Abstract
Bingo Bliss is a mental health-focused mobile app designed to help users pursue wellness goals through an interactive and gamified bingo experience. Each square on the bingo board represents a wellness activity, and completing these activities helps users progress both in the game and in their mental health journey. The app is grounded in principles of goal setting, social support, and positive habit formation. This case study explores the design process from research through prototyping, testing, and iteration.
The Challenge
The central challenge was designing a mental health app that felt uplifting rather than overwhelming. Bingo Bliss needed to strike a careful balance between fun and function—motivating users to complete wellness activities while supporting serious mental health needs.
Key design considerations included:
Creating a system that users would want to return to daily.
Supporting goal customization while maintaining a unified user experience.
Encouraging accountability through social features.
Keeping the experience lighthearted, without minimizing the importance of mental health.
Constraints
Like many solo design efforts, the project faced several limitations:
Time and Resources: As an independent design project, progress needed to be made efficiently without a development team.
Technical Integration: Features like syncing with fitness trackers or calendar apps were envisioned but not implemented in early versions.
Privacy Considerations: Handling personal wellness data required careful thought, even during early wireframing.
Scope Management: With so many potential features, staying focused was essential to prevent scope creep.
My Role
I led all aspects of UX research, design, and prototyping for Bingo Bliss. This included user interviews, competitive analysis, wireframing, UI development, and testing. I also created branding assets, collaborated with peers for feedback, and pitched the concept in a class critique setting.
Defining Project Goals
After aligning with research insights and design priorities, I established several key goals for the project:
Encourage Healthy Habits: Help users complete daily tasks that support mental and physical well-being.
Increase Engagement: Use game mechanics and social elements to drive daily app usage.
Enable Customization: Let users personalize their bingo cards with wellness goals that reflect their needs.
Build Accountability: Incorporate peer features to increase motivation and community.
Track Progress: Offer clear insights into goal completion and wellness trends.
Research and Insights
To better understand user needs and validate the concept, I applied several methods:
User Surveys & Interviews: Collected insights about wellness habits, app usage, and motivational triggers.
Competitive Analysis: Reviewed popular wellness and fitness apps to identify gaps and best practices.
Literature Review: Explored research on goal-setting, habit formation, and peer accountability.
Key Findings
65% of people are more likely to achieve their goals when they are made public.
95% reach their goals when they have someone holding them accountable.
Users highly value personalization and social encouragement in wellness apps.
Visual, gamified feedback loops improve retention and motivation.
Defining Deliverables
Based on the research and brainstorming process, I outlined the essential app features:
Customizable Bingo Cards: Users can tailor their board to reflect their current mental health goals.
Social Feed: Friends can follow your progress and offer encouragement.
Integration Readiness: The design leaves room for syncing with external health data sources.
Progress Insights: Users can monitor their wellness journey through stats and visual feedback.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
With clear goals in mind, I created mid-fidelity wireframes that established the app’s structure:
Feature Cohesion: The app’s mechanics needed to work together in a seamless, motivating flow.
UI Priorities: I tested clean, touch-friendly layouts designed for mobile usability.
Navigation Simplicity: Every interaction was mapped to reduce friction and support repeat use.
Feature Set & Visual Identity
Mascot Introduction
Meet Benny the Pineapple, a friendly guide who motivates users along their wellness path. Benny adds charm and helps reinforce the app’s playful, encouraging tone.
UI Design
Streamlined navigation for quick access to key features.
High contrast and legible text for better accessibility.
Visual segmentation of homepage content to reduce cognitive load.
Bingo Feed
The home feed is updated with users’ bingo progress throughout the day, encouraging friends to send reactions or comments to boost morale and participation.
Profile Tab
This screen offers detailed insights such as:
Completion stats
Active streaks
Most engaged bingo squares
Accessible Design
Each bingo tile supports optional text-to-speech, enlarged text, and simplified icons for accessibility. The design also considers colorblind-friendly patterns.
Photo-Based Accountability
Many bingo squares prompt users to take photos as evidence, adding an element of memory-capturing while reinforcing progress and peer visibility.
Testing and Iteration
Peer Critique
A classroom of over 20 students reviewed the design in progress, offering valuable input and critique.
Iteration Highlights
Square Updates: Several tiles were revised based on user feedback to better align with real-world routines.
Task Clarity: Descriptions and tooltips were added to help users understand each square’s purpose.
Feature Exploration: New ideas, like preset goal-based boards, emerged as part of ongoing testing.
FAQs: Supporting Transparency
To proactively answer common user concerns, I designed an FAQ section that covered:
What different bingo square colors mean
Whether boards reset after completion
The significance of progress icons like the flame badge
The identity and role of the pineapple mascot
How users are reminded to complete squares
High-Fidelity Mockups
Final mockups brought together all aspects of the brand—color, interaction, and clarity—into a polished mobile-first design. Each screen was built in Figma with mobile gestures and ease of use in mind.
What I Learned
Mobile UX: Designing for touch interfaces revealed key differences from desktop-first thinking. Simplicity and gesture flow became essential.
Focus the Scope: Starting broad made the project overwhelming. Refining ideas around what was most meaningful helped keep the design process smooth and intentional.
Design Can Be Fun: Incorporating a playful mascot and bold visual choices made the project not only more enjoyable but more engaging for users.
Closing Thoughts
Bingo Bliss was more than just a design challenge—it was an opportunity to build something joyful and supportive in the wellness space. Working with positive design principles, community features, and playful UX elements gave me valuable insight into what makes an app both helpful and human.
