THE HEARTh: Service Design

TL,DR

The Hearth is a sauna and cold plunge business coming to Duluth, Minnesota. The mission of The Hearth is to address the problem of social isolation, by creating a local gathering place that is focused on group health and wellness building. In creating a multifaceted and cohesive service design I aimed to align the vision of this altruistic business with its future customers. 

Role - Solo Project - UX Design & Research

Tools - Trello, iMovie, QuickTime, Figma, FigJam,

Methods - Competitive Analysis, DirectedStorytelling, User Survey, Desirability Testing, Participant Observation, Affinity Diagram

Key Deliverables - Interactive Prototype & 3D Model

The Problem

According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention “social isolation and loneliness have become widespread problems in the United States, posing a serious threat to our mental and physical health.” People have developed a tendency to stay within their homes, spend more time on screens, and less time reaching out to friends.   It’s well documented that there are two main factors that predict a long life - one is close intimate relations,  that’s friends and family who have known you the longest. People in whom you can confide. The other is healthy social integration.  That’s the neighbors, the baker down the street, the local barista at your regular cafe.   The main way societies meet these two pillars was with the concept of a third place. There’s home, there’s work, and then there’s the third place. 

The Hearth sees a lack in the primary third spaces that exist today - namely bars, coffee shops, clubs and gyms - as not providing sufficient opportunities for organic interactions, community building, while participating in both challenging and healthy bonding activities. The health benefits of both saunas, and cold water immersion are well documented, and they can significantly improve mental and physical health for a wide range of people. The concept of the Hearth was born as a local gathering place, where curious, and interested individuals can find a healthy activity and build community.     

The ProCess

Understanding the Users

Experienced Customers: My first user group is health conscious individuals seeking ways to build community in a third space - they are highly experienced with sauna and cold plunge services.

New Customers - This user group is curious, active, and social individuals who are looking for ways to challenge themselves mentally and physically - they have little to no experience with sauna and cold plunge businesses.

Persona 1 - Amy is a postpartum mom feeling isolated at home. She used to regularly attend sauna and cold plunges and is eager to get out of the house to socialize and get back into a health routine.

Persona 2 - Creston, has never done a sauna or cold plunge before. He is a 22 year old recent college grad who just moved to a new city and is looking for ways to make new friends.

What do these users have in common? A shared goal based on on similar values and needs!

Discovering Insights

In order to better understand the future customers, I conducted a wide breadth of generative and evaluative research with participants from each user group. At this phase of the research process I was most interested to know their previous experience with saunas cold plunge services, as well as, their experience with community. I also wanted to understand their priorities when it came to health and community, and what would make them feel most comfortable, inspired, included and social in a space like the Hearth. 

1st Round - Generative Research

• Competitive Analysis

• Participant Observation

• Directed Storytelling

• Affinity Diagram & Synthesis

2nd Round - Evaluative Research

• User Feedback Survey

• Desirability Testing

Building Out the Customer Roadmap

In order to understand the customers entire experience with The Hearth I decided it would be most helpful to map out every customer touchpoint from initial awareness to their final maintenance phase. This was a useful visual aid for the client, and provided clarity on which touch points would be most impactful at the beginning phases of building The Hearth business.

KEY Findings

Health & wellness is the main motivation for attending this type of business, with community building being a close second

Recommendations

Design Rationale

I designed 7 different touch points across the first 5 phases of the strategy map - awareness, research, engage, experience and maintain. Because this business already has a successful proof of concept of the membership model from a competitive audit, I decided researching this touchpoint farther was not the priority for the businesses current needs. I spent the majority of my time building out the features of a customers’ experience phase with The Hearth, as there was a gap in knowledge at this phase about what future customers most want. This phase also has the most touch points, providing the most opportunity to impact customers’ experience. I gathered data from participants about what they would appreciate as a first and second time customers, what would make both user groups feel most comfortable and social in the space, and what pain points were being experienced by customers that use similar business services. The goal of each prototyped touchpoint was to leave customers feeling included, supported and inspired to boost their health and wellness among community.

 “Community is everything! Community makes me feel happy, safe, included and motivated.” - Participant E

Video Walkthroughs of the Experience & Engage Phases

Awareness & Customer Research Phases

• Most participants knew about cold plunging from outdoor cold plunge events, specifically New Years Eve events. 

• Here is an example of flyer for an event the Hearth could host to effectively raise awareness about the business

• The image initiates feelings of belonging and inspiration

1.) The top of the page introduces convenient links for membership & free events to quickly include customers

2.) Story Highlights that focus on the type of education participants requested in the user data to support them in their health & wellness education.

3.) Videos and pictures of people who represent the two user groups which brings a familiarity and inclusion. Videos of people like Mark Wahlberg doing his own cold plunge to inspire to users. And other videos of community members gathering around the fire, as well, as pictures of the space to give a sense of the Hearth experience.

Storyboards from the Experience and Maintain Phases

Due to the request for both - a self directed first visit, and, a guided group orientation available regularly for beginners, I created two storyboards of these scenarios.

Storyboard for Scenario 1 - The customers interested in a more self directed first experience, still wanted a friendly welcome, a tour through the space and an option to view a video on breath work instructions as desired.

Storyboard for Scenario 2 - A guided group cold plunge. This storyboard is a step by step guide on the customer experience of the reserved group cold plunges for beginners to show the basics of how it can be implemented at The Hearth. Giving free beginner tutorials is an example of how you can both build community and maintain customer engagement in both the experience and maintain phases of the customers journey.

Takeaways & Next steps

In order to make both experienced and new customers comfortable it will be critical that The Hearth considers their shared values - the desire to find healthy activities among community, so they can feel a sense of belonging, support and inspiration. I found that both the most challenging and most rewarding aspect of this project was aligning the businesses vision and constraints with the users’ desires and needs based on the research findings. Ultimately, I was able to create a service design that met the needs of both stakeholders.

For next steps, I would recommend participant observation once the space is built. I would also encourage The Hearth to do some user research on the maintain and support phases of the customer journey as they build out their membership feature, and find other ways to build lasting relationships with their customers.