motivational design landed.
💬 Think-Aloud: Had users narrate their thinking during testing and workshops to get at the why behind their actions.
Secondary Research
📊 Competitor Analysis: Studied habit-forming platforms — Duolingo, Elevate, Headspace — for flow, functionality, and motivation tactics.
🧠 Behavioural Grounding: Leaned on behavioural design principles, keeping cognitive load low, to shape how motivation and progress were built into the experience.
Project Plan
Understanding Users
I ran user interviews, reviewed existing research, and analysed industry trends to surface the real pain points in workplace mental health tools. That fed into data analysis of the questionnaires and interviews, user personas, and journey maps.
Key Insights
Insight 1
Users felt overwhelmed by generic well-being tools that lacked customisation.
Insight 2
Most users wanted a simple, aesthetically pleasing interface with actionable, relevant recommendations.
Insight 3
Most wanted progress tracking and community features to stay accountable.
User Journey Map
The path an employee takes to actually start using a workplace mental health tool:
Design Principles
⏱️ Minimal Effort
Users should achieve goals with minimal time and effort.
🧭 Guided Autonomy
Provide flexible tools while offering optional guidance.
🎨 Aesthetic Appeal
Visually appealing designs increase perceived usability.
🤝 Community Engagement
Foster a sense of belonging through shared experiences.
🏆 Progress Tracking
Allow users to see and celebrate their achievements.
🎉 Fun Interactions
Include small, rewarding moments to encourage continued use.
Defining
Prioritising User Needs
Simplicity
Minimise effort required to engage with the platform.
Personalisation
Balance hand-holding for beginners with autonomy for experienced users.
Motivation
Incorporate rewards, progress tracking, and community features.
Design Process
I split the work into four sprints, each with two demos. I broke the user stories down across the sprints, checked they matched the team’s goals, then ran the ideate–prototype–test cycle.
Ideation
I brainstormed against the user pain points and design principles, exploring onboarding flows, personalised dashboards, and habit-building tools. Since people would use Quan at work, I prioritised the desktop version.
Wireframing and Lo-fi Prototyping
Prototypes, Decisions and Testing Results
The design moved through several sprints of user feedback. Instead of logging every change, here are the decisions that mattered most — and what testing showed.
Simplified Navigation with Contextual Guidance
Users felt overwhelmed by cluttered pathways. I applied a persistent bottom nav bar and reorganised tasks into Continue, Recommended, Saved, and completed tabs, balancing autonomy with structure. Usability tests showed improved task completion and fewer navigation errors.
Visual Communication Over Verbal
Testing showed users often skipped text. I leaned on shape, icon, and colour distinctions (e.g. Singles vs Courses) so people could recognise things at a glance instead of reading.
Tailored Content Delivery
Generic wellness content was disengaging. I introduced a dual format — short ‘Singles’ for quick actions and step-based ‘Courses’ for depth — so users could pick a path by motivation, time, or mood. The Continue/Recommended/Explore layout meant no one was locked into a single onboarding route.
Motivation Through Progress Feedback and Gamification
Users lacked a sense of progress and achievement. To make habit-building feel lighter, I added gamified elements — achievements and emotion-logging ‘check-ins’ — plus visual cues like streaks, progress indicators, celebratory illustrations, and golden check marks to reinforce momentum. Even in rough form, testers called it ‘encouraging’ and ‘satisfying.’
Mobile Version
Adapt the core features to mobile so people can reinforce habits daily, even away from work.
Community Features
Explore opt-in peer support, shared journeys, or private group challenges — with strong privacy settings — to build shared progress without pressure.
Light Personalisation
Add light personalisation toggles (e.g. “I prefer fast tasks” or “I’m working on sleep”) to surface relevant content without overwhelming users with setup questions.
Test Long-Term
Run long-term testing (e.g. over 2–4 weeks) to check whether progress cues, check-ins, and streaks keep motivating users over time.
In-Person Testing
Add in-person usability sessions to catch the subtle emotional and behavioural cues that remote testing misses.
Unified Platform
Centralise everything in one platform to streamline communication and cut admin overhead.