THE PROBLEM
The Ganance Heir device was calm by design, but the app didn’t reflect that. Navigation felt clunky, feedback was vague, and users weren’t sure how to interact with the device or what their data even meant.
Early testers ran into issues - setup wasn’t clear, onboarding was minimal, and the gestures felt confusing. Some even thought they had to tap their phone. Navigation felt clunky, and the UI lacked flow.
Instead of supporting calm, consistent habits, the app left users unsure of what to do next.
Research
Competitive Analysis
To understand where Ganance fits in the wellness space, we looked at five major players: Oura, Whoop, Fitbit, Withings ScanWatch, and Apple Watch. Most of these products had sleek interfaces and packed in a long list of features - from heart rate and sleep tracking to social challenges and real-time health alerts.
What Research Told Us About Calm Design
Research helped us stay focused by showing us how small nudges, tactile feedback, and calm design could make more impact than any stat-filled dashboard.
Here’s what shaped our thinking:
Zhu Et Al. (2022)
Habit cues + repetition + positive reinforcement = Long-term change.
→ We kept nudges simple and repeatable, so users could form routines without overthinking it.
Cauchard et al. (2016)
Vibrations can boost motivation when paired with the right activity.
→ So we used haptics only when it felt useful, not just because we could.
Weiser & Brown – Calm Tech Principles
Tech should live in the background and only surface when necessary
→ We removed visual noise and made feedback feel optional, not constant.
BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model
People act when motivation, ability, and triggers show up at the same time.
→ We avoided friction, every interaction was simplified to feel intuitive.
Data to Ideation
We interviewed three users with different levels of fitness experience. Most didn’t want to be micromanaged by their device.
We combined those insights with survey data and built realistic personas using real user routines (sourced from Reddit). Then we mapped their typical days to find moments of low friction, when motivation and ability naturally aligned.
The next step was to visualize these interactions.
These storyboards actually helped us fine-tune interactions where we previously had some ambiguity. And overall, they served as a guiding compass, both for current decision-making and for shaping upcoming UI screens.
Design Process
Sketching
We started with a few quick sketches to explore layout ideas, then pulled together the strongest ones into a shared structure.
Structure & Features
We built out low-fidelity wireframes to test flow and clarity before committing to visuals.
Branding
We decided to retain Ganance’s original brand colors and typography. The goal wasn’t to redesign the identity, but to build a cohesive experience that felt aligned with what already existed.
Final Design Screens
High-Fidelity Prototype
The visual direction leaned into clarity and calmness, with minimal distractions and soft visual cues to match the product’s tone. Each screen was designed to feel effortless with clean layouts, intentional spacing, and subtle interactions that support rather than overwhelm.
Wrapping It Up
This project touched almost every part of the UX process, from early research to wireframes to hi-fi flows. I wasn’t the lead designer, but I was hands-on through it all.
What I Did
I helped shape the early direction of the product by contributing to research, running interviews, and synthesising insights. I also worked on wireframes, created multiple iterations of the high-fidelity UI, and documented flows for testing.
Since our focus was on the home and onboarding screens, I was trusted to run the user testing for the wireframes solo. I gathered feedback, spotted usability gaps, and made design adjustments based on what I saw.
What I Took Away
Working on a product that already existed meant we couldn’t redesign freely, we had to work within what was already there. That came with some tradeoffs. We had to balance our ideas with technical feasibility, stakeholder priorities, and the calm tech principles that grounded everything.
I also realized how easy it is to get caught up in making things perfect. But with deadlines and a real team depending on you, progress matters more than perfection.
If I were to do this again, I’d push for clearer task delegation earlier on, and start usability testing even sooner. That would’ve given us more room to refine without the last-minute scramble.
Still, I’m proud of what we pulled off. This project reminded me that good design isn’t just about the pixels, it’s about the people behind the process, the constraints you work through, and the clarity you bring to the table.
