Glood (ɡluːd) is an app that uses data analysis to generate report and personalise content to promote

It does not work on building an individual’s motivation. It only works towards helping the user bring back the awareness that has been lost due to habit formation.

Glood focuses on making interventions at the point of craving to prompt the user to change the routine in the habit while the cue and reward remain the same.

This project originated from my intrigue towards the subject of habits. I bit my nails since I was 5 years old. When I turned 21, it took me a year of conscious effort to get rid of the habit. I didn’t know how I did it. Nor was I aware of what led me to being able to do it after countless failed attempts.

Apart from answering these questions, my research answered quite a few others that I’ve had in the past as well. Like why smoking (drinking etc.) was so difficult a ‘habit’ to get rid of. Why does regular visits to the gym bring such joy to some people while others can’t continue for long? What is that element in seasoned athletes that gives them the edge?

A Habit is a settled and regular tendency or practice, that makes any behaviour automatic through repetition.

Habit formation is explained by a Habit loop that begins with a trigger/cue. When you wake up in the morning, the plaque causes discomfort in your mouth. You brush your teeth almost automatically while thinking about your day. You are later rewarded with a good minty flavour of the toothpaste in your mouth.

As a certain habit is repeated, we tend to loose awareness of actually performing the routine of the habit, while simultaneously craving for the reward when the cue occurs.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain information about the understanding of habits amongst the people around me, where they were first asked a set of standard questions and then observed and questioned while they worked in their own environments. Many of them were people I spent most of my time with so that I could observe them on a daily basis. Eventually they were asked to become my research participants.



This led me to some interesting insights:

Acceptance that being persistent towards your goal of habit change or formation is more important than consistency in your actions.

It is difficult to forgive oneself if there is an inconsistency in adherence of methods and follow-ups.

When people plan, they expect quick changes and outputs, which leads to slip ups quite often

A companion with a similar aim might or might not be beneficial. There is more to the concept and it needs more research.

The wireframes were the beginning of giving a physical form to the concept development. Here, the whole process was dependant on the user's inputs, as I wanted to understand what it is that came easily to the user and what needed understanding.

After reviewing the approach, the Information Architecture was iterated quite a few times.

With insights from the wireframes, the flow was modified according to the user's understanding.

After an extensive conversation with experts around me, I got many interesting insights and a direction for the project, which was lost in all the previous explorations:

• Start with an example
  Onboarding could be made easier using an example
  
  
• The Tone of language used needed change
  
  
• Habits as a whole becomes a large problem to solve, the scope needs to narrow down
  
  
• Choice leads to confusion
  
  
• Data analysis can play an important role if done well
  
  
• The solution is not novel

I asked two smokers to note down every smoke they had during a period of 30 days and whether noting down the details brought in the awareness necessary to quit, while also helping the user narrow down on the trigger for their smoking habit. One of the two users was motivated to quit and did the exercise diligently, while the other was quite lenient with the exercise.Insights from the two user’s behaviour helped informing the flow of the app.

Since 'motivation' required it's own level of research, I decided to keep my focus narrowed down on people who have the motivation necessary to quit a habit.