Case Study_SmokeFree | Nikitabhargava

Case Study

SMOKEFREE – Reframing the Experience of Quitting

A few minutes of waiting, a stressful moment during the day, or simply a habit built into daily routines—these are often the moments when someone reaches for a cigarette.

While most young adults are aware of the health risks, long-term consequences rarely motivate immediate behavior change.

SMOKEFREE is a behavior-change focused mobile app that reframes quitting by turning cigarettes not smoked into visible money saved and meaningful progress, making the journey feel rewarding rather than restrictive.

Role: UX Researcher & Designer

Timeline: 3 weeks

Tools:

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe XD, Miro

Methods:

• Secondary Research • Guerrilla User Interviews • Empathy mapping • Competitive Analysis • Ideation (Crazy 8s) • Information Architecture (Saturate & Group) • User stories

• User flows • Wireframing & Prototyping

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Project Context — Designing Behavior Change for Better Health

Some of the most complex problems in design are not visual—they are behavioral.

I initiated this self-driven project to explore how design can influence human behavior while contributing to long-term well-being. To ground the work in a meaningful global framework, I began by studying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, focusing on Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health & Well-being and its target of reducing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases.

While reviewing reports from the World Health Organization and Canadian public health data, a clear pattern emerged: young adults continue to smoke despite knowing its health risks. The issue wasn’t information—it was behavior.

To keep the research focused and actionable,

I narrowed the scope to:

A demographic at a critical life stage where habits solidify and where smoking is often linked to stress, emotional coping, and social environments.

This raised a key design question:

How might we motivate young adults to quit smoking in a way that feels empowering, achievable, and rewarding — rather than restrictive or judgmental?

That question became the starting point for “SMOKEFREE” - a behaviour-change focused mobile app.

Outcomes

SMOKEFREE demonstrates how design can translate a global health challenge into a practical digital intervention.

The project resulted in:

• A validated behavioral concept focused on financial motivation
• A full mobile product prototype
• Structured user flows and interaction models
• A scalable design system

Constraints & How I Navigated Them

Independent Project & Resource Limitations: As a self-initiated project, development resources were limited to available design tools, so the product was developed up to the prototype stage.
Limited Time & Research Budget: With limited time for research and ideation, I conducted quick guerrilla interviews to gather rapid insights.
Technical Feasibility: I regularly evaluated designs against common front-end patterns to ensure the concept remained realistic.

Empathy First: Understanding the Demographic

Before exploring solutions, I focused on understanding the motivations and behaviors of young smokers.

Secondary Research

I began with desk research, reviewing:

Public health reports
Smoking behavior studies
Online articles and case studies

Key insight

Health warnings alone rarely motivate young smokers to quit.

Guerrilla Research

To validate early assumptions, I conducted rapid informal interviews with young adults in social environments such as transit stops and campus lounges.Key Questions

The Trigger
"What moment of the day makes you want a cigarette the most?"

→ Most cited social anxiety or waiting time

The Motivation

"What feels more urgent: avoiding a health risk in 20 years or saving $70 this week?"

→ 90% chose immediate financial savings

Key insight

Ignored health-risk notifications 8 / 10 participants
Could instantly name something they wanted but couldn’t afford10 / 10 participants

Empathy Mapping

To synthesize the research, I created an empathy map to understand what users think, feel, say, and do regarding their smoking habits. These insights helped uncover underlying motivations and behaviors. From this understanding, I crafted the following:

"Young smokers need a way to reduce or stop smoking because they want to save money".

Problem statement:

Finding the "White Space"

Competitive Analysis

To understand the current landscape, I analyzed existing smoking cessation apps.

Key opportunities identified:

Overemphasis on quitting programs
Lack of personalized motivation
Minimal use of financial or gamified incentives

This reinforced my decision to approach quitting not as a rule-based system, but as a personal progress journey.

Ideation & Crazy 8s

Using this method, I quickly explored multiple potential solutions.

From these ideas, one concept stood out: financial motivation as the primary driver of engagement. I refined the concept and wrote an app definition statement.

"Smokefree is a money-saving app that enables/ motivates young smokers

to reduce or quit smoking through financial incentives."

App Definition statement:

The Architecture: Connecting Tasks to Stories

To translate research insights into a clear product structure, I first mapped all the small tasks a user might perform in the app (from creating a profile to tracking savings or seeking support).

Saturate & Group method: I clustered these tasks into logical groups.

This helped define the core experience pillars of the product:

Profile Creation
Notifications
Progress Monitoring
Savings Tracker
Professional Support
Community Support

Defining User Stories

To keep the design grounded in user needs rather than features, I wrote user stories for each core task. Examples:

Young smokers want to track the money they save so they can invest it in things they care about.
Young smokers want to see how much money they’ve saved when they’re out with friends, so they feel motivated not to buy another pack.

Mapping All Tasks

User Tasks & Stories

User Tasks

User Flow

Bringing the Concept to Life

With the user flows in place, I started with pencil sketches and low-fidelity wireframes to explore layout and interaction flows.

As the concept evolved, I developed high-fidelity prototypes that defined:

visual identity
interface components
interaction patterns
product branding

The final prototype integrates both functional flows and visual design, creating a cohesive user-centered product experience.

Prototyping

Prototyping & UI Design

Prototyping

Key Learnings

Behavioral Design Matters: People are more motivated by immediate, tangible rewards than by health messaging alone.
Imperfect Research Still Adds Value: Even quick guerrilla research generated insights that meaningfully shaped the product direction.

End-to-End Accountability: I gained a holistic understanding of the product lifecycle—from identifying a global SDG problem to the granular details of micro-interactions. This made me a more empathetic collaborator for future cross-functional teams.

If I were to continue developing this product, I would focus on:

testing the financial motivation model with real users
measuring engagement and habit change over time
exploring partnerships with public health organizations

This would help validate the behavioral impact of the product.