Case Study: Wellness & Lifestyle Mobile App Development

Technology Stack

Node.js
MongoDB
AWS
Android
iOS

The Client

This highly engaging mobile app helps teenagers make positive lifestyle changes. It includes games and interactives that keep users motivated to form healthy habits. Each game consists of questions based on nutrition, mindset, hydration, discipline, etc. Users can take part in these wellness-focused games and earn points before going to the next level. By gamifying fitness and habit building, the app takes a holistic approach to teenage wellbeing - something that’s crucial during these formative years.

The Challenge

Capital Numbers had to build this mobile app from scratch. We had to take care of the mobile screen prototyping, development, deployment, and maintenance.

The primary challenge in this project was to gamify health and fitness. Poorly done game mechanics can alienate a player right away and deter him from progressing. So, we had to take special care to build business rules that would encourage participation.

That is, we had to build the correct logic in each gaming level to drive user interest. We had to understand the right triggers, action points, and ‘aha’ moments to motivate users to complete missions and transition into the next level.

There were multiple gaming levels that we had to handle. Each level had its intricacies. However, we had to keep the entire player journey simple and gratifying across all levels. Each level had to have gaming mechanics such as points and rewards for users to return for more.

In short, we had to embed elements that stimulate people’s willingness to use the app.

The Solution

Capital Numbers started by aligning dedicated developers who would be the best fit for this project.

Our skilled developers began by defining the business logic for all the gaming levels. After finalizing it, we worked on the mobile app prototypes to understand the visual workflow. Once we tested and confirmed the prototypes and how they would look on Android and iOS, we handed the final drafts over to the engineering team.

Our engineering team started the development work using the following tech stack:

We chose Node.js for the backend because it supports scalability, code execution, and cost-effectiveness. Plus, its massive developer community proves to be an advantage in app development.

As for the frontend, we used Flutter. We chose Flutter because it allows sharing the same UI and business logic for all platforms, reducing code development time. It also helps developers customize any UI element on the screen, no matter how complex it is.

Our experts chose MongoDB to store, access, and query datasets. MongoDB is also one of the best solutions for horizontal scaling, regardless of the size of the data.

Next, we embedded in-app purchases to get each player to pay every time they wanted to level up their game.

Finally, we deployed the mobile app frontend in Apple App Store and Google Play Store. We deployed the backend in AWS, one of the most reliable computing infrastructures with enormous auto-scaling capacity for all types of traffic influx.

Results

Careful implementation of each of the above solutions helped Capital Numbers launch a stellar mobile app high on interactivity. We perfectly nailed the user goals, sketched out a rough layout, built the prototype, developed, and released the app on time.

Our design and engineering team worked in tandem to develop clear layouts and journeys across all screens to wow the users.

Our primary contributions included the following:

Tailor-built Wellness and Lifestyle App

Capital Numbers successfully custom-designed an eye-catching lifestyle app that gamifies healthy habits and promotes positive behavior among teens.

Multi-level Gaming

Our engineers skillfully built conditional logic for multiple gaming levels with point-scoring systems in each. With every new level, users earn points and move on to the next, encouraging them to continue using the app.

Evidence-based Model

Apart from adding fun with games, we also included evidence-based facts and pro tips to help the teens learn about the cognitive benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Interactive Widgets

Our careful selection of interactive widgets for all gaming levels stepped up the overall UX of the app.

Mobile App Prototypes

We built aesthetically pleasing mobile screen prototypes with minimum content and enough on-screen space for a cleaner, polished look.

Prototype Testing

We tested each prototype screen on different devices to get an idea about the ‘final product experience.’

Design Validation

Each prototype helped us validate user flows, dimensions, interactives, and other design aspects early on and avoid costly mistakes down the road.

Material UI Components

We added interactive UIs like dialog boxes, radio buttons, swipes, and scrolls to help users navigate between gaming levels effortlessly.

In-app Purchases (IAP)

By integrating in-app purchases (IAP) across iOS and Android, we could monetize the product and add new revenue streams for the app owner.

Ongoing Maintenance

We didn’t just conceptualize, prototype, develop, and deploy the app. We took care of the post-release maintenance and currently run frequent checks to keep the app error-free.

A Smooth Player Journey across Platforms

Despite challenges related to player journey mapping, we could provide a winning solution for iOS and Android users. Capital Numbers is proud of its team that got to the crux of user needs and took end-to-end ownership of every app development stage.

We aimed to prompt users to build good habits - while keeping it fun. And we could achieve exactly that through this highly interactive mobile app.

Currently, many teenagers have expressed their willingness to change their lifestyle because of this app that turns habit-building into a game-based activity.