WEconnect
Your path won’t always be smooth, but we'll be here when it gets hard to follow.
Every week, tens of thousands of Americans complete intensive drug and alcohol rehab programs. The next months, however, are fraught with risk of relapse. WEconnect's mission is to reverse the high relapse rate of those in their first year of substance use recovery and overcome the challenges of transitioning into long-term recovery.
WebsiteteamSubstantial — Seattle, WA
DESIGN
Brit Zerbo, Lead Designer
Leslie Krivo-Kaufman, Designer
CLIENT ENGAGEMENT
Magda Isack, Engagement Manager
DEVELOPMENT
David Golightly, Lead Developer
Nick Arora, Senior Developer
Mike Judge, Senior Developer
Matt Findley, Senior Developer
Rob Hanlon, Senior Developer
Sam Raymer, Senior Developer
Melanie VanderLugt, Senior Developer
John Jenson, Senior Developer
Miles Starkenburg, Senior Developer
Philip Bjorge, Senior Developer
Cassie Koomijam, Senior Developer
ServicesiOS & Android App Design
Research
Product Strategy
Animation
Illustration
Year2018-2019
The Challenge
A staggering 80% of patients relapse after treatment. WEconnect sought a partner to develop an app to provide this group the structure necessary for healthy and sustainable recovery.
We worked closely with co-founder Daniela Tudor. Having personally gone through recovery from substance disorder, Daniela conceived of the app during her time in rehab, where she wanted a way to stay connected with others after the treatment period had ended.
My team and I partnered with WEconnect to design and build an app to improve the recovery experience, better connect members with their treatment centers and care providers, and ultimately, reduce relapse.
Our Focus
Create an empowering recovery experience using science backed research
Understand audience by conducting research and user interviews
Review and audit v1 and existing v2 experience created by Metalab
Define MVP features
Evolve the established design and find ways to celebrate the everyday wins within the app
Review existing v1 code and define the strategy of how to build out v2
Build geolocation functionality to connect users with treatment providers
Define strategy for rewards through meaningful gamification research
Get to market quickly!
Research & UX Audit
WEconnect already had a v1 in the app store that helped prove their concept and raise funding to create a more robust experience with a high focus on design. They partnered with the Vancouver based design studio, Metalab, to define the branding and design the UI and the UX of a few core features.
My journey began with WEconnect by evaluated what they needed most to successfully launch V2 focusing heavily on the app’s functionality and design. I mapped out the experience that Metalab had created and then pitched a more concise experience based on UX research and data, the ability to build an MVP in a reasonable amount of time, and the information from in-depth interviews with the WEconnect team and 5-10 users.
I love mapping out and auditing experiences on a whiteboard. It allows me to see the design more holistically, make unique connections, and solve problems creatively. Knowing that this audit was going to take up a good amount of space I stole every whiteboard in our office 🙃. I then printed out each screen created by Metalab and taped them up vertically in order of each flow. This allowed me to take notes and find the relationships between each feature.
UX Audit — FTUX & core features
After a week and half immersed in a sea of screens and my scribbles I switched back into the virtual world and created two Experience Maps — one of Metalab’s original UX design and the other based on the findings from the UX Audit which was used as a recommendation of what we should build for MVP.
Experience Map based on Metalab's UX Design
Redesigned and simplified Experience Map based on findings from UX Audit → MVP
After evaluating the app’s first version, we assessed the risks with the abandoned code base our team inherited, and determined that the fastest route was to start from scratch. Our developers mapped out a timeline of bite-sized deliverables so WEconnect Health could start seeing wins right away.
The team prioritized stories within the build, introducing tools like Pivotal Tracker to manage the backlog, and instituted code reviews to stay on schedule. They used React Native, the Lottie library, created by Airbnb to export and render After Effects animations, and Apollo GraphQL to help create the full stack.
In under nine months, we delivered V2, HIPAA-compliant apps for iOS and Android!
Research Documents
It took me years to understand that the foundation of design is psychology. Designers have a responsibility of finding deep empathy for their audiences and creating experiences that reduce dark patterns that aid into addiction and other toxic behaviors.
WEconnect’s core audience is a part of a vulnerable population that has a lot of shame and stigma around substance abuse. Because of this I conducted extensive research into the behavioral psychology on cognitive bias, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and the motivational effects of meaningful reward systems for staying on track while they navigate their sober journey.
Intrinsic Motivation
Cognitive Behavior Bias
Micro-interactions & Nudges
Rewards & Gamification
Design System
Design System
Logo & Colors
Typography
Icons & Illustrations
Forms
Buttons & CTAs
Calendars, Search & Modals
My Day Cards & Navigation
Together, Our team and WEconnect Health Management transformed the app into an intuitive, elegant interface that focused on the essentials—guiding and connecting their audience to the activities and routines critical to sustained health in recovery. A truly collaborative partnership, the WEconnect app is one of our proudest and most impactful collaborations for social change.
Final Designs & Components
Loading…
I love to add moments of animation to any project I’m on. The emblem that came out of the WEconnect rebrand was the perfect graphic to animate. Creating a custom loading spinner was an immediate choice as it’s the first experience a user has with the app.
Celebrate the wins
…regardless of how small. We wanted our users to feel special when they completed all of their routines each day. I came up with the concept of a piñata dropping from the top of the screen with sprinkle-like confetti falling for a small moment of celebration to bring a sense of accomplishment and, hopefully, a smile as they navigate their recovery.
The startup is now positioned to expand their target market to include more treatment centers, healthcare providers, and health plans. To date, fourteen treatment centers, two healthcare providers, one health plan and hundreds of members are using the app to support their recovery journeys.