In the next paragraphs I will shortly go over each step I did in order to complete the challenge. Hereby I will try to illustrate my thought process and give examples of the different visuals I created. If you like the project, visit my CV chatbot and let me know if you are hiring ;)

Research

My first step after reading the brief was to familiarize myself more with what “Self-Quantification” actually is and what it means to different people. In general it can be defined as tracking information about yourself and your environment via quantitative data.

Because I neither had more information than the short brief nor access to a specific target group, I started off with collecting general information via guerilla research:

Reading message boards and forums

Conducting informal interviews with people who are wearing/using trackers

Listening to podcasts and talks about self-tracking

Goals of self-quantification

Interestingly, different people had very different goals they wanted to achieve by tracking their own lifes:

Self-discovery & self-awareness

Getting an overview about what is actually going on in ones life.

It’s like a diary, but based on factual data. It’s interesting to discover trends and phases, but also great for taking a trip down memory lane and rediscover things you already forgot.

Self-knowledge

Being able to connect different data and discover root causes.

Finally, it all made sense. I had it there in front of me. I could actually see it in the numbers. And for the first time I felt like I had understood what my body wanted to tell me.

Self-improvement

The ultimate goal, using data in order to improve certain aspects of ones life.

It really does give you a significant advantage in life across very many areas — thanks to this, I often feel “superhuman” because of how much control I have over my health and behavior relative to what I see in other people.

Finding the problem(s)

Self-quantification is something that many people are already doing, but in very different ways. While the majority only tracks a couple of data points, e.g. the steps per day, others spend multiple thousand dollar to better understand and influence their body and mind.

But research shows that almost 50 percent of the people who start tracking their own activities via wearables abandon their devices after six months.

In order to build a solution that solves the problems these people face, I first had to understood what caused their behavior:

Not being able to make use of data

Most devices currently just present the data, but do not help you interpret it and uncover connections.

I’m using so many apps / services to measure data about myself, but at the end of the day, I still can’t distill it down to ‘pointers on how to improve’.

Too much pressure

Not reaching your daily goals or comparing yourself to others can lead to very negative emotions.

My self-worth was tied to the data. One pound heavier this morning? You’re fat. 2 g too much fat ingested? You’re out of control. Skipped a day of running? You’re lazy.

Data entry

Most devices can only track very limited aspects. In order to get a holistic view of yourself, you have to manually add data.

I ended up becoming a prisoner of the data. Every evening I had to sit down and it felt a lot like work.

Persona

I decided to create a persona and her background story in order to better understand and visualize how I could build a self-quantification solution that satisfies the needs and solves the problems of a specific user group.

May I introduce you to Jenny, who just started working as Junior Management Consultant in a new town after completing her studies.

I’m grateful my company is already trusting me with so many responsibilities after these few weeks, yet sometimes I feel a bit lost and like I haven’t earned it yet. After the more stressful days, I always feel completely exhausted and empty. Sometimes I also have some minor headaches and have to focus really hard to stay productive. During my studies, I had a certain daily routine. Getting up at 7 a.m., relaxed breakfast with my roommate, then on to work on my thesis and afterwards I would either work out with my friend Vanessa or going to the volleyball practice. Last year, our team even made it to the second highest league! But when I visited Vanessa last week and we went for a run together, I just couldn’t keep up any more. While I would love to do more sports again, the problem is that right now every day is different. I cannot plan ahead anymore. One month ago, I decided I would set up and follow a routine, but when I had to travel to the other side of the country for five days, I just couldn’t stick to it and was not able to get back into it afterwards. In the evenings, I often check out the social media profiles of my friends to see what they are up to. And I’m both amazed and jealous how well other people seem to be able to combine work, fitness and healthy food. There’s this one guy from school, who is always preparing those super healthy breakfasts with Chia seeds and fruit in it. It looks great, but I just don’t know how I could do it.

Vision

Combining the insights from the different research sources as well as from the persona, it became clear that the app had to focus on excelling in the following aspects:

Prioritize helping the user understand the connections and how to influence the different parts of her life.

the connections and the different parts of her life. Adapt to the different contexts and dynamic environment of the user.

and dynamic environment of the user. Make data tracking and logging as effortless and easy as possible.

and easy as possible. Combine data from as many aspects of the user’s life.

Overall, the app has to feel like a combination of a therapist, medical doctor, personal coach and good friend, while it has to avoid being seen as babysitter or drill sergeant.

One additional constraint was that the user did not have to purchase any kind of activity tracker or similar device in order to use the app. This often is an entry barrier for people who are interested in self-quantification but first want to play around and see whether it works for them.

User journey