I looked at some similar products in the recovery market to see If I could identify some areas that weren't being hit affectively. My research into these other product gave me great insight into how the current options work and how there features can affect there success rates when keeping the recovering addict sober.

Main Competitor: I AM SOBER

Features:

Business model: Free with a plus account for £8 per/month

I AM SOBER is a sobriety tracker app that uses motivation messages and milestones to encourage its users to begin their sober journey and stick to it. I would consider this as my main competitor. A lot of the features planned for my product are always used here. This includes motivation in the form of money saved, calories burned etc. So finding out about this has forced me to adapt some of my features and try and find some Unique Selling Points (USP) that could put my app in a better light than theirs.

Onboarding Process

I downloaded the app to get a better idea of the UI/UX. The first thing I had to get through was the onboarding process which was in all honesty fairly well done. It was simple, easy to follow along and allowed me to fill out all the information that is relevant to the users condition. There was one stage however that brought that all to an abrupt stop. At the end of the onboarding, the screen is filled with a pop up informing the user of the account plus features and prompting them to sign up with a 7 day free trial. This isn't bad in itself, but the issue arose in the fact that it isn't made clear that this is an option. When it first popped up I thought that the app was actually hidden behind a paywall that wasn't mentioned on the app store page. There is an X in the top left hand corner but it is very hidden and even I had trouble finding it. A lot of the negative reviews stated that they first thought the app was free but were disappointed to find that you had to pay. My assumption is that those users hit this paywall and were immediately turned away from the app. This is obviously a bad business move but it could also cause issues for users. Keeping stress to a minimum is key to a solid recovery and if the user gets to this stage and feels that all the info they just put in was put to waste because they now have to pay to use the app, that could cause them unwanted frustration and stress. It's also worth noting that some of the reviews complaining about this are two years old, meaning that this is a persistent issue that hasn't been addressed by the developers at all.

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4 - Asking the user to put in their own reasons for quitting is a great way to help remind the user of why they are quitting and help keep them motivated.

4 - Asking the user to put in their own reasons for quitting is a great way to help remind the user of why they are quitting and help keep them motivated.

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8 - The pain point

8 - The pain point

Left: This was where my journey was brought to a screeching halt. In retrospect the X is much more visible now that I know it's there. But I still feel that the option to opt out of the plus account should be much more obvious. It isn't helped by the two try or buy bottom so close to each other. This is something I will avoid entirely in my app.

UI