As a strategic shift toward preventative health, &Me was created as a behavioural science-backed wellness companion, designed to help people build and sustain healthy habits.
Responsibilities
Research, User Journeys,
Product Design, A/B Testing
Company
Holland & Barrett
Duration
4 Months
in 4 months
Feelings of overwhelm due to contradictory advice
Thousands of things people “should” do, with no way to judge what is credible. For most, the outcome was paralysis, not action.
People couldn't see the impact of their daily choices
Without visible progress, people assume their efforts aren’t working. This resulted in motivation collapsing very quickly.
Positive reinforcement was not being received
Knowledge isn’t enough; users need a clear signal that their behaviour is making a difference. Without emotional reinforcement, habits don’t stick.
If a feature didn’t help users feel clearer, more capable, or more motivated, it didn’t belong in the MVP. This principle became our filter for prioritisation, experimentation, and scope decisions.
The problem users were facing was that they didn’t know what advice to trust or where to focus. So we decided to introduce a personalised Biological Age metric, grounded in health and lifestyle data, to give users a clear starting point and sense of direction.
Users couldn’t see whether their daily actions were making a difference. To combat this, we built a dynamic biological age model informed by four key pillars of wellness, allowing users to track progress and understand what was influencing change. To strengthen accuracy and reduce manual effort, we integrated with existing health platforms including Apple Health, Strava, and Fitbit. This helped users connect everyday behaviour to longer-term outcomes.
Even when users took action, doubt and drop-off were common. We introduced team challenges with daily targets and milestones, utilising behavioural change techniques to break larger goals into manageable, motivating steps. The focus wasn’t gamification for its own sake; it was sustained reinforcement and momentum.
Behavioural change
84% of users reported positive behaviour change in the first 10 days of goal engagement.
User engagement
87% of participants felt the app helped them build healthier habits, and 76% said it helped them sustain those positive habits.
Awards & recognition
We won the Customer Experience Game Changer Award within the first year of launch.
