Think of Jomanity as “Social Media for Self-Awareness”. Currently in a development, Jomanity’s founders aimed to create a space where everyday people can engage in more meaningful connection with themselves and others. Key to Jomanity’s mission is to do this without utilizing the addictive, exploitative qualities of typical social media platforms. The focus of my work on this project was Interaction Design, informed by research.

While Jomanity’s concept was fairly unique itself, I needed to better understand the general digital wellness space. I was especially curious what approaches are out there, when it comes to digital “habit-breaking tools”. Looking at some of the leading mobile apps that focus on these areas, a couple themes started emerging:

1. These apps universally incorporate push notifications.

2. Nearly all of these apps also require first time users to configure/set up an account prior to use.

To guide my design process for this project I consulted a few sources on Behavioral Design, & Persuasive vs. Addictive Design Patterns. Reading the book “Nudge” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, as well as excerpts from “Hooked” by Nir Eyalto, & “Connected” by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler.

A helpful tool when diving into complex problem spaces, is to create a “north star” of sorts, to guide the design process & avoid losing yourself on the journey to completing the ultimate goal of the project.. Having freshly absorbed a large amount of inspiring material in my competitive analysis & deep dives, I was able to quickly draft my own list of Interaction Design Principles for this project. This list was handed off to the client in the end, as it could serve as a valuable tool for anyone doing future development or design work for this app/platform.

1. Make it temporary (limited engagement)

2. Make it simple and easy.

3. Daily “baby steps” for users to achieve their goals.

4. Encourage self-compassion

5. Remind users of their purpose, their “WHY” if they fall off daily use.

Focused user interviews can be a rich sources of qualitative data. I needed to better understand how the client’s target audience perceives the current social media & wellness spaces. I was able to conduct 5 remote research sessions via Zoom and facilitated and observed as two other researchers working on separate, yet related projects, posed additional questions to the same participants.

I presented some potential UI patterns I had sketched out, in sort of a rapid “speed-dating” style to participants, as a way to quickly narrow down an approach.

From the user interview portion of these sessions, a couple major challenges quickly emerged from those sessions:

1. Most participants, in general, are skeptical of anything social-media related

2. This user group extremely dislikes pop-up style notifications/communication

Most “Social Media” platforms are designed to operate in a way that play with the reward centers of the human brain. Unhealthy, addictive interaction patterns are core to engagement. Jomanity’s target audience are folks who on some level, understand that. Folks who have turned their back, for the most part, on platforms like Facebook & Instagram.

To create value for the client, I decided to focus on testing a strategy that faces the main challenges, head on, of onboarding for a social media platform that is designed for folks who don’t like social media platforms. One that encourages daily engagement, but strictly in a healthy, measured, & holistic way.

The approach here needs to extremely nuanced to succeed, but one of the greatest things about UX is the ability to model complex interactions with relatively little effort, and test & iterate on those designs.

Based on all my research, proper onboarding will be essential to retain users and truly develop this platform. So the main actions I included in my prototype were:

1. Introducing the Jomanity concept to users (who, by definition, were skeptical of social media)

2. Incorporate simple customization during onboarding, that would deliver relevant content to the user, while simultaneously helping them understand the app’s nuanced interaction patterns.

I created the prototype in Figma, and conducted a round of 4 Usability Tests via Zoom. I then analyzed my notes and reviewed the recorded sessions and compiled my findings and recommendations for the client.

Through usability testing, I found participants reacted quite positively to some aspects of my proposed interaction patterns, while a bit skeptical of others. In the end, much was learned, and I compiled my findings and delivered the client some key strategies and recommendations for continued work on this ambitious and complex project.

Researching and ideating in such a vast & complex problem space, in a relatively short span of time, can be quite challenging.  That being said, it was a rewarding and eye-opening experience and I’m incredibly grateful for the perspective gained.