Work Type

UX/UI Design

Role

Product Designer / Researcher / Art Director

Relationships are hard.

Oenomel is here to help.

Introduction & Problem

My marriage has taught me many things - humility, teamwork, to *not* touch the remote during hockey season, forgiveness, and so on. Most importantly though, it has taught me that relationships are hardly ever what we expect them to be. 

Sometimes in relationships you’ll find yourself in an argument and don’t quite know how to express yourself. Or you want to feel extra connected to your partner but you don’t know what to do. Every couple has their ups and downs, every couple needs help sometimes, but very few couples can actually access couples therapy or fix their problems on their own.

The solution

What if the support couples need was always available, right at their fingertips? This is the idea behind Oenomel, an iOS app that helps couples resolve conflict and practice mindfulness within their relationships. 

Oenomel - which when translated from Greek means “combining strength with sweetness” - helps couples who might not have access to couples therapy, or couples who need a gentle reminder to keep their spark alive. It works by suggesting the same scientifically proven and effective forms of communication practiced in traditional couples therapy, while also reminding users to be engaged and present in their relationship via suggested activities and date nights. 

My Role

I worked on market and user research, design and iterations of Oenomel’s development.

Tools Used

Goals

User research

Oenomel’s objective is to create a safe space for couples to effectively communicate their needs in an emotionally healthy way. The research goal was to identify target users’ needs and design a unique user experience.

To achieve that goal, the following questions had to be answered:

• What are the target audience’s lifestyle?

• How does the target audience communicate within their relationships?

• What are the target audience’s priorities?

• What excites the target audience within their relationships?

• What are the most needed features they want on a relationship app?

Target Audience

• People of all genders and sexual orientations age 25-70 in committed relationships lasting at least longer than a year. 

• Mainly low to medium income group

• Comfortable using iOS mobile apps

Methodology

Before conducting primary research, I looked to the past. Relationships have always been around, and thus there is no shortage of study material on what makes them work. For the sake of Oenomel and what our goals are, I specifically focused on a few main researchers and applied their studies to the app. 

1. Dr. Ted Huston, a marriage researcher found in his study of newlywed relationships called ‘The Connubial Crucible’ that it wasn’t an increasing amount of negativity and conflict that led to marriage failure, but instead a lessening of positive emotional interactions.1 

2. Florence Kaslow found in her study of of 20 marriages lasting at least 25 years that the major factor contributing to satisfaction in all couples was joint problem-solving ability. 2

3. Dr. Susan Johnson found that healthy relationships require a healthy emotional connection, wherein both partners are emotionally accessible, responsive, and engaged.3

After conducting our secondary research, it was time to hit the streets. First I put together a screener survey focusing on past and present relationships and the issues within them, communication, therapy experiences, current mindfulness habits (if applicable) and the participants expectations and needs from a relationship app. From 23 participants screened, I spoke with five. The participants spanned across a wide range of industries and relationship statuses.

Results

Despite coming from a range of backgrounds, all of the participants believed communication is the core of all healthy relationships, and further all of the participants expressed that no matter how good their communication skills are, there is always room to improve. When asked to describe elements of their relationship they’d like to improve, 43% of participants selected communication and 39% selected conflict resolution.

“We kind of approach it [conflict resolution] like a research paper or a persuasive essay.” - Shay

“When it comes to conflict, I think the reason why historically I’ve avoided it is because I don’t want to open myself up and make myself vulnerable. I’d like to allow myself to be more vulnerable and learn to be more assertive. I think it would serve me well.” - Chris

“I’m always working on understanding and offering understanding.” - Jeff

Other interesting points I discovered during the interviews were that of the participants, 47% had tried individual therapy, where only 4% had tried couples therapy. 

Persona & Empathy Map

With the initial user interview results, I created two personas based on two distinct characteristics of the target users. One for the user who needs help resolving conflict, and one for the user who needs help remembering to remain engaged in their relationship. Having these personas established helped me stay focus on the users’ needs throughout the design process.

Empathy mapping helped me to understand that user’s behavior is often not what we’d typically imagine. More often, user’s say one thing, but think another, or vice versa. Having done the initial interviews helped me think from the perspective of the two personas listed below.

