Human-centric Development of a SMART Goal Setting Feature

The objective of this project was to design and implement the prototype of an engaging ehealth app feature that allows users to define healthy lifestyle changes using a SMART goal setting process and monitor their progress towards these goals.

This project was conducted as a FIT 4002 final year project in collaboration with the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (MADA). We teamed up six Bachelor of Software Engineering students with two Masters of Interaction Design students who, in close collaboration, carried out human-centric software development under the guidance of supervisors from MADA and FIT. The design students led Human-Centred Design (HCD) activities such as user interviews, co-creation sessions and usability testing while gaining insights into agile software development methods led by the IT students. The IT students were increasingly involved in HCD activities during the course of the project, eventually leading usability testing sessions.

Our students delivered an interactive design and a subsequent software prototype of a SMART goal setting feature, which was evaluated with users of Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI)’s AskPCOS ehealth app to ensure a positive user experience.

Furthermore, we used this project as the basis for a meta-study on the impact of empathy on software engineering practices.

Project Lead

Dr Ingo Mueller

Project Team

FIT4002 student team, MADA design students
MADA: Jeffrey Janet
MCHRI: A/Prof Lisa Moran, Dr Stephanie Cowan, Susanne Baker

FIT 4002 Supervisors
ABM Russel, A/Prof Yuan-Fang Li

MADA Supervisors
Jeffrey Janet, Dr Yun Tae Nam