Award-winning healthcare app from scratch
Oxa is an advanced wearable that provides real-time biofeedback through a mobile app, guiding the user through different breathing exercises to improve well-being and practice mindful breathing. Our task was to build a mobile app around the wearable, consisting of three main parts: doing regular breathing exercises, a gamified version of these exercises, and tracking sleep within the app.
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Team
3 designers, 1 researcher
My role
During the first stages of the project, the two other designers and I worked closely with the product owner to lay down the foundations of Oxa: wireframing, creating the information architecture, workshopping to determine the look and feel, starting the UI design, and building the design system. Later on, my main responsibilities included: creating the onboarding flow, designing what the user sees during different biofeedback states, and elevating the overall UI.
Challenge
The biggest challenge was familiarizing myself with the audience and the domain itself.
I attended every interview conducted by the researcher to better understand our users and grasp more complex medical data – like heart rate variability or the different sleep stages. This was crucial to identify the exact needs of the target group and to filter out unnecessary information, so we could design the best possible user experience.
Outcome
Oxa was released for both iOS and Android. It was loved by users during diary studies, gained recognition within the community, and was eventually acquired by Myant, a Canada-based healthcare company. The project’s success earned UX studio a long-term partnership with Nanoleq, the owner of Oxa, and a Red Dot Design Award for Best Product Design.
First steps
After building the wireframes and main flows of the app, we facilitated multiple workshops. I led the look and feel workshop, for which we prepared several moodboards, illustration style options, color palettes, and font styles to help the client explore and define their vision for the Oxa brand and the app's UI. After the workshops, we moved on to designing the first screens.
Design phase
When we started designing, I was responsible for several different flows and screens – but one of the most significant was the onboarding flow. This is where we learn everything about the user to set their baselines, guide them through calibrating their device so it accurately tracks their breathing, and introduce them to the basics of Oxa. During this phase, I collaborated closely with external copywriters and our researcher, who user-tested the flow, and later with the developers and QA testers who brought it to life.
Biofeedback
One of Oxa’s most important advantages is live biofeedback, which allows us to accurately display the user's vital signs. To display this in the simplest, most intuitive way, we introduced a central “ring” on the screen that synced with the user's breathing: it expanded when they inhaled and contracted when they exhaled.
I used this ring as the foundation for visualizing different types of biofeedback for each breathing exercise. It was one of the most creative and exciting elements I had the pleasure to design. You can see a few examples below.
During power breathing, the user takes long, deep breaths. As they breathe in, the ring gradually fills up – mirroring how their body fills with oxygen.
During coherent breathing, the goal is to reach a state of coherence. At the start, the ring’s layers are scattered across the screen, and they gradually return to form a complete ring once the user achieves coherence.
During essential breathing, the user has to take the fewest and smallest breaths possible. As they go, the ring gradually shrinks down to a single layer.
Learnings
Oxa is still one of the most impactful and interesting projects I’ve worked on. I learned a lot – from collaborating with external professionals like copywriters and QA testers, to scoping and distributing work across multiple designers, managing stakeholders, facilitating workshops, starting a project from scratch, and even building a design system. It was incredible to see all of it come to life and to hear about the success the company achieved with our help.