New Now partnered with Furthermore to successfully pitch for the development of a cross-platform app for the Improving Wellbeing through Urban Nature (iWun) project. The app is the primary tool used to conduct the study, replacing manual processes and form filling to gather data.

Furthermore conducted UX workshops and research and identified that keeping users engaged and participating for the duration of the study was the key challenge. To address this, a familiar messenger-style UI was designed, with a chatbot employed to communicate with users pro-actively and encourage continued participation.

The app incorporates geofences corresponding to greenspaces such as parks and so on. When users are nearby, they are prompted to notice something good about the area and record it in the app. Standardised questionnaires measuring users’ wellbeing are completed at the start of the study, then after a month of usage and 2 months later.

New Now built the app and chatbot using the Ionic framework, allowing development of iOS and Android apps from a single codebase. A backend for the app was also built using node.js, and deployed to Microsoft’s Azure platform. Data extracts were then developed for further analysis by the researchers.

You can read more about the project on Furthermore’s website.

You can download the app via iTunes (Apple devices) or Google Play (Android devices).