From the CEO: "The Age of Rewarded Wellness: Prioritising End Simplicity in Apps"

We have been working with a few health and wellness apps lately, and it made me think of one key aspect of limited real estate on mobile: simplicity of the first screen. Simplicity of any screen, in fact. Prioritising just one action for the user instead of overloading them with constant decision-making, which eventually leads to frustration and, hence, abandonment. I know this is hard for product teams. I remember when I worked at Google, we had insider jokes about how many product managers would compete for user attention above the fold with different CTAs each. Prioritisation is a challenge for large companies. It is a challenge for everyone, in fact.

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However, as one may already know, users don't care about our internal politics.They just click around in hopes of exploring or getting things they want. And the more choices you give users, the more likely they are to bail out. This is especially important for health and wellness apps since overwhelming people with uncompleted daily tasks, challenges, and programs may create FOMO and a feeling of shame. Imagine this scenario: I’ve just paid for this app to become a better version of myself, and I cannot even start a single thing because there are too many I should be doing—workouts, challenges, meal plans, etc. I’d rather go and stress-eat my donut.

Rewarded Wellness is one of the current trends. Users are proactively self-educating themselves about what is good for their body and mind and are demanding science-backed solutions. People are no longer responding to shame-driven prompts and things like BMI optimization. They want apps that reward their good habits rather than focusing on appearance—apps that make them feel good about themselves.

So, how do you create a safe space for the user? How do you design an app that instantly helps them feel better about themselves? What is the best way to introduce the user to your product without overwhelming them? First and foremost, as mentioned above, prioritise one key action per screen and focus on one thing at a time."

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The Water Llama app introduces a clear starting point and guides users on how to progress. I simply need to keep drinking water and tap on different glasses to fill my lama with water. 

The HowWeFeel app has one massive call to action right in the middle of the first screen with intuitive guidance on how to submit your feeling entry. Other destinations have far less presence due to lower contrast and the reduced space they occupy.

The OneLeaf app starts the first hypnosis session straight away after onboarding, letting users begin their journey without even introducing them to the full app functionality.

When I was trying to integrate my gym workouts into my daily life, it took me years just to develop a habit. Whenever I started skipping my sessions and slipping back into old habits, I would always think: Okay, what is the one minimum thing I need to do today to consider my workout done? What is that one ridiculously easy thing that I can do just to get back into the daily repetition? Once I got that one thing back on track, I would regain my healthy identity and start focusing on building up my routine and improving the workouts themselves.

So, you want to make this one key action of your app ridiculously easy to start and ridiculously easy not to come back to. You want to help users not only get on board with your product but also to return to it, even after missing a few weeks.  Focus on making it as easy as possible for them to reconnect with their new identity.

People want to feel good about the products they buy.

If we take these insights from health and wellness apps and apply them to any other industry, you might always ask yourself the following: How do you want users to start exploring your product? What is that one thing that you want them to do right now? If you cannot answer these questions, it is naive to expect answers from users. The mobile screen has historically had much less real estate, teaching us to prioritize things. A good app will not require users to have all their answers immediately. Good apps make decisions for users and help them focus on what matters in the moment.

The same logic goes beyond a single screen and can be applied to the entire product strategy. Did you know that Headspace, the app that is now valued at $3 billion, had to sunset over 15 features over the years as they searched for their unique voice and focus? These features included:

• Buddies
• Social stats
• My Journey 
• Badges/Rewards 
• Music Integration
• Group Meditations 

Looking at this list of features, you might think, “Aren't all of those great additions to an industry-leading app? But the truth is, to be unique means to nail that one thing and stick with it. Simplicity is hard, and it takes real leadership to cut out all the features that are not the core of your product. Understanding that a meditation app designed for users to look inward will have social features acting as distractions or additional sources of anxiety—that is real leadership. Recognizing that any gamification of the user journey might be the opposite of mindfulness—that is real user empathy.

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This is what I see a lot in product teams: everyone is chasing the latest industry trends. Fitness apps are adding meal plans, mealkit apps are adding workouts, and absolutely everyone is adding AI coaches... Product managers are often promotion-motivated, focusing on launching new features instead of optimizing existing assets. Even teams optimizing the current product often find themselves trapped in the cycle of short-term wins, struggling to prioritize the long-term happiness of the user.

In early 2019, the Conversion team at Headspace focused on quick wins to the checkout and in-app purchase experience. These fast A/B tests demonstrated movement to the larger org and moved the conversion rate metric incrementally. Looking back, we were attached to some of those quick wins, making it hard to kill parts of our checkout design until we took a more holistic portfolio approach later that year.

— Keya Patel, Ex-Director of Product Growth at Headspace

Achieving simplicity at the product level is a massive job, but here are a few things you can start doing in your organisation:

• Introduce non-revenue related metrics and OKRs like user satisfaction, NPS, retention, etc, and monitor these alongside classic conversions. 
• Conduct user interviews and research to understand their long-term values. Observe users interacting with products beyond just one session. Create empathy for the end user across your organisation with stories, video reports, and other storytelling methods. 
• Empower your employees at all levels to adopt a user-first mindset and create a culture that prioritises user feedback and needs in the decision-making process.

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I’ll finish with a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “A designer knows that he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Simplicity and empathy in design—by prioritising what truly matters to users and eliminating distractions—are critical for fostering long-term engagement and satisfaction. By adopting a user-first mindset and integrating non-revenue metrics alongside classic conversions, product teams can create more meaningful and sustainable experiences. Embracing these principles across all aspects of product strategy will lead to apps that not only attract but retain users, empowering them to feel good about their interactions and ultimately, their choices.

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