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Designing a biofeedback app that wins hearts and awards

Nanoleq partnered with us to redesign the app for their innovative wearable device, Oxa. This advanced garment provides real-time biofeedback to enhance well-being through mindful breathing.

Phone mockup displaying the OXA app and its UI elements tracking sleep health and readiness
Client
Nanoleq
Industry
Health and Well-being
Service
UI/UX Design
Team Setup
4 designers + 1 researcher
Timeline
Ongoing 1+ year

Goal

Nanoleq partnered with us to revamp their Oxa app, seeking a distinctive design that matches with their smart wearables and brand. We aimed to ensure the app’s high-quality and user-centric experience by integrating the concept of breathing and incorporating user feedback and data.

Challenge

One significant challenge was understanding and representing the complexity of medical data, which demanded deep domain knowledge and user empathy to ensure accuracy and easy-to-digest visualizations. Additionally, capturing the essence of "breathing" through the app's design required creative approaches to provide users with a seamless and engaging experience.

Outcome

The collaboration resulted in a user-centric platform that seamlessly integrates complex data with interactive and engaging experiences. The Oxa app provides users with a digital mirror for their breathing and overall well-being, offering real-time feedback, gamified elements, and detailed performance summaries. Our commitment to excellence have earned us a long-term partnership with Nanoleq and the prestigious Red Dot Design Award.

24+
Months of collab
25+
User flows
1
Full app redesign
1 /
How we started

A deep dive into vision and goals, studying target audience preferences, and identifying potential areas for development kickstarted the collaboration. We also started to learn about the sensor's scientific and technological principles, gaining a thorough understanding of how it works.

Furthermore, we conducted a detailed competitor analysis revealing market trends, successful strategies, and areas where Oxa could stand out. Additionally, we familiarized ourselves with the Nanoleq's organizational structure, ensuring smooth collaboration and integration within their framework.

Picture of the Oxa sensor, a small round device on smart fabric that can be worn as a sports bra
The proprietary Oxa sensor (Courtesy of Nanoleq Oxa)

Workshops we facilitated

  1. Tone-of-voice: to establish a consistent and coherent communication style
  2. Look and feel: to explore different design directions
Colorful moodboards for Oxa prioritizing colors associated with calmness and sleep: blues, purples, pastels
Moodboards

Our research efforts played a pivotal role in the project's success by providing a strong foundation for well-informed design decisions based on the research findings.

2 /
Understanding the domain

Main challenges we overcame

  1. Medical data complexity: training ourselves with expert medical and science resources to gain a deep understanding of the domain.
  2. Empathizing with users and conveying breathing: applying interactive visualizations and gamification to effectively communicate breathing concepts and engage users.
  3. Balancing gamification with relaxation focus: carefully integrating gamification elements to enhance engagement while maintaining the app's core purpose of promoting relaxation and breathing exercises.
  4. Data visualization within limited screen: made us leverage creative problem-solving techniques to design intricate yet effective visualizations within the app's interface constraints.
The final Oxa design features dark blues and purples, and an abstract shape that contracts and expands as the user breathes. This visualizes the breathing data the device recieves.
3 /
App redesign

Highlights

  1. Our design team successfully rebuilt the entire application from the ground up, focusing on enhancing its core functionality and overall user experience.
  2. We also recreated the application's information architecture to improve navigation and usability.
  3. Additionally, we revamped the app's UI, creating a fresh and appealing look that aligns with industry standards and user preferences.

Research done throughout the entire project

  • Months-long diary-study
  • Market Research and many more

This research also guided critical business decisions, ensuring that the app's features and design align with the target audience's needs.

The initial design for Oxa was white with orange accents, but the final design ended up adopting a dark mode
Design process
4 /
Further collaboration

Fresh ideas by ever changing characters

After 1 year of stable collaboration with the core team (3 designers + 1 researcher) we continued with 1 designer and 1 researcher on demand.

Our collective wins

  1. Our collaboration with the client company improved their UX maturity.
  2. We provided training and workshops to teach UX principles and methodologies.
  3. Receiving the Red Dot Award for the project in the "Interface & User Experience Design" category.
  4. User experience for the application, including its innovative design, interactive data visualizations, and seamless user journeys.
  5. Design System with foundational elements, components and guidelines to maintain a cohesive website.
  6. We conducted usability testing, user interviews, and iterative design to ensure the app met the expectations.

Visit Oxa's website

Two mobile mockup featuring screens from the OXA app
Various screens from the app, from biofeedback summaries to breathing exercises and progress check-ins
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