I pulled 80+ Play Store reviews to check my intuition. That helped me set my top priorities for this redesign
This cognitive load creates immediate friction.
Without a neutral baseline, the 4x4 grid backs people into a corner.
Users must evaluate their "pleasantness" and "energy" simultaneously.
to log a single feeling, the UI forces a heavy succession of decisions
Option A
Option B
Helpful resources like emergency helplines were originally under settings. The original IA goes against the mental models an average user is exposed to. Option A is a good option as it organises information neatly into 'Menu', but option B is an even better option as it appropriately categorises Resources under the tools section of the app, which is concenred with healthy practices to self-regulate.
Despite earning an Apple Cultural Impact Award in 2022 for bringing emotional science to the public, How We Feel suffers from a noticeable gap between its true value and user ease. While using the app to track my own emotions, I realized the product had far more to offer than its design allowed. To determine if this friction was universal, I began my research by auditing 80+ Google Play Store reviews, quickly discovering that the interface was actively getting in the way of the emotional support it aimed to provide.
Decide to Check-in
6
major painpoint areas emerged
So the energy scale is not removed, but the user experiece is eased a little by not forcing them to decide right ahead
When the user identifies the plesantness of their emotions, a range of emotions open from low to high energy.
Using a slider to mark the pleasantness of emotions also reinforces the idea of emotions as a spectrum
A neutral option is also provided, which was prominent in the affinity charting
Users just need to reflect on emotions in one scale of plesantness
The redesigned flow, removes a layer in the decision making process
This will give users to control what part of the data they want to view, which will ultimately improve sensemaking without having to design a ton of extra screens.
But a simpler way, would be to just add a context screen before presenting data
Maye give the user more options to filter, to manipulate data presentations
My initial thought was to perhaps redesign how the charts are presented
My research highlighted how the charts aren't as interpretable or useful to the users
