Designing for Wellness: Beyond Step Counts

The wellness app market is saturated. Thousands of apps promise to help users exercise more, eat better, sleep longer, and stress less. Most fail. Users download, engage briefly, and abandon. We spent months embedded with Peak Health to better understand how to make functional wellness and longevity a fundamental part of life.

We learned a bit about what separates the apps that work from those that don't.

The Behavior Change Challenge

Wellness apps face a fundamental challenge: they're asking users to change ingrained behaviors. This is hard. Really hard.

Most apps approach this wrong:

• Information overload: Assuming users just need more data
• Gamification gimmicks: Points and badges that feel hollow
• Guilt and shame: Notifications that make users feel bad
• One-size-fits-all: Ignoring individual differences

What Actually Works

1. Start Ridiculously Small

The biggest mistake is asking too much too soon. Users set ambitious goals, fail, and quit.

• One minute of meditation, not thirty
• A single pushup, not a workout
• One glass of water, not eight

Success builds momentum. Small wins compound into big changes. At Peak Health, this started by rewarding the user immediately after onboarding with a set of tactical next steps and encouragement to fill out key health history data. When we reframed this in terms of the value to the user, it became dramatically clear to prospective patients why they would want to spend a significant amount of time filling out health surveys and demographic info. Ultimately, it became clear that providing their clinical team with as much information as possible would ultimately get the best clinical outcome.

2. Remove Friction *Ruthlessly*

Every tap, every decision, every moment of confusion is an opportunity to quit. The best wellness apps are frictionless:

• Let users see the platform before doing an extensive sign-up
• The faster you can demonstrate value, the less likely people/patients are to churn
• Pre-populated defaults that make sense
• One-tap logging
• Automatic tracking where possible
• Seamless integration with daily routines

3. Personalize Meaningfully

Generic advice is ignored. Personalized guidance resonates:

• Adapt to individual schedules and preferences
• Learn from user behavior over time
• Acknowledge context (stress, travel, illness)
• Celebrate personal milestones

4. Build Social Connection

Humans are social creatures. Wellness is easier with support:

• Accountability partners
• Community challenges
• Shared progress (with privacy controls)
• Expert guidance and coaching

5. Focus on Intrinsic Motivation

Points and streaks work briefly. Lasting change requires intrinsic motivation:

• Help users connect actions to values
• Celebrate how they feel, not just what they did
• Build identity ("I'm someone who exercises")
• Create meaning beyond metrics

The Data Trap

Wellness apps love data. Steps, calories, heart rate, sleep stages, HRV, blood oxygen... The assumption is that more data leads to better outcomes.

Often the opposite is true. Data overwhelm leads to:

• Analysis paralysis
• Obsessive tracking that increases anxiety
• Focus on metrics rather than wellbeing
• Disappointment when numbers don't improve

• Surface insights, not raw numbers
• Highlight trends, not daily fluctuations
• Connect data to actionable recommendations
• Allow users to choose their level of detail

Practically speaking, we love how Oura have fundamentally shifted their UI approach from data-rich displays to bite-sized snapshots with playful imagery, spacing, and human-readable explanations. While this might not scratch the itches of the Brian Johnson's of the world, the average user is more likely to appreciate this.

AI-Powered Nudges and Bespoke Reach-outs: The New Frontier

In the quest for personalization, AI-powered nudges and bespoke reach-outs with generative text are emerging as a promising frontier. It's not enough to get somebody to do the same thing everybody else does. People are unique; they have their own schedules and desires. By latching onto the patterns in their lives and utilizing atomic habits, you can sway a user to adopt behaviors that benefit them.

• AI Nudges: These gentle reminders can be tailored to the user's daily routine, offering timely tips or motivational quotes when they’re most receptive.
• Generative Text: Personalized messages that resonate on a deeper level, addressing the user's specific goals, challenges, and achievements.
• Pattern Recognition: Leveraging data to recognize habits and suggesting minor adjustments that lead to significant improvements.

The potential of these tools lies in their ability to create a truly personalized experience that respects and enhances the user's lifestyle.

Designing for Mental Health

Mental wellness apps face unique challenges:

• Stigma: Users may be reluctant to engage
• Crisis situations: Apps must handle serious mental health emergencies appropriately
• Clinical validity: Claims must be evidence-based
• Privacy sensitivity: Mental health data is especially sensitive

• Partner with clinical experts
• Validate approaches with research
• Build clear escalation paths for crisis
• Prioritize privacy and security

The Coach vs. Tool Spectrum

Wellness apps exist on a spectrum:

Tools provide data and let users decide what to do. They're flexible but require motivation and knowledge.

Coaches provide guidance and accountability. They're more effective but less flexible.

The best apps adapt to user needs—more coaching for beginners, more autonomy for experts.

Thanks for Reading

Wellness apps have enormous potential to improve lives, especially in the AI era. But potential isn't impact. Impact requires understanding behavior change, respecting user autonomy, and designing for lasting habits rather than brief engagement.

The apps that succeed will be those that truly help users become healthier and happier—not just those that generate impressive engagement metrics.