Lumo Lift App Redesign Original

Objective

Redesign the Lumo Lift iOS app to be more user friendly and to use iOS conventions.

Problem

The Lumo Lift is a wearable posture coach that tracks and reinforces good posture. It's a fantastic idea and the hardware is great, but the app is very basic and has some prominent usability flaws:

Data is difficult to compare, making it hard to make progress
Key app functionality is either hidden or undiscoverable (trends page, delay functionality, settings)
The app uses "good posture hours" as its key metric, but it is an unclear and ineffective metric that is not explained

Solution

I designed a new Lumo Lift iOS app with both aesthetic and functional improvements. The redesigned app:

Has much clearer and accessible navigation, with a tab bar instead of a hamburger menu
Has all of the previously hidden key features on the homepage
Replaces the confusing "good posture hour" metric with total good posture time
Makes data easier to digest and compare
Renames terms that might cause confusion (e.g. "sensitivity" instead of "delay")
Has improved UI with clearer links and color consistency

Not enough detail on the trends page

The trends page currently shows a bar graph of the percentage of good posture within the hour, but does not give specific details. 2 testers mentioned that they wanted to see a breakdown of good and bad posture by the minute, and 2 customers directly commented on it in their reviews: (1) “My main complaint is that I can’t get more detail about my activity. It would be great to know if there are times when I slouch more, or what my activity curve looks like.” (2) “I would be more inclined to use the app if it showed more stats, like my current posture or how many minutes of good posture I’ve had so far that day.”

Solution: Allow the user to see a breakdown of good and bad posture for each minute of the hour.

The trends page is undiscoverable

Data is difficult to compare, hard to track progress

9 customer reviews commented that the app lacks a way to view or compare data over long stretches of time, in order to see progress. One mentioned, “Some history display aka FitBit would be useful,” and another wrote, “Chart comparisons would be great or more details.” (Appendix)

Solution: The trends page has graphs that compare hourly posture and daily posture, but it appears that customers may not be discovering the latter, or may still find it difficult to use for comparisons. Progress can also be tracked via other data like the duration of continuous good posture or the number of buzzes per hour, as suggested by a tester.

"Good posture hour" is not a useful metric

An hour only counts as a "good posture hour" when the user has had good posture for at least 40% of the hour. That means that one could reach 39% for 12 hours, but still have 0 good posture hours. In addition, good posture for 40% and 99% of the hour are both recorded the same way, as 1 good posture hour.

All 3 testers remarked that the good posture hour metric could be improved: (1) “posture hours is a bit ambiguous;” (2) “it’s not a very intuitive metric;” (3) it’s “just the total,” want something more granular. 4 customer reviews expressed frustration at the use of “good posture hours” as a metric. One pointed out the lack of context: “…it will tell you “5 hours of good posture”. Swell, but five hours compared to what? Did I only wear the thing for five hours, or did I use it for sixteen hours?” Another lamented that it records 0 hours if one is below the 40% goal line: “I love the concept of the device but only seeing zero hours of good posture despite having the coach turned on is discouraging. I would like to see more minute-to-minute data to stay motivated.” (Appendix)

Solution: Another more intuitive metric for tracking posture could be introduced, such as a count of the total number of minutes of good posture, the longest string of continuous good posture, number of buzzes per hour, etc. This would give more motivation to those who are starting out and struggle with reaching the targeted 40% good posture in an hour, and it would also offer those who consistently exceed the target a way to quantify their achievements (distinguishing between 40% and 99% of the hour).

The delay functionality is hidden

Realtime reporting on posture is a key feature of the Lift, but it is hidden under two layers (Coach > Enable Vibrations > Test Delay), and the pathway to it is not obvious. 1 tester asked, “is there a live view like fitbit?” after having tested the Lift for a day. 3 customer reviews spoke of this issue: (1) “Can not see the realtime status.” (2) “the app is supposed to have a screen that IMO is incorrectly hidden behind “Test the Delay” button.” (3) “At the minimum you’d expect a realtime easy UI that shows you whether you’re slouching or not, and some constant realtime counter of your good posture time. The device can do it as there’s a setting scree that does this sort of but it’s cumbersome to get to.” (Appendix)

Solution: Surface the realtime reporting feature, either to the main page or under an easily accessible and intuitive link on the main page.

Redesigned Home Screen

The home screen redesign addresses all of the previous issues:

Data is displayed in a bar graph along with how the percentage completion of the user's goal
Arrows to see previous/next days are next to the date
Trends link is in the tab bar at the bottom. Tapping on the bar graphs also takes the user to the Trends page for a breakdown of his/her data
Coach can be turned on and off directly on the home screen. The user also sees a live report of his/her posture in the timer to the right
The Lumo Lift header adds branding to the app