Manulife MOVE— UX Case Study
Had extra time for this one, so I created a Medium entry.
Just recently, I’ve been layed off. The game company I’ve been working for for 6 months recently closed their branch in the Philippines so I have no other choice but to look for another job. Luckily, Manulife PH has an opening for a UI/UX position. I’ve sent them my application, and after some days, they contacted me. As an exam to test my skills, they let me pick the exam focus I would want to take. The choices are UX design or UI design. I stick to the UI Design as I think I feel more comfortable taking this one.
Update: I didn’t get the job. Well, better luck next time I guess.
The challenge was, to review their fitness mobile app which is Manulife MOVE.
“With the Manulife fitness tracker recording your number of steps, you can sync it to our ManulifeMOVE mobile app and monitor your average daily steps. When you reach the required MOVE Reward Level, you can enjoy special rates on the premium of your eligible plan upon renewal on your next membership year.” — (Ref. https://www.manulife.com.ph/en/individual/what-s-new/manulife-move.html)
The Challenge
When I saw this, I though to myself, “Oh easy, just a redesign of something that already exists. I can do that” and Oh boy, never have I been so wrong in my life.
The Problem
The problem is that everyone has their own fitness tracker that they use, that they feel comfortable using, something that they can connect on their devices and use its maximum efficiency. In the exam, they gave me 3 things to consider
- How can I make ManulifeMOVE different from other existing fitness apps? How can I make this one stand out?
- How would I design the user interaction to engage and deliver a narrative from the brand perspective? How can I make them use the app every now and then and make it a habit for them?
- How would I keep the design consistent and updated across the app?
The Solution
The solution would be to focus on the rewards that the app could give you, besides the healthy lifestyle and the fitness guides it offers. As this is a fitness app, we should always remind them to MOVE and make them stay motivated especially when they are slacking.
- Focus on the exclusive offer we give our users when they use the app.
- Make a “Reminder” feature. Like setting up time for workout and notifications for the user to remember to MOVE a little and keep an active lifestyle.
- Use icons for retention. Use the proper color combinations that can motivate the users to move.
The Research
1. Competitive Analysis
I did a simple competitive analysis to have an idea what most users use as their fitness app and what are making these apps stand out from the rest.
Here we can see that most apps focus on the user’s need to excercise and track their fitness journey, whereas with ManulifeMOVE, we can see that it focuses on the rewards and offers that the app could give to their users whenever they do something. I think that’s where the problem lies. This method could work, only if you already perfectly established the basic functionalities of a fitness tracking app. Right now, your forcing them to MOVE and not their and DO SOMETHING rather than making them be “patrons” of your app first.
2. User Segmentation and Defining Users
I defined different prospective users that would use the app. I listed out their lifestyle, their current priority and the amount of time they have on their hands.
I used the Jobs-To-Be-Done framework as my base. This would help me really dig deep on when the users would potentially use the app.
THE RESULT
Based on the data present, it would really help if the app would focus on making subcribers and frequent users on the app first, not because of the reward system, but because they need to use it cause its a better fitness tracking app other than many fitness tracking apps in the market right now. They can do this by first, focusing on what the user needs at the moment to establish the user’s need to use the app. Then they can build their way up on the reward that they offer to frequent users.
