The
BrainHealth® Project
Designing an app for users to improve their brain health with clear steps to holistic brain wellness, driven by cognitive neuroscience.
Learn more about The BrainHealth Project here.
Introduction
What is The BrainHealth Project?
As a part of the Center for BrainHealth, the BrainHealth Project® introduces a multidimensional understanding of brain health and explores our lifelong ability to impact the brain's fitness, no matter the starting point. This innovative approach to brain training teaches you to focus on your own strengths and performance, empowering you to become the best version of yourself.
Three decades of science have shown that users can train their brains to work better, faster, and last longer. Starting with the BrainHealth® Index (BHI), users get their personalized training plan, and explore their brain’s upward potential. It’s all online, and can be accessed from anywhere.
The Problem
In 2019, the Center for BrainHealth engaged Dialexa as a partner to create a scalable, engaging, and secure digital platform. The platform created an engaging experience with science-backed brain training exercises and new strategies to allow participants to build brain health on their own time, from anywhere in the world.
However, since the Project's original launch, the program has grown exponentially. With an increased number of participants and coaches, we needed to develop further how coaches interact with the backend data platform as well as how the users interact with the front-facing platform.
While the web platform has been successful in retaining an older demographic, we wanted to focus on expanding and attracting a younger user base. This provided us with a few challenges – we would have to rethink how we approach delivery and emphasize accessibility.
Ideation
After talking with my team, Emerging Technology at the Center for BrainHealth and Dialexa, a digital product engineering firm, we decided to focus on a few key points:
1. Gamification
2. Personalization
3. Consistent style & branding throughout
We know that a majority of our younger user base utilizes their mobile devices, over traditional desktops or laptops – hence the build of our native app. With the app, our users would be able to access our content from anywhere – not just sitting down with computers.
We then brainstormed ideas to figure out how we could best tackle our new build while producing and creating this platform to best represent the BrainHealth Project and the Center for BrainHealth. We came up with a variety of new ideas such as an easy to follow "Daily Plan," "My Journey" activity streaks, customized learning progress for users, and data visualization.
Implementing the Designs
For our initial approach, we started mapping out what we could keep and transfer over from the existing platform and design system as well as differentiate improvements that could be made. We then sketched out ideas for the platform's interface and user flow.
After sketching out the initial designs, we were able to develop the rest of the app's interface style, flow, as well as gamify it further.
Putting Pieces Together
The Prototype Flow
Finally, after lots of work and months designing, we created the BrainHealth Project's new mobile interface.
See It Yourself: Final User Interaction
Looking Forward
The BrainHealth Project is the first-ever custom brain health metric and training platform powered by data and machine learning that transforms the pursuit of better brain health and performance. Looking forward, as this facility inevitably grows and expands even further, the Center for BrainHealth will focus on delivering the best experience possible for its clients. With the Project, key aspects like the importance of accessibility and gamification are emphasized while prioritizing the enjoyable experience of users.
