Overview

FITBIT MORNING BRIEF

Fitbit Morning Brief is a personalized, glanceable digest delivered to users after they wake up. The brief aggregates and interprets key metrics and datapoints to help users plan a fitness-centered day.

Along with leading the end-to-end Product Design, I also assisted in shaping the product strategy and defining Morning Brief’s look and feel.

Morning Brief will be the first thing millions of Fitbit users see in the morning when it debuts on the Google Pixel Watch 3 in Q4 2024.

Role

Product Design Lead — Interaction Design, Visual Design, User Flows, Rapid Prototyping

Timeline & status

5 months, in development for 2024 release

An inconvenient morning routine

The problem

Fitbit users begin their day by reviewing their overnight metrics: Sleep, Readiness, and Health. These datapoints give users an understanding of their overall wellness and how prepared they are to pursue their daily fitness goals.

There were two major painpoints users encountered when reviewing their metrics:

  • The metrics lived on different surfaces and devices.

  • The task of interpreting the data fell to users who received little guidance or next steps.

Despite these problems, users still rely on these metrics for daily guidance and motivation.

Previous experience to review overnight metrics

identifying opportunities

Accessing content needs

In the original PRD, Morning Brief was envisioned as a user’s “check engine light”. Its purpose was solely to notify users of changes in their health metrics. But with all the data at Fitbit’s disposal, I saw additional opportunities to fulfill user needs.

Fitbit tracks an extensive amount of metrics across its features. Data captured by each feature ranges from broad to granular and their usefulness varies based on when it’s reviewed by users.

I collaborated closely with stakeholders across Fitbit’s ecosystem to better understand the impact their metrics have on how users plan their day. This helped me broaden the scope of Morning Brief to encompass additional, relevant features and data types.

Range of Fitbit features and metrics

Assessing level of detail

Design explorations

With Fitbit’s wealth of data it was important to understand the level of detail users expect from a curated summary. To that end, I explored ways to standardize disparate metrics that fulfilled 4 distinct user needs.

My approach was to create a range of glanceable modules which would be shared in user research to understand preference for level of detail across different features.

Module wires ex. Sleep and Readiness

Module explorations of various features

Introducing UI and motion

I also collaborated with visual and motion designers on high-fidelity design options. These explorations focused on creating visually cohesive experiences and using motion to enhance storytelling and add elements of delight.

Scroll

Pagination

Hybrid

Feature evaluation

ux research

Following the initial design explorations, I worked with a UX researcher on a research plan to help drive the detailed design of Morning Brief. The research goals were to understand both foundational questions about the feature and more granular issues like, user preference for content, layout, and information styles.

High-level findings

3 key takeaways from UXR:

  • Users appreciate information they can use to gain motivation and stay on track toward their goals.

  • Suggestions that correlate multiple data points are helpful to users’ daily planning.

  • Some level of detail, beyond a metric score is necessary and desired by users, especially when metrics are out of their normal range.

Morning Brief’s North Star

With the findings from research, I proposed a set of design principles that helped guide conversations with stakeholders and leadership. 

Design principles

Positive motivation

Offer contextually relevant suggestions that are within the user’s control.

Proactive guidance

Help users interpret metrics so they can take the next step in maintaining their fitness routine.

Precise and concise

Surface planning-focused, glanceable information tailored to users.

Learnings into action

Design iterations

UXR participants confirmed their preference to review Readiness, Sleep, and Health metrics in the morning. They also found exercise progress and the daily weather forecast to be important factors in daily planning. These data types form the core of Morning Brief.

To focus users on a particular data type, each metric was given its own module. The guidelines for each module were:

  • A hero metric (e.g., total sleep duration)

  • Data visualization for the hero metric

  • A brief string that helps contextualize the metric and data viz (e.g., excellent sleep score)

The majority of information in Morning Brief relied on data owned by other feature teams. This created dependencies upon which close alignment with feature stakeholders was essential.

A simplified morning routine

Final Designs

Users who wore their devices to sleep will receive Morning Brief when they wake up.

There are two entry points to the feature. The primary entry point is via a new UI element for ongoing activities. Users who miss their Morning Brief from this entry point can also access it from the notifications tray.

Happy path experience

Key takeaway

Modules

The key takeaway module provides rule-based suggestions from information presented across modules. Data from Readiness, yesterday’s activity load, and Sleep were used to create a library of workout recommendations.

Morning Brief insights

Readiness

Modules

The readiness module provides context to the recommendations in the key takeaway. Readiness score and target cardio load help users understand their readiness for activity that day.

In addition to readiness score, earlier iterations of this module also explained why a user’s score was low, good, or excellent. However, a shift in stakeholder strategy had us pivot to prioritizing a different data type.

Sleep

Modules

UXR participants expressed disinterest in sleep guidance and insights. Sleep suggestions run the risk of feeling judgy and don’t account for external factors, like young children. I decided to focus on delivering simple sleep data without asking users to interpret graphs or understanding scores.

Exercise

Modules

Research participants found the exercise module highly motivating for daily planning. The module tracks users’ progress toward their weekly exercise goal. Prior to proposing the weekly exercise metric, I tested a range of daily activity goals including steps and distance, but these data types felt too exercise specific and not broad enough to encompass all Fitbit users.

To add a touch of delight, I worked with a motion designer to introduce a celebration animation when users reach their weekly goal.

Weather

Modules

Checking the weather in the morning is an essential part of many users daily routine since it informs how they prepare and what limitations it sets on their daily activity. In earlier iterations, weather was used to correlate smart suggestions in the key takeaway, but that plan was abandoned due to the complexity it would bring to the rule-based suggestions library.

Health Metrics 

Modules

The Health Metrics module is only surfaced when a user’s metrics are out of personal range. These metrics include resting heart rate, oxygen saturation, and breathing rate. UXR participants expressed only wanting to see Health Metrics when they were out of range, typically ~4 times a month. I suggested omitting the module when all metrics are in range since an all clear doesn’t add much value and makes the brief longer to review.

Looking back on Morning Brief

Retrospective

Lean on research and SMEs

This feature was uncharted territory for Fitbit. Receiving validation on hypotheses and prototypes helped me form a strong POV on users’ needs and pain points.

Involve stakeholders early and often

Morning Brief had a small army of stakeholders. Looping them in early and understanding their requirements helped streamline the design and approvals processes.

Roll with it

Changes are inevitable at all stages. Being flexible to updates from stakeholders helped strengthen working relationships and communication.