Information Architecture

MVP & User Stories

I regularly check back with the user research and user personas to develop sets of user stories based on the features that users may want to see while using the app. The MVP was defined as the following:

• Conflict Resolution Feature

• Together Tab

• Learnings Tab

Sitemap

Userflow

Once the key app content was organized, I continued to create a detailed sitemap to serve as the guidance to design user flow.

Flow I: Account

• Scenario 1: Existing user would like to Log in with the reset app.

• Scenario 2: First time user wants to register.

Note: Users are given the option to login/ register using a pin for extra security. If the user elects to use this function they will be asked to enter their pin for authentication.

Flow II: Chat

• Scenario 1: Existing user wants to view past prompts.

• Scenario 2: Existing/new user wants to start a new conflict resolution chat thread

• Scenario 3: Existing user wants to view past chat threads.

Flow III: Together

• Scenario 1: User answers daily prompt which is shared with their partner.

• Scenario 2: User wants to find ideas for activities to do with their partner.

• Scenario 3: User books/shares activities to do with their partner.

Exploration

Ideation

Now the fun part begins. With all the supporting research shown above, I started to create iterations of hand-drawn sketches before diving into wireframing and prototyping.  These hand-drawn sketches keep me from getting caught up in the details, and give me an opportunity to brainstorm freely. I shared these sketches with users for initial feedback and then iterated them with more polished clickable prototypes.

Wireframes

User Testing Findings

Overall, users responded well to the concept of Oenomel, and found their experience to be exciting and easy to understand. Each said that they would love to have a tool in their pocket that helps remind them to be a better partner.

“I love the idea behind this, I can definitely see it improving all of the relationships in my life - my husband, work, family, friends.” - Rachel

“This is a great idea because it’s something that so many people take for granted. It doesn’t feel condescending, or like if you download this your marriage is doomed, it’s just like a happy middle ground to grow the foundation of your relationship.” - Shawn

The largest issue I found during these tests was stemmed from the term “mindfulness” which was used as a name of one of the tabs. This term means so many different things to different people, and it threw people off.  With that in mind, I edited the design by replacing the term ‘Mindfulness’ with ‘Together.’ I also swapped out the icon being used to represent it. After making these changes, users had a much easier time accomplishing the tasks asked of them, and had a better understanding of Oenomel’s capabilities.

• Users also mentioned that they would be interested in getting help from the app when starting a new conflict resolution thread by deciding on a subject matter.

• The initial pink color used was too bright and difficult to read by some users. 

Next, I went on fixing the issues from the findings by focusing on:

• Adjust/redesign more effective tab icons and titles.

• Adding a feature to assist users in deciding a subject when creating an initial conflict resolution thread.

• Adjust color for accessibility.

Design

Colors & Typography

The next step was to create a mood board - Considering the nature of the app I decided to go with muted calm colors. The pink shades represent  compassion, nurturing and love. Pink is intuitive and insightful, showing tenderness and kindness with its empathy and sensitivity. In color psychology, pink is a sign of hope.

To balance out the feminine nature of pink I also added teal. Teal blends blue's tranquil stability with green's optimism.Teal is the color of restfulness and mental and balance. The calm shade has a natural dignity that is not contrived or “in your face.” Teal's understated elegance encourages a calm, reflective mood.

When deciding fonts I knew it was important to use a font that is friendly and warm and catches the users eye. Rylan is perfect for the Oenomel logo and brand - it is bold, modern while also familiar and welcoming. For the header and subheader I used Cairo Grotesque in different capitalization styles as it pairs nicely with Rylan and is able to stand out on a page without distracting from any of the other content. Lastly, the body font of Oenomel consists of Helvetica Neue light & regular depending on the background color.

And they lived happily ever after.

the end

For this phase of Oenomel I focused only on phase one of the MVP. I’m continuing researching and testing for phase II which includes the user’s individual profiles, connecting couples accounts, on-boarding, and so on.

The use of user-centered design process gave me the ability to discover the emotions, needs and motives of the target audience. Through research I was able to better understand and demonstrate that the users are interested in learning ways to improve their romantic relationships and ways in which they communicate. This is a subject I am very passionate about and I am hopeful that Oenomel can help people make the most of their relationships.