I think anything that involves guilt is a barrier to lasting change.
Heegee
Inclusive prevention against sedentary
Regressivity
UI Design
Art
In a newly founded startup, designed an innovative product to prevent sedentary lifestyles, crafting UX journeys focused on engagement, testing, and impact. A research-driven strategic pivot unlocked a new market, reaching millions of users and winning the largest healthtech hackathon.
Initial Brief
Tackling one of the great epidemics of our time
Sedentary behaviour is one of the major scourges of our era. With an average of 12 hours spent sitting per working day, it has become the 4th leading cause of premature mortality worldwide.
The startup Heegee, co-founded by Emmanuelle Blanck and Harmony Ribal, runs two online platforms specialised in sedentary prevention for the 40–65 age group: "En forme Yvonne" and "À fond Raymond". Both platforms offer a holistic support programme built on four pillars: adapted physical activity, mental health, nutrition, and sleep.
Three shared challenges from our stakeholders
- How might we integrate Heegee into the health journey of men and women aged 40 to 65?
- How might we break down the motivation barrier and guide people towards lasting habit changes?
- How might we overcome the resistance to a paid service when healthcare is free in France?
Methodology
A structured 6-month design process
Over a six-month engagement, my team and I completed two user research iterations, leading to a value proposition that received unanimous approval from both our stakeholders and the graduation jury.
Note: For confidentiality reasons, the final research results and delivered solution are not detailed here.
Scoping
Immersion in Heegee's ecosystem
We began by collecting all the information needed to build a shared understanding of the project. This discovery phase covered the following steps:
- Roadmap definition
- Stakeholder interviews
- Secondary research
- Competitive analysis
- Ergonomic audit (Bastien & Scapin criteria)
- Accessibility audit
- Eco-design audit
Heegee Ecosystem Map
To close this scoping phase, we ran a vision workshop to align all stakeholders and give us a guiding direction for our work together. It led to our first framed challenge:
How might we encourage patients over 40, affected by the harmful effects of sedentary behaviour, to overcome their barriers and commit sustainably to a holistic health programme after a recommendation from their doctor?
User Research
Listening before designing
Qualitative research: Interviews were conducted remotely in pairs. Each session lasted approximately one hour. We used Dovetail for transcription and analysis of results.
5 Personas created, positioned on a health engagement matrix
13 Insights extracted — 8 opportunities, 4 pain points, 1 area to deepen
Personas
Experience Map
Design Sprint
3 days to imagine, prototype and test
Drawing on user research insights and wanting to involve our stakeholder in the ideation process, we chose to run a 3-day design sprint adapted to their schedule and availability.
Day 1
Generate a large volume of ideas and converge on those to prototype — brainwriting and sketching workshops.
Day 2
Build the user journey and prototype it — content architecture and user flow design.
Day 3
Test the prototype with real users — patients at the CESOA during their waiting time.
Conclusion: The sprint produced an innovative value proposition that formed the basis of the final solution, presented to a professional jury at Gobelins Paris. The full research follow-up and final deliverable are kept confidential.
Evaluation
Validating the solution with real users
Objective
Diagnose the usability, utility, comprehension and satisfaction of the first prototype of the proposed solution.
Methodology
Moderated testing with a facilitator who asked each participant to complete usage scenarios following precise instructions.
Results
Very encouraging first results: users are genuinely waiting for such a solution. Improving information architecture, UX writing and adding new features should allow Heegee to find its market.
Real meaning, real need, real connection to the world.
Results
Winning Hacking Health Camp
The strategic pivot unlocked by our user research didn't just impress a graduation jury. It won a hackathon. Heegee took first place at Hacking Health Camp in Strasbourg, one of the largest healthtech events in Europe.
This outcome validated what our users had told us throughout the research: the original framing was too narrow. By repositioning the value proposition around a broader need, we opened a market reaching millions of potential users, and built a solution that a room of healthtech experts recognized as genuinely necessary.
Thanks for reading!
Want to know more about this project and the final solution? Let's connect.
✉ arthur@carreton.fr