Health Synergy: A Mobile App Development Case Study

Do you know the process and the challenges of creating a Mobile app? In today’s article, we talk about how we create a successful app for our clients, and how we can do it for you too.

Meet Health Synergy

Health Synergy is a nutrition company run by mother and daughter, Jennifer Murrant and Hannah Singleton. Jennifer has been working as a nutritionist and naturopath for more than 10 years. Hannah is a student at the University of Sydney where she studies Media and Communications.

While Jennifer was already working in the health industry, Hannah discovered her passion for nutrition while she was in her HSC year. That year, she understood how important it is to live a healthy life in order to be successful.

“You are what you eat” goes the saying. Since both Jennifer and Hanna were aware that food is a vital thing to one’s health, they decided to form a company focused on sharing with people the right information on healthy living and nutrition. By the time they contacted EB Pearls, they were already sharing a wide variety of recipes and blog posts with their audiences, and they also offered consultations.

“We need an easy-to-use nutrition app” they said…

Why would you need an App for your business? It is the accessibility for your customers to reach you and use your services. In short, apps can be a goldmine for businesses to connect with customers.

Hannah and Jennifer realized the benefits of having a mobile app when they received constant encouragement and positive feedback from their Instagram followers.
So they got in touch with EB Pearls. Although Jen and Hannah had some clear ideas of what they wanted for the app, including nutritional information for the recipes, we helped them develop these ideas further and made other suggestions such as the inclusion of a very useful shopping list with a link back to the particular recipe. They loved this idea and we went ahead with this feature…

Setting the budget

One of the most important things we pointed out with Hannah and Jennifer was their budget. We needed to know how much they were willing to invest so we could know what we were working with.

Useful Tip:

You want to increase your business and we want to help you do that. You don’t need to overspend or underspend; we want to make the app specifically suitable to your unique type of business.

Finding the right audience for the app

“What is your target audience?” was our next question. They wanted to cater their app towards anyone who would like to live a healthier life.

That day in December was a fruitful day for gathering information. At the end of it, we understood that Jennifer and Hannah were in need of an app that would be easy to use, accessible to everyone, and useful for Health Synergy from a ROI perspective: Jennifer and Hannah were looking for a better way to get in touch with their consumers.

What could be done…?

Our team at EB Pearls has an increased emphasis on the importance of working closely with the client, and Health Synergy made no exception. Thus, we developed the creative process together, as a united team.

Useful Tip:

When you manage to develop a trustful relationship with your service provider, you know for sure that you are on the right path. The Health Synergy team were very passionate about their app and thus we had an amazing collaboration with them.

Creating the app sketch

The first step was setting up a 1:1 session with Hannah and Jennifer to pick their brains. We then gathered together a team of expert app developers, project managers, and designers. It was time for brainstorming. The creative process was on!

What is the creative process like? Imagine a bunch of super-geeks getting together with a handful of creatives and trying to come up with mobile app development ideas that would make our client go “Wow! You read my mind!”

This is how the app’s first sketch was created: with a lot of passion and desire for innovation.

We checked with Hannah and Jennifer to make sure they liked our ideas, and once we had their approval we moved on to the next step.

Designing the app

We knew the app had to be simple and easy to use, but also unique. Our specialist designers created the color pallets, style guide and layout.

Bonus Tip:

Whenever you employ a specialized company to create a unique app for your business, make sure that they always keep you in the loop with every detail regarding your project. It’s important that you know exactly where your app is heading, and how it’s going to look when it’s ready to launch.

Developing & Testing the Health Synergy app

Again, the app was coded, tested, and re-tested time and time again to ensure the quality of output. It was working perfectly on all devices! Still, the team wanted to go one step further: have the app tested by a user.

So we organized a focus group where we asked people to use the app and give us their feedback on it. Was it working as expected? Was it intuitive? Was it easy to use?
Not to mention, Hannah and Jennifer had their way with the app for 2 weeks. Their feedback was the cherry on top. Now everything was ready for the big launch…
On May 28, 2015, the app was launched online.

We included a variety of useful features in the app, such as a shopping list, a recipes section, as well as a direct link to the Health Synergy website. This increased the website’s traffic while giving users what they were looking for a full list of recipes, as well as a quick access list to the recipe’s required ingredients.
Plus, we included an option for Jennifer and Hannah to add nutritional information for each recipe, as well as special recipe categories: recipes that are nut-free, sugar-free, vegetarian, or gluten-free.
Health Synergy users benefit from an easy-to-navigate interface and free updates.
And the best thing about it, it’s available on both iPhone and Android!

How did the app perform online?

Only one month after its launch, the Health Synergy app is listed among the iPhone app’s top food and drinks apps. It is also highly successful on Android apps, having well over 100 downloads. Even better, users are thrilled with using it, and this is seen in the 5-star reviews they used to rate the app.

The collaboration we had with Health Synergy was extremely rewarding. To their passion for a healthier life, we added a pinch of our expertise and dedication to technology. Thus, we managed to create an app that is accessible, intuitive, and useful so people everywhere can cook delicious, healthy meals at home.

Now back to you!

Do you need an app? What challenges have you faced when trying to come up with a creative solution to your unique business needs?

Get in touch or call us at 1800 857 679 if you need a successful app to help you grow your business or check out our portfolio if you want to see more of the apps we created.