2024

Khutwa

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Problem: Tasked with helping a Middle Eastern city improve citizen health, we found that over 60% of the population was obese. The government was launching a digital health record app—but the real challenge was driving active engagement and long-term behavior change, not just adoption.

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Insight: Through research and interviews with users and health officials, we found that:

• Most fitness apps set unrealistic goals (like 10,000 steps) that intimidate rather than inspire—especially when local activity levels are far lower.

• Leaderboards celebrated only top performers, alienating most users. And people’s aspirations were deeply personal—they didn’t want to become someone else; they wanted to be the best version of themselves.

• Medical data, meanwhile, lacked emotional resonance, presented as sterile numbers rather than living feedback.

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Solution: We designed Khutwa, a behavior-change app that syncs with existing health devices and builds on incremental progress—just 1% better each day. Users nurture a digital plant that thrives as they meet their personalised goals. During the pilot phase, users’ average step count increased by over 50%, validating the impact of emotional design.