Habit Rehab

Duration: 4 month project

Role: Independent project. Research, Ideating, Prototyping and Testing, Iterating

Deliverable: New Product Prototype & Business Plan

Problem to solve: People who pick their nails have trouble breaking this undesirable habit. By extension, how might we help people break various bad habits effectively? This project personally resonated with me as someone who has struggled with picking my nails all my life. I’ve tried many different solutions and none of them has broken the habit.

The intended audience
People looking to stop picking at their nails and cuticles but have been unable to break the habit. Surprisingly, at least 25% of adults have cuticle or nail picking habits. The triggers and boredom and anxiety, and both are on the rise as attention spans fall and everyday stress increases.

Secondary research
First I looked into what nail picking solutions currently exist in the marketplace. I found DIY solutions like self help forums and press-on nails. I found some tactics like wearing gloves, getting fake nails at the salon, and playing with fidget spinners. Then there’s psychological options like psychologists, CBT and hypnotherapy. Lastly, I found paid online guides and resources. All of these approaches are either expensive, unhealthy, inconvenient, sweaty, or unsightly.

Primary research
I conducted interviews and questionnaires with adults who have anxiety and/or nail-centric nervous habits over Facebook and Reddit. I asked them for their experiences with existing solutions like press-on nails, manicures, and fidget spinners.

INSIGHT: From these interviews, I discovered that the solution had to be effective, accessible, and socially acceptable. If either one was missing, the user wouldn’t follow through with the solution and the problem would go unsolved.

Inspiration [photo]
I recalled a time I had accidentally sliced off the tip of my thumb with an x-acto knife. The bandage was bright red and enormous!  I was so embarrassed and tried to hide my hand however I could. But I recalled that I while I was wearing the bandage, all my nails grew. As a solution it was completely effective but socially unacceptable! So realizing this was an insight, I came up with a working hypothesis.

Ideating
With this hypothesis in mind, I began brainstorming some different wearable concepts for how the thumbnail might be blocked.

Experimentation + Iteration
I ran an experiment where I asked 6 nail pickers to place a piece of tape over their thumbs and try to pick at their nails. This revealed that my hypothesis was incorrect. Not everyone uses their thumb as their dominant picking finger. Each person is different, but the idea is the same– block a person’s dominant finger(s) and they can’t pick. So we repeated the test with tape over the dominant finger and had success. I observed that only the nail itself needed to be blocked.

Tests with various modified thimbles
I next tried wearing a store-bought plastic sewing thimbles on my dominant fingertip. It turned out to be effective but incredibly sweaty (despite cutting out a section to allow airflow) and not socially acceptable. I decided to test a new hypothesis: By asking the people around us to help us be accountable for wearing the thimble, they will remind us to wear it. This would eliminate some social acceptability because we’d explain its function to those close to us, who would want to support our intention. After testing out this hypothesis myself, it failed miserably. I became self conscious in larger groups and removed it. I also removed it when I was alone at my desk when it became sweaty. [photos]

Test w/ paint-on latex and cardboard
All worn for at least three hours (sweaty and fragile) [photos]

Tests with 3D printed rings
Tested 3d printed versions of the ring on self and others [but these were so fragile that tests couldn’t be run effectively] — NEED TO TAKE PHOTOS OF THIS

More user interviews
I realized as I spoke with people that I needed to investigate more into how habits are broken and formed. So I doubled back and did another round of secondary research. The big insights from this research:  1) When eliminating bad habits, you need to replace them with good habits in order for them to stick. 2) Habits often have deep seated motivations and unconscious cues, which people don’t realize. This meant that 1) The solution should have something built into it that would be a new replacement habit and 2)there needed to be an element of psychological support

I did some more ideating around how to do this and how a package might support this. I came up with the idea to pair a physical product with online videos, coaching, and online peer support.

Co-creation
A co-creation session with four nail/cuticle pickers confirmed their desire for mental support in addition to the physical item and a willingness to dedicate 5 minutes a day doing whatever exercises were recommended to help them break their habits. Online lessons and exercises might cover topics like identity, triggers, rewards, and prevention. Checkins using Facebook would help users to have accountability. There should be different pricing tiers based on levels of support with coaching and Skype peer groups optional. [Include quotes from this?]

**May wish to design an app screen UX/ layout for how the service might function

Final solution
To sum up, habits are a mind-body problem. Existing solutions either solely address the mind or the body, never both. When it comes to the mechanics of nail/cuticle picking, pickers often rely on a dominant finger.

So I created a working business plan and prototype for a start-up: Habit Rehab. Habit Rehab tackles specific habits with packages of paired tangibles and intangibles, addressing both the emotional and physical aspects of the problem. The physical item, or “secret weapon” is designed to physically help individuals break their habit. The emotional assistance is comprised of videos and coaching on how to break bad habits and replace them with good ones.

Show a visual of the intangible offering

Conclusions
Working on this project, I learned the value of tenacity. I went through so many iterations of the product to find a version that could act as a MVP. I learned the challenges of prototyping products with inferior materials that aren’t close to what the end product will be, and how that can completely misrepresent your results. I’m certain that the product can be improved even further. The current iteration of the ring must be fitted fairly tightly due to its location on the finger so that it doesn’t fall off. I’d like to explore other emerging printing materials that are both adjustable/flexible and as visually acceptable as fashionable.

The physical solution I came up with for nail-focused habits ended up being limited in audience. Individuals who aren’t comfortable with wearing nail jewelry probably wouldn’t be interested using this solution. That said, simple solutions recommended in forums like wearing band-aids might be a viable solution for someone less image conscious who perhaps doesn’t wear jewelry.

I also learned a little about confirmation bias. After my own personal experience with injuring my thumb, I first assumed everyone who picked was thumb dominant, but that was not the case. This was fortunately overcome by testing the hypothesis through experimentation and observation.

I learned that while the ring may not be a perfect solution, there is something perhaps even more promising in the overarching idea of the dual-package with its physical and psychological components to help solve bad habits. Ultimately pursuing that larger idea instead could prove fruitful; you never know where in the process you might change direction. The process is messy and completely non-linear, but all you can do is keep at it and eventually you’ll move forward!