Early-phase service ideation
Minty: Holistic Dental Habit
Tracking App (Concept)
At-A-Glance
Minty is an early-stage concept for a mobile habit-tracking service that helps people build consistent oral-care routines through a more holistic, everyday-health perspective.
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Class Project
(Solo & Group Mix)
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My Role
UX research, DT workshop facilitation, Convergent ideation
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Timeline
September-October 2025
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Tools
Interviews, Value prop canvas, Crazy-8,
Alter-egos, DT workshop
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Class Project (Solo & Group Mix
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My Role
UX research, DT workshop facilitation, Convergent ideation
|
Tools
Interviews, Value prop canvas, Crazy-8,
Alter-egos, DT workshop
|
Timeline
September-October 2025
Starting Point
The need for accessible holistic oral health care
Docter & Gambit (fictional company) wanted to explore an early-phase service line: a mobile-first way to build a sustained relationship with their customers (people 40 and under) using technology. The goal was not only preventing cavities, but framing oral care as part of a more holistic health routine, connected to confidence, pride, and everyday habits.
A key tension in the brief was accessibility and trust. Holistic dentistry can feel “premium,” so Docter & Gambit wanted to identify an entry-level, low/no-cost way to support better habits regardless of a user’s budget, all while remaining honest, respectful, family-friendly, and trustworthy. The deeper ambition was to uncover a real need customers may not yet be able to articulate.
Solution
A habit-building oral-care companion
Minty is a concept for a mobile habit-building oral-care companion that makes daily routines easier to start and sustain. Rather than leading with products, Minty focuses on behavior change: guidance, progress tracking, and motivation loops that help users build consistency over time.
01 | Persona
To ground the problem in real behaviors, my team and I conducted 8 exploratory interviews within the target demographic.
We then synthesized our insights, finding patterns across routines, motivation, and trust, which led me to create my persona, Jade.
Jade Miller, 28
Jade is an early-career professional living with her fiancé. She’s health-minded, busy, and budget-conscious. She generally trusts big-name brands and advice from experts or close family.
"Sometimes I get lazy at night. I’ll skip flossing if I’m too tired. But I won’t skip brushing."
Behaviors:
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Brushes twice daily; flosses most nights
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Night routine breaks when she’s tired
Traits:
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Budget-aware (values tangible rewards)
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Tech-savvy
Motivators:
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Streaks/rewards
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Social proof & sharing
Needs:
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Reminders that feel supportive
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Simple guidance that removes friction
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Progress feedback to stay motivated
Design implication
The solution should reduce nighttime friction and build consistency through reminders and positive reinforcement.
02 | Design Thinking Workshop
To go from research insights to concrete ideas, my team ran a design thinking ideation workshop with 12 participants. The goal was to generate a wide range of “holistic dental care” service ideas, then converge on ideas that fit Jade’s habits, motivations, and constraints.
Workshop setup
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Team: 4 members (2 facilitators + 2 assistants per activity)
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Participants: recruited by each team member (mixed backgrounds)
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Format: in-person, collaborative sketching & discussion
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Focus: ideas that could create an “entry-level” service
Round 1: Value Proposition Canvas (grounded ideation)
We started with a structured exercise to map jobs, pains, and gains, then brainstormed realistic service ideas, gain creators, and pain relievers that could reduce friction and build better habits. The canvas was created on paper during the session, then recreated in Miro for readability and synthesis.
To connect workshop output to the persona, I highlighted the solution areas most relevant to Jade:
Round 2: Crazy 8 & “Willy Wonka” alter-ego (creative divergence)
To push beyond “safe” ideas, we used Crazy 8 for rapid idea generation, then added an alter-ego constraint (Willy Wonka) to encourage playful, imaginative concepts. This round produced the most energetic collaboration and the most original concepts.
The idea that stood out the most to me was a Beat Saber type of VR game that guides you through brushing your teeth and flossing through VR. It was proposed as part of the Crazy-8 exercise combined with the Willy Wonka alter-ego. It was proposed in response to the prompt “How can brushing feel fun and magical?”
What made it valuable wasn’t VR itself, but the underlying insight: the gamification of the mundane act of brushing and flossing, turning it into something fun that users would look forward to and enjoy doing. This would not only make it fun, but since it’s enticing, it would make users less likely to skip a part of their oral hygiene routine. In Jade’s case, it would make the skipping of flossing in her routine less likely.
This idea became the starting point for Minty’s direction: translating the fun, magical and rewarding aspect of the VR idea into a mobile-first habit loop that’s accessible without premium hardware.
03 | Synthesis
The goal of the workshop was to generate as many ideas as possible. Now that we had this wealth of ideas, it was the time for me to converge to one solution that best matched the brief: a mobile-first, respectful, globally adaptable, entry-level service that builds a sustained relationship with customers under 40.
One idea from the workshop that stood out, as mentioned previously, was the VR brushing game. The value wasn’t VR itself, it was the insight behind it: making a mundane routine feel fun and rewarding increases consistency. I carried that principle forward into a realistic mobile concept.
Final Concept
Minty is a gamified oral-hygiene habit tracker, inspired by apps like Finch and Duolingo, designed to help users stay consistent with brushing and flossing.
How it works:
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Users set a daily routine with one or more sessions (e.g. AM: brush ; PM: brush & floss).
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Each session, users complete a check-in to confirm the steps they planned, earning streaks and points for consistency and completeness.
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Points can be used for rewards (e.g., redeemable oral-care products) or avatar/pet customization to keep motivation positive and playful.
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Optional social features let users opt in to add friends and share streaks.
Why it fits Jade:
Minty makes consistency easier, especially at night when she’s tired and most likely to skip flossing, by turning a chore into a simple, rewarding habit loop.
Customer Journey Map
To make the idea concrete, I mapped the end-to-end experience around Jade’s real routine:
This helped me design around the highest-friction moment: evening fatigue, when flossing is most likely to be skipped.
04 | Reflection
What I learned
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Facilitation matters as much as the activities themselves. Using a “yes, and” mindset and the 5 Whys kept momentum and helped quieter participants contribute.
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Constraints unlock better divergence. The workshop’s creative shift (Crazy-8 + an alter-ego) generated more original ideas than a purely structured round.
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The best concepts can come from extracting the principle, not necessarily the idea itself. A “far-fetched” VR idea was valuable because it revealed a motivation mechanism, then I translated it into a realistic mobile habit loop.
Next Steps
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Prototype, test, iterate. Build a first interactive prototype, run user testing, then iterate from low to high fidelity based on the results.
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Strengthen trust and privacy. Make camera/selfie usage transparent, reduce onboarding friction, and keep the social layer opt-in and pressure-free.
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Improve workshop ops. Next time, start recruiting earlier, plan subgroups intentionally, and rehearse the full session.