Realign
Product design & UX | DESIGN RESEARCH | User interface
Working with Kingston University we researched, designed and prototyped Realign.
Realign is a digital tool designed for entrepreneurs to manage stress and maintain balance throughout their workday.
It offers micro-breaks and guided resets that fit seamlessly into busy schedules while tracking mood and well-being trends over time.
Problem statement
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Realign
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Problem statement 〰️ Realign 〰️
Problem
A lot of money is invested into start-ups, however not much is invested into the well-being of the business leaders themselves.
Despite the importance of recovery, there are few scalable, evidence-based digital tools designed specifically to support entrepreneurs’ mental resilience and emotional disengagement from work.
As a part of research into entrepreneurs and the stressors they face being small business owners, Kingston University wanted to build a digital psychological recovery tool.
The tool needed to be based on the 3R model (Reduce, Resource and Recover) which is a framework to help business owners manage and recover from stress.
As a part of the process we interviewed a selection of entrepreneurs and discussed their challenges running a business and how they deal with stressors in their every-day life.
SOLUTION
Entrepreneurs and small business owners are often time-poor and under constant pressure.
We know we cannot always prevent these stressors from happening. Realign exists to help them prevent burnout, recognise stress triggers, and build simple, personalised micro-habits that fit naturally into their work day.
By tailoring recovery strategies through data-driven insights, the app creates a continuous feedback loop that supports sustainable well-being and growth.
Through small, daily steps, Realign helps entrepreneurs and small business owners reset & reconnect in as little as 60 seconds a day.
From day one, entrepreneurs receive practical activities grounded in evidence-based research. Over time, the app learns from their data, offering tailored exercises and insights that evolve with their needs.
Every activity is designed to show why it works, helping users understand and sustain healthy recovery habits.
Process
Using the four phases of The Double Diamond we went from discovery to delivery in this project.
The Double Diamond is a visualisation of the design and innovation process. It’s a simple way to describe the steps taken when developing a project, irrespective of methods and tools used.
DISCOVER
Primary research
To collect important insights we initially did a screening survey to find relevant entrepreneurs and business owners to interview…
Interviews
The screening survey led us to 7 interviewees. We interviewed ewch participant for about 45 minutes and asked them questions about running a business, how they managed their stress and what the most valuable part of being an entrepreneur is to them..
Key insights
Eco system map
Based on our primary and secondary research we were able to create a eco system map, highlighting where we had great opportunity in the market to build a solution.
DEFINE
Personas & User Journeys
Followed by our Discovery phase we created personas, defined the problem and the user journeys so we could develop a suitable solution that solved the entrepreneurs key issues.
DEVELOP
IDEATION
After collating insights and defining our user we went through an ideation stage building out our solution
OUR FIRST IDEA: Align
A digital app/tool to help people improve their wellbeing, manage their stress and implement better habits based on the 3Rs.
When starting the journey to an improved well-being the entrepreneur will fill out a questionnaire to map down their stress levels and understand their current experience with mindfulness exercises and other activities.
A customised flow will be build for the user and after 30 days a report will be provided to give a complete overview of the users stressors, stress levels and useful exercises.
Feedback
We pitched our first idea to an entrepreneur who had useful feedback - and the conclusion was that our solution didn’t seem stickable enough and that there was too much effort needed before giving the user an output.
Make it ‘Stickable’
We already had some insights from our interviews on what works practically - but we didn’t have enough insights in how make new habits stick.
We used A.I. to gain additional insights into:
What makes a solution and product usage ‘stick’ and develop to form a habit for the user
What the realistic time an entrepreneur would be able to dedicate to using this product
What could be ‘instant wins’ and deemed as ‘fast progress’,
Synthetic data and what could be added to our bank of personas
COMPETITOR & VISUAL REFERENCE ANALYSIS
Here we looked at competitors that exist in the market, as well as products in other areas, which created successful daily habits. This helped us to understand market gaps,
user needs and informing design decisions.
Our competitor analysis including looking at products which focussed on and excelled at offering:
Stress relieving techniques
Content to help manage mental health
Tracking of mood or exercise
Daily check-in
Features which encouraged daily usage/habit-making
We compared features, content, price, target audience, success and design elements across these products.
SOLUTION: REALIGN
Following the feedback and additional research we re-created the concept.
The concept is now based on micro-flows and will give the user instant value. Instead of a long on-boarding process the concept now create a digital footprint of the user and how they engage with the app to understand their archetype.
THE WHAT
Realign is a digital tool designed for entrepreneurs to manage stress and maintain balance throughout their workday.
It offers micro-breaks and guided resets that
fit seamlessly into busy schedules while tracking mood and well-being trends over time.
THE WHY
Entrepreneurs and small business owners are often
time-poor and under constant pressure.
We know we cannot always prevent these stressors from happening. Realign exists to help them prevent burnout, recognise stress triggers, and build simple, personalised micro-habits that fit naturally into their work day.
By tailoring recovery strategies through data-driven insights, the app creates a continuous feedback loop that supports sustainable well-being and growth.
THE HOW
Through small, daily steps, Realign helps entrepreneurs and small business owners reset & reconnect in as little as 60 seconds a day.
From day one, entrepreneurs receive practical activities grounded in evidence-based research. Over time, the app learns from their data, offering tailored exercises and insights that evolve with their needs.
Every activity is designed to show why it works, helping users understand and sustain healthy recovery habits.
DELIVER
MID FIDELITY
CORE FUNCTIONS
Landing page
WELCOME SCREEN
WELCOME SCREEN
ACTIVITY
Building out user profile
We’d originally plannedo n doing an on-boarding flow asking the user questions about their habits and stressors - but the new approach allow for us to use data and AI to build out the user profile and adjust the journey according to the users habits and behaviour in the app.
