In-App Challenges

Well was already running challenges through email marketing. The ask seemed straightforward: bring those challenges into the app. But the more I dug in, the more complex it became. The first obstacle was understanding who we were actually designing for. I went in expecting a defined persona — and hit a wall immediately.

That reframe changed everything. Instead of designing for a single user type, I needed to build something flexible enough to engage most users regardless of background, motivation, or comfort with technology.

Before designing anything, I wanted to understand the psychology behind habit formation. Habits and challenges follow the same four-stage loop. If I could design for how habits actually form, I could design challenges that stick.

This led me to research gamer psychology — specifically the HEXAD framework developed by Andrzej Marczewski, which categorizes users by what motivates them. I identified five types relevant to Well, organized around a core tension: extrinsic users (motivated by rewards) vs. intrinsic users (motivated by personal growth). The goal of the challenges system would be to convert extrinsic users into intrinsic ones over time.

Given the breadth of Well's audience, traditional personas would exclude too many users. Instead, I introduced levers — stackable personality traits that could be applied in combination to represent any user. I led the design team through a series of workshops where we mapped user stories for each lever, color-coding them red/yellow/green to identify where Well was underserving users and where challenges could create the most impact.

I synthesized the research into a stakeholder presentation covering two levers in depth, including user journey maps across five stages: awareness, evaluation, adoption, engagement, and loyalty. The presentation included clear conclusions on current gaps and specific recommendations for how challenges could address them — along with next steps for designers and PMs.

After incorporating stakeholder feedback, the project split into two distinct tracks:

With research and flows validated, I moved into design — working within the constraints of Well's existing component library and technical capabilities to create something shippable. Challenges surface under an 'In Progress' state and expand into a dedicated screen showing enrollment status, dates, reward tracking, and instructions.

I delivered a mix of lo-fi and hi-fi wireframes, giving the team enough fidelity to understand the concept and enough flexibility to iterate.

Since co-op was ending, I wasn't able to iterate on the MVP or see it developed. I left insight from my research and process for the team to consider moving forward.