Meta Wearables App UX Write-up

Overview

The Meta Wearables App is designed to seamlessly integrate with Meta's wearable devices, providing users with a comprehensive platform to track their fitness goals, receive notifications and control their wearable experience. This write-up outlines the user experience (UX) design process, key features and design decisions made during the development of the app.

User Research

Before designing the app, we conducted user research to understand the needs and pain points of wearable device users. Our research revealed:

Key Insights

1. Users want a simple and intuitive interface to track their fitness goals.

2. Notifications are essential, but users prefer customizable options to minimize distractions.

3. Integration with popular fitness apps and services is crucial.

4. Users value personalized recommendations for improving their fitness and wellness.

User Personas

Based on our research, we created two user personas:

Persona 1: Fitness Enthusiast

• Name: Alex

• Age: 28

• Occupation: Marketing Manager

• Goals: Track workouts, monitor progress and receive personalized fitness recommendations.

• Pain points: Difficulty navigating complex fitness apps, limited customization options.

Persona 2: Busy Professional

• Name: Rachel

• Age: 35

• Occupation: Software Engineer

• Goals: Stay connected with notifications, track daily activity and monitor sleep patterns.

• Pain points: Information overload, difficulty finding relevant features.

User Journey Map

We created a user journey map to visualize the user's experience across multiple touchpoints:

Journey Map

1. Onboarding: User downloads and installs the app, pairs their wearable device and completes a brief tutorial.

2. Dashboard: User views their fitness data, including activity tracking, sleep patterns and notifications.

3. Workout Tracking: User starts and stops workouts, views real-time data and receives post-workout summaries.

4. Notifications: User receives customizable notifications, including calls, texts and app alerts.

5. Integration: User connects their wearable device to popular fitness apps and services.

Wireframes and Prototyping

We created low-fidelity wireframes to visualize the app's layout and functionality:

Wireframes

1. Dashboard: Simple, card-based layout displaying key fitness metrics.

2. Workout Tracking: Prominent start/stop button, real-time data visualization.

3. Notifications: Customizable notification settings, clear typography.

We then created a clickable prototype to test the app's usability and gather feedback:

Prototype

1. Tested with 10 users, iterating on design and functionality based on feedback.

2. Refining the dashboard layout to prioritize key metrics.

3. Enhancing workout tracking with audio cues and vibration feedback.

Visual Design

Our visual design aimed to create a clean, modern aesthetic:

Design Principles

1. Simple typography and color scheme.

2. Consistent iconography and button styles.

3. Prominent use of whitespace to enhance readability.

Key Features

1. Personalized Recommendations: Users receive tailored fitness and wellness suggestions based on their activity data.

2. Customizable Notifications: Users can choose which notifications to receive and when.

3. Seamless Integration: Users can connect their wearable device to popular fitness apps and services.

4. Real-time Workout Tracking: Users can track their workouts in real-time, with audio cues and vibration feedback.

Design Decisions

1. Prioritizing Key Metrics: We emphasized displaying essential fitness data on the dashboard to reduce cognitive load.

2. Streamlining Navigation: We simplified the app's navigation to minimize user friction.

3. Enhancing Accessibility: We ensured the app's color scheme and typography meet accessibility standards.

Conclusion

The Meta Wearables App provides a user-centric experience, catering to the needs of fitness enthusiasts and busy professionals alike. Through user research, personas, user journey mapping, wireframing, prototyping and visual design, we created an intuitive and engaging platform that empowers users to achieve their fitness goals.

On Difficulty Curves

On a short, moderate, and long term, the ideal progression system will be encouraging the player to play for the next ten minutes, the next hour, and the next week. My favorite progression reference is Satisfactory, their system leverages expanding resource demands, upgrades, clearly defined long-term goals, and flexible pathways through the content. Create a pool of crafted decisions for the player through reflection of the intended goals your players will have. Why is the player playing your game? What fantasy are you providing? How can you set up your game's fantasy and then expand on it? The way your game enables the player's fantasy and expands off those base expectations is the key to enticing your players back for more.

On UX Design

Beyond data gathering, user research entails a dynamic exploration of player demographics, behaviors, and desires through an array of methodologies such as surveys, interviews, and usability testing. Delving into player communities unveils not just what players want, but why they want it, offering nuanced insights that shape our game design strategies. Through research, we scrutinize player feedback and observing gameplay dynamics, we unearth hidden patterns and refine mechanics, ensuring our games resonate deeply with our target audiences. This iterative process enables us to validate assumptions, optimize development decisions, and continually elevate player satisfaction.

On Project Vision

It is essential for your game to be built around a singular vision. Your game should be clearly scoped to be realistic for your technical capabilities, your team’s design skills, and your artistic resources. To be clear, you cannot, by yourself, build Call of Duty. But you can gauge the skills of your developers, balanced by the timeframe you work within, and you will have an appropriate scope where goals can be accomplished and a project vision that's reasonable for your team. Capital plays a part, but so does the economics of your team's environment. Write a design document and define what your game is and what it isn't. Target a style, reference other games, but be sure to design with a distinction that marks your project as yours.