How Are You?

What does “I feel better” actually mean?

It is easy to say we have had a rough week. Remembering when things changed, and what was happening then, is harder. How Are You helped capture those moments: record emotions, add context and return to a personal history.

The app reached the market in 2013. In 2014, we released a Polish version.

My role: originator, founder and product owner

I came up with How Are You and was its founder and hands-on product owner. I led its direction, from the initial idea and feature choices to launch and conversations with users, media and partners. We built the app at Quantum Lab with Krzysztof Cywiński and the team.

I wanted the phone to help people understand emotions and share them as easily as photos. In 2013, that meant finding our own way to bring psychology, a daily habit and a new form of communication into one product.

From the first version to the second

We designed the first version in 2013 for the iPhone 4 and its 3.5-inch screen. It had raised buttons and showed the day’s result like an LCD display. That autumn, Apple introduced iOS 7 and its flat interface style. The second version of How Are You got a light blue look, a round emotion scale and a simpler test.

By 2014, the app ran on the iPhone 5’s 4-inch screen. We added statistics against the average of all users, daily tips and short in-app questions that told us what to build next.

We launched before the Apple Watch and HealthKit, when health tracking on the phone was just beginning. The gallery shows both versions on the screens of that time.

A minute to check how you feel

Users rated the intensity of emotions in a short test, added situation tags and followed the results on a chart. Reminders helped establish a routine. Export made it possible to take a mood history to a therapist or share it with someone close. Users could also add someone close, who then saw their latest recorded mood.

We designed the app to support self-observation and conversations about wellbeing. Today I am revisiting a similar need in Oczko, a product for my own family.

App Store charts and media coverage

How Are You reached #2 in Medical and #15 overall in the App Store’s paid charts. I kept screenshots of both results; they are in the gallery below.

In January 2014, How Are You was named a finalist for Best Health App in the sixth annual Best App Ever Awards. That same month, Forbes covered our idea in “Nastrojeni na globalny biznes”. In May, I presented the app on “Świat się kręci” on TVP1, Poland’s national public broadcaster.

Our reach extended beyond Poland. Forbes reported that most downloads came from the US and Canada, despite no promotion there. We also presented the product at Pioneers Festival in Vienna in 2013 and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2014.

A product before widespread app subscriptions

5,000 people paid $19.99 for access. That confirmed a need, but one-off purchases could not fund ongoing maintenance and development. We eventually withdrew the app.

The timing matters. Apple did not open auto-renewable subscriptions to all app categories until 2016. We were building a product for regular use in 2013, before that payment model was widely available. The lesson stayed with me: the user need and the way a product funds itself have to fit together.

Experience with health products

How Are You was a mental health app: wellbeing data, the Medical category in the App Store and a Best Health App nomination. I worked with researchers from SWPS on the project.

I draw on that experience in my medical projects today, for example in medical records for Med4You clinics.