The Challenge

In 2019, the San Francisco Department of Public Health launched a program called "Intentional Walk," aimed at encouraging low-income residents to exercise more through a competition where participants who walked the most could win prizes. While the program was successful, the off-the-shelf app used had several usability issues that created barriers for participants. The Department of Public Health approached the Code for SF Civic Hack Night seeking ideas to improve the app and enhance the user experience, with the goal of increasing participation and engagement in the program.

Role: Lead Product Designer for V1

Team: Francis Li, Britt Jensen, Abhay Kashyap, Kelsey Marie Furtado, Kevin Morris, Eric Ouyang, Niko Booth

Outcome

We developed a native iOS/Android step-tracking app that not only helped users record and track their steps but also provided guides to help participants discover walking routes around their neighborhoods. Promoted as a competition, users could compete for prizes like tickets to Giants games. In 2020 the program attracted 400 participants, who collectively logged 26 million steps—equivalent to 13,000 miles walked. Thanks to the app's success, it was expanded under the SF Department of Recreation and is now in its fifth version. Download the iOS or Andorid app to use it!