Overview
What’s the smoke about?
Smoking is a significant problem in Germany, leading to preventable deaths and healthcare expenses of over 25 billion euros each year. However, existing cessation apps are unsuccessful in retaining user engagement.
Cloudy is not just another quit smoking app!
It’s your companion in your exciting journey to establish an empowering and self-determined solution for your smoking habit.
Empathise
Walking in the Shoes of a Smoker
To truly understand our users' needs, we started by conducting a survey and were thrilled to receive 60 responses. But we knew that we needed to go deeper. So, we went ahead and held six in-depth interviews with smokers themselves. Listening to their experiences and challenges gave us a better understanding of what our app needed to do to help them manage their smoking habits better.
We knew we needed an expert's perspective to truly make an impact. So, we interviewed a subject matter expert who worked in the field of drug counseling. Their insights helped us design features that not only addressed smoking but also helped users manage the emotional and psychological factors that can contribute to their habit.
Furthermore we investigated into market and competitor analysis to understand what’s on the market already, what’s working and on what aspects we can improve the status quo.
Survey
In order to learn more about the issue and being able to specify the problem we set up a survey to collect some quantitative data.
We receive 59 answers in total and realise that nicotine addiction seems to be the most common issue according to our interviewees.
User Interviews
In order to understand the needs and pain points of our target audience we conducted interviews with 5 smokers (in between 28–38 years of age).
We discovered that most smokers want to quit smoking, but they find it challenging to track their progress and find support. We also found that smokers want to understand their smoking patterns and how smoking affects their health.
Also we realised that our interviewees who used habit trackers or apps to stop smoking before experienced feelings of shame and guilt when stopping to use these apps.
Competitive Analysis
Parallel to the interviews we did a competitive analysis with the help of a Brand Comparison Cheat as well as a Feature Comparison Analysis
Next to the fact that most of them overload their users with a ton of features (even though you have to pay to unlock all them) we found another interesting similarity:
Many smoking cessation apps use a “cold turkey” approach, which encourages users to quit smoking completely and abruptly. While this approach may work for some users, it may not be effective for everyone, as quitting smoking can be a difficult and challenging process.
This is something we wanna change!
SME Interview
We were lucky enough to be able to interview a subject matter expert, working in a rehab center. During this we were able to clarify some questions and concerns we had and learned about the key factors for successful addiction recovery, which are as follows:
Define
From Smoke to Strategy
We prioritised our findings using an affinity map, developed a user persona and journey map, and leveraged these to formulate our key takeaways and strategy.
Affinity Diagram
We utilized the affinity diagram to organize and categorize our data, identify patterns and relationships, and generate actionable insights that informed our project's direction.
User Persona
Based on our research, we created a user persona named Adam. Adam is in his mid 30s, lives in Berlin and has been smoking for ages already. He has tried to quit smoking already, but he finds it difficult to track his progress and stay motivated.
User Journey Map
In order to create the User Journey Map we mentally accompanied Adam on his journey of trying to quit smoking with the help of an App:
Problem Statement
After many iterations … we finally arrived at our problem statement:
Smokers who want to redefine their smoking habits need to find a conscious and empowering support structure of habitual changes because unforgiving guilt spirals demotivate and discourage long-term progress.
To generate ideas and identify potential features for the app, we employed the "crazy 8s" technique and then used dot voting to prioritise our findings.
Through extensive discussion and brainstorming, we generated numerous features, and subsequently utilized the MoSCoW Method to arrive at a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) statement.
MVP Statement
Our MVP aims to help users to change smoking habits through personalized avatars, goal setting, and consumption tracking in an engaging narrative.
By ensuring that these features are available the users will feel empowered through their journey which helps them keep on track and stay motivated, regarding their planned behavioural changes.
We developed a unique storytelling approach and visual language for the app, incorporating calming and playful design elements along with gamification to empower and engage users.
After extensive testing and multiple iterations, we arrived at the final MVP.
Concept Testing
We continue with Concept testing with 5 prospective users. Overall our concept is confirmed as the app and its approach is liked by all the testers. Furthermore we’re lucky to be able to collect some suggestions for improvement:
the function and organisation of the Lounge was a bit unclear
there was a wish to set the general goal in the beginning and add it to the home screen
the visual apperance of the cigarette tracker makes is looks like it was a challenge to smoke more
Usability Testing
We set up usability tests via useberry and a survey and got good results in terms of general navigation and use of the app. However, there was some confusion about the different features and the story telling and gamification aspect of the app.
After a bit of brainstorming we figured that we would need an onboarding with a visual and engaging way of transmitting the background story of the app.
Storytelling
“Cloudy and Sunny lived a happy life in the land of Fluffypuffs. Humans also lived here and the land was surrounded by inactive volcanoes. Until one day, in an unfortunate event the atmosphere overheated and caused the volcano to erupt! This created a giant cloud of smoke, which prevented Sunny and Cloudy from finding each other.”
The app's objective is for users to cool down the volcano and reunite Cloudy & Sunny to restore harmony, using this as a metaphor for managing their cravings independently.
Style Tile
The brand attributes of community-oriented, supportive, companion, empowering, and amusing are all reflected in the user interface of the Cloudy app.
After the creation of a moodboard and a testing of it we continued with the Style tile, which you see below. Our UI design focused on creating a calming and relaxing environment to encourage users to use the app regularly. We utilized calming colors such as blue and purple and incorporated visual elements that conveyed a sense of progress and achievement.
The design elements, such as colors and graphics, are playful and engaging, making the app a companion for the user in their journey towards managing their smoking habits.
Final Prototype?
Watch a walkthrough of the final prototype below.