Role
User Research
Product Strategy
UI Design
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
Tools
Figjam
Notion
Maze
Figma
Timeline
5 weeks
Our Challenge
Our challenge:
We recognized that cold showers can be challenging to implement, and that most individuals are hesitant to try them.Our primary goal was to develop a cold shower feature that would make the shower easier to complete. By making the expereince more user-friendly, we hoped to encourage more users to explore the benefits of cold showers and the Wim Hof method
How might we make the cold shower challenge easier to complete?
Usability problems with current cold shower challenge
During our analysis of the Wim Hof app's cold shower user journey, we identified several significant usability problems that were hindering the user experience.
1. Too much information to process before starting the shower: Currently, users are required to navigate through a significant amount of information before starting the cold shower challenge, which can be overwhelming and confusing.
2.Too many decisions to make on the settings screen: The settings screen requires users to make multiple decisions before they can start their shower, which can be a barrier to engagement.
Additional usability problem
As a team we conducted a series of tests and experiments while practicing cold showers ourselves. During this testing phase, we discovered another usability problem that had not been immediately apparent in our initial analysis of the app.
The issue we discovered is related to the countdown timer that users must set before starting their cold shower which allows them time for a warm shower before they proceed to the cold one.
Currently, users are presented with three preset options for the length of their warm shower, which can be limiting and unhelpful for users who may want to vary the length of their warm shower based on their daily schedule or personal preference.
How competitors are motivating users to develop habits?
Our primary focus became to simplify the cold shower journey. Our team has been studying successful apps that help users form habits, such as Headspace, Peloton, Nike Run, and Couch to 5K, to gain insights into how they help users to achieve this goal.
Our main observation was that they all prioritise simplification and eas of use, they focus on minimizing the number of steps that users must take to perform the desired action, whether it's running or meditating.
Ideation
In the ideation phase of our project, we focused on brainstorming ways to simplify the cold shower flow in a similar manner to other habits forming apps.
We made a strategic decision to prioritize simplification and ease of use in our redesign of the cold shower flow. To achieve this, we focused on reducing the number of steps required for users to transition to the cold shower and introduced a flexible countdown timer that allows users to adjust the duration of their warm shower.
What can we improve
Reduce the amount of steps to take before the cold shower.
What can we add
Flexible countdown timer
Behavioural Science Perspective
As part of our efforts to improve the cold shower expereince within the Wim Hof app and increase engagemnet, out team seeked expert advice on how to incorporate principles of behavioral science into our product development process. We arranged an office hour meeting with Matt Wallaert, a renowned behavioral scientist with extensive experience advising tech companies on product development.
Core User Behaviour
Matt pointed out, the cold shower experience withing Wim Hof app is essentially a timer. He challenged us to think beyond the current timer functionalities and that we take a step back and consider the core behavior we are trying to create in our users: getting them to stay under a cold shower.
Following this feedback we framed our challenged more broadly, which allowed us to consider a wider range of potential solutions beyond just the timer functionality.
How might we encourage users to stay underneath a cold running water?
More cold shower experimenting
We conducted our own experiments with taking cold showers using the app to explore what could motivate someone to stay in a cold shower for a longer period of time.
Here is a summary of my personal experience:
Early on in the challenge, we found that the app restricted me from taking longer showers, which led to us stopping using the app altogether.
I tried using a regular physical timer instead of the app, which allowed me to take longer showers but felt lonely and boring without any guidance or interaction.
I experimented with listening to music and guided meditations from Headspace, but found that neither added to our experience and the meditation was too quiet to relax.
I tried listening Wim Hof's guided breathing session from YouTube during the shower. Although the session wasn't designed specifically for cold showers, simply doing the breathing exercises helped me to saty focused, made the experience more enjoyable, and enabled me to stay under the shower for the entire 10 minutes (compared to just under a minute during our initial attempts).
Solution
After gathering insights from these experiments, we decided that the most straightforward approach to potentially help users stay under cold water would be to add and test an audio-guided cold shower experience in the app. We believed that a guided audio experience would have a greater impact on user behavior. However, given the time limitations, we acknowledged that we would not be able to record and integrate the actual audio into the app.
Due to time constraints and the effort required to create and implement the audio, we determined that simplification and flexibility would be the next most important features to focus on.
User Flows
We redesigned the current cold shower user flow adding a step with recorded guided experience, reducing the number of decisions the user has to take and adding more flexibility around the warm shower timer.
Existing User Flow
Improved User Flow
Wieframes
As we progressed to sketching wireframes and prototyping, we further simplified the process by eliminating some instructional videos that were originally planned for inclusion.
Rapid Prototyping
High Fidelity Prototype
Usability Testing
The prototype has not been tested yet. We acknowledge that in order to fully comprehend the impact of adding a flexible countdown timer and guided experience, simply performing on-screen usability testing is insufficient. We suggest conducting user testing with individuals who are currently practicing the Wim Hof method to determine the impact on their behavior.
Learnings
2 categories of resarch insights
Throughout the project, we uncovered insights in two categories: current functionality and user behaviour.
We found that users were experiencing information overload with the current app and desired more flexibility with the countdown timer. On the user behaviour side, we discovered that taking cold showers was a challenging experience for many users and that the key focus should be on helping users stay under the cold water.
Prioritsation
However, due to time constraints we did not prioritize these insights as effectively as we could have, and as a result, implemented them ad hoc. In an ideal scenario, we should have focused on adding one feature at a time and testing it before moving on to the next. Also In an ideal scenario, we would have received Matt's behavioural design feedback at the outset of the project. This would have allowed us to expand our problem focus from the beginning
Limitation of the guided audio experience solution
We found that adding guided audio to our own cold shower routine greatly improved our experience, and we believed that it could have a similar impact on other users. However, as we are already experienced in taking cold showers, we recognized the need to test the audio experience with users who are new to the practice to determine its effectiveness.
Conclusion
Research Methods
As the project did not involve formal research, we conducted some guerrilla research to gather insights. We spoke with friends, family, and mentors, listened to conversations among Bootcamp colleagues, reviewed posts in Facebook groups and did our own experiment with cold showers. It is worth noting that most of the insights we gathered howeever very useful were based on anecdotes rather than empirical data.
Achieving Business Goals
The Wim Hof Method app has the potential to drive business growth by helping users to complete their cold showers. By conducting user research and measuring the impact of our improvements on their ability to successfully stay under cold water, we can make data-driven decisions to increse the chances of the desired behavior (taking cold shower) to occur.
Additionally, we can track the ratio of completed cold showers to determine if it contributes to the conversion from free to paid versions of the app. This will allow us to optimize our efforts and ensure that our improvements not only enhance user experience but also positively impact the bottom line.