bloom (in progress)

Designed for women in their 20s and 30s, Bloom is a next-generation health app that revolutionizes personalized fitness and nutrition tracking. Unlike traditional calorie counters or generic workout plans, Bloom leverages AI-powered photo scanning to analyze body composition, track progress, and deliver truly customized diet and exercise recommendations.

The Problem:

Many women struggle with one-size-fits-all fitness apps that don’t account for individual body types, metabolic differences, or lifestyle constraints. Manual logging is tedious, and progress tracking often feels vague (e.g., relying only on weight or BMI). Users need a smarter, more intuitive way to stay motivated and see real results.

Project Overview

Role

Lead UX Designer

Team

Jessica Li, Grace Lee

Timeline

Feb 2024 - Ongoing

Tools

Figma, Miro, Canva

User Flow

We wanted to start off easy, so we identified the basics of the information architecture, and decided to follow this user flow map to formulate wireframes and key features to include.

User Research Summary

Participant 1

Based on my observations, Anna chose to upload a weekly body photo first, as she wanted to analyze muscle gain or fat loss. Before the card sorting, I asked about her main purpose for using a health app, and her response made it clear that she was most interested in features that directly track weight loss progress and allow note-taking. As a result, she interacted with these features first. After that, she moved on to the daily nutrition log and personalized meal recommendations to plan her meals for the day. It was evident that she was less interested in grocery availability and was more focused on receiving meal recommendations after engaging with exercise and weight-tracking features.

Participant 2

Eva was particularly interested in food and nutrition, which is why she first interacted with the card that suggested healthy food and snack options. She immediately prioritized the health-focused meal plans card as her first step when using the app and then expanded to local grocery availability, as she expressed interest in purchasing fresh, locally sourced foods. Beyond food-related features, she moved on to uploading a weekly body photo to track her body shape but did not show much interest in logging daily exercise. However, it was evident that most users naturally engaged with some form of weight tracking at various stages while using the app.

Participant 3

Finally, Kelly was a user who had an interest in both healthy exercises and food. However, from my observation, she first interacted with uploading a weekly body photo to track her body changes over time. This observation suggests that the majority of users who use health apps prefer to start by tracking and analyzing their body changes before engaging with food or exercise activities. Kelly's card selection was almost evenly split between exercise and food, but she first focused on local grocery availability, followed by health meal plans. She mentioned that when she doesn’t have easy access to certain foods, it becomes challenging for her to prepare recipes or go beyond basic meals. Lastly, for every user, there was a step for note taking their habits included, regardless of their specific interests.

How to log a workout?

This is a specific wireframe run-through of bloom (completing and logging a workout entry). This is only a starting point of what the app should entail, so we dug a little deeper into what users need and want.

Many women struggle with inconsistent tracking methods for weight and body progress.
Most fitness apps for women rely on oversimplified metrics like weight and calorie counts, ignoring the nuances of body composition, hormonal changes, and personal lifestyle—leading to frustration and disengagement. Bloom solves this by using AI-powered photo scans to track real physical progress and deliver truly personalized nutrition and workout plans, helping women see meaningful results without restrictive diets or guesswork.
- A seamless way to track body progress
- Personalized diet and workout plans
- A motivating and emotionally engaging experience

The Solution

AI Body Scanning: Users take periodic photos, and Bloom’s computer vision technology detects subtle changes in muscle tone, fat distribution, and overall physique—no scale required!

Hyper-Personalized Plans: Adjusts workouts and meal suggestions based on scan data, preferences (e.g., vegetarian, gluten-free), and fitness goals (weight loss, muscle gain, toning).
Progress Visualization: Clear, photo-based timelines show transformations over time, helping users stay motivated with tangible evidence of improvement.
Community & Coaching: Connects users with nutritionists, trainers, and like-minded peers for support and accountability.

By combining cutting-edge AI with empathetic, female-centric design, we believe that bloom can empower women to take control of their health—without restrictive diets or guesswork.

Competitive Analysis

I conducted a competitive analysis of what the market now provides for users, and concluded a few points highlighted when proceeding with our own unique design.

Initial Prototypes

Still refining this, but I promise it’ll go from good to great!

User Testing

Task 1: Enter the home screen and check the person's weekly health status by clicking the human icon.

Task 2: Return to the homepage and navigate through the three main sections in order: photo upload, healthy recipes, and records.

Task 3: Focus on navigating through photo uploads, then check the body analysis section to see if users can generate the recommended exercises by clicking the "Go" button.

Task 4: After entering the healthy recipe section, click the menu icon to navigate through the recipes.

Task 5: Return to the main page of the healthy recipe section after viewing the recipe steps.

Task 6: Check the records section to view past exercise records, then return to the home page.

Summary of impressions

- Intuitive Navigation: Users praised the consistent placement of the home button (top-right) and back button (bottom) for seamless browsing.
- Clear Information Architecture: The three main sections (Photo Upload, Healthy Recipes, Records) were well-organized, making the app easy to navigate.
- Visually Balanced Design: Grouping content into three distinct sections created a clean, structured layout that users found appealing.
- Low Engagement with Weekly Status: Users overlooked this section as key metrics (weight, health trends) were already visible on the homepage via charts.
- Interaction Barrier: The extra click required to access summarized text data discouraged exploration.
- Suggested Improvement: Replace text-heavy summaries with visualizations (graphs, progress charts) to boost engagement and usability.
- Visual Preference: Time-constrained users (20s-30s) want more imagery (e.g., step-by-step recipe visuals, data charts) over text to accelerate comprehension.
- Efficiency Matters: Reduced reading/waiting time through visual summaries boosts engagement.
- Clear Structure Praised: All users applauded the well-labeled categories and intuitive headings for instant functionality recognition.

Next Steps for Bloom

🚀 Enhancing Emotional Engagement:

Introduce a guided journaling feature where users can reflect on their progress beyond just fitness metrics.
Add AI-driven encouragement—if a user hasn’t logged progress in a while, the app could send motivational prompts rather than passive reminders.

📊 Expanding Data Insights:

Implement mood-based tracking, allowing users to log how they feel after workouts to create a more holistic fitness journey.

🤝 Building a Community:

Introduce a social encouragement feature where users can send positive messages to each other, fostering supportive accountability.

Final Thoughts

Designing Bloom reinforced my belief that great UX is not just about usability—it’s about how users feel while using a product. By focusing on emotion-centered design, I created a more engaging, motivating, and sustainable fitness experience. Moving forward, I aim to integrate more behavioral psychology principles into my designs to make technology more human and supportive.