Overview

Vitae Health is an early-stage wellness startup with a mission to make preventive health accessible and sustainable for everyday people. Their first product — a mobile health tracking app — needed to differentiate in a saturated market dominated by Apple Health, Fitbit, and MyFitnessPal.

I joined the team as the sole product designer for seven months, responsible for the end-to-end experience from concept through to a successful App Store launch.

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The Problem

Most health apps focus on measurement — steps, calories, sleep minutes. Users track obsessively for a few weeks, then abandon the app when the novelty wears off or when they miss a goal.

Vitae's founding hypothesis: habit formation, not data tracking, should be the core product.

"I have all this data and I have no idea what to do with it." — Research participant, 29, London

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Research

Diary Study

I ran a two-week diary study with 14 participants, asking them to document their experiences with their current health apps daily. Entries were analysed thematically.

Three dominant frustrations surfaced:

1. Guilt spirals — missing a goal triggered shame, which led to abandoning tracking entirely
2. Data without context — users couldn't translate metrics into meaningful action
3. One-size-fits-all — rigid daily goals didn't account for real life variability

Behavioural Science Grounding

Working with Vitae's head of research (a behavioural scientist), I mapped the product experience to established behaviour change frameworks:

• Fogg Behaviour Model: Reduce friction for desired behaviours; make healthy defaults effortless
• Self-Determination Theory: Support autonomy, competence, and relatedness in goal setting
• Habit Loop: Design cue → routine → reward cycles into core features

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Design Process

Defining the North Star

After synthesis, I facilitated a two-day design sprint with the founding team to align on a north star experience. We landed on:

"Vitae helps you feel good about the choices you make — not guilty about the ones you don't."

This became a filter for every design decision.

Competitive Differentiation Map

I mapped 11 competing apps on axes of "data richness" vs. "emotional support." Most clustered in high-data, low-support territory. Vitae's opportunity was clear: lead with support, enable data access for those who want it.

Prototyping & Testing

I built four interactive prototypes in Figma across three months of iterative testing:

• Prototype 1: Tested three different onboarding flows (6 users). Validated that users wanted to set intentions, not numerical targets, at sign-up.
• Prototype 2: Tested the daily check-in format (8 users). Replaced a step-counter primary screen with an energy/mood check-in after users reported it "felt more human."
• Prototype 3: Tested the notification and nudge system (10 users). Reduced notification frequency by 60% after users flagged alert fatigue.
• Prototype 4: Full app simulation for end-to-end testing (12 users). Achieved a 78% task completion rate before shipping to engineering.

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The Solution

Onboarding: Setting Intentions

Rather than asking for age, weight, and target calories on day one, Vitae's onboarding focuses on aspirations. Users describe how they want to feel in three words, and the app generates a personalised "wellness focus" — not a goal, but a direction.

This small language shift, validated in testing, reduced day-1 abandonment by 34% in A/B testing during beta.

Daily Check-In

The core daily interaction is a 60-second check-in: energy level, mood, and one optional note. This data populates a weekly "rhythm" visualisation — a gentle arc showing patterns without judgment.

Quantitative tracking (steps, sleep, hydration) exists but is surfaced progressively, only after users have established a check-in habit over 7 days.

Insight Engine

After 30 days of data, Vitae surfaces personalised correlations — "You tend to feel more energised on days after 7+ hours of sleep" — using plain language rather than statistics. These insights are delivered as conversational cards, not dashboards.

Nudge System

Push notifications follow a "three strikes" rule: Vitae sends a maximum of three nudges per day, personalised to the user's check-in history and time patterns. Users can pause nudges for up to 7 days without any friction ("no judgement mode").

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Visual Design

The visual language was designed to feel warm, human, and unhurried — a deliberate contrast to the clinical aesthetic of most health apps.

• Colour palette: Earthy greens and warm neutrals, evoking nature and calm
• Typography: Rounded sans-serif for UI; a gentle serif for affirmation text
• Motion: All transitions are smooth and unhurried; no sharp snaps or jarring cuts
• Illustrations: A small library of hand-drawn-style spot illustrations, used for empty states and milestone moments

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Results

Six months post-launch on the App Store:

• 4.8 / 5 average App Store rating (1,200+ reviews)
• 68% Day-30 retention — 2.4× the industry average for health apps
• 82% of users reported feeling "more compassionate toward themselves" in a post-use survey
• Featured by Apple as "App of the Day" in the Health & Fitness category

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Reflections

This was the project that most shaped how I think about product design. The temptation to add features — more tracking, more analytics, more customisation — was constant. Saying no to good ideas in service of the north star is hard, but it's what made Vitae feel cohesive.

The biggest lesson: the best product design is often invisible. When users describe Vitae as "calming" or "non-judgmental," they're not noticing the design — they're feeling it. That's the standard I now hold all my work to.