NowNext

Three warm-toned 3D app illustrations. Left: mobile UI with habit options beside a character using a phone. Center: two people stretching on mats in a living room. Right: four people, including a wheelchair user, chatting around a table.

Most digital wellbeing products are built for people who are already motivated. They assume time, energy and confidence. For Australians aged 45–65, that assumption often falls apart.

This is a life stage shaped by competing demands. Work, caring responsibilities, financial pressure and changing health needs can leave little space for self-care. Many people know that small changes would help, but struggle to turn good intentions into consistent action. Traditional health messaging can feel unrealistic, judgemental, or disconnected from real life.

The context

iLA saw an opportunity to intervene earlier, before health issues become crises, and to do so in a way that felt practical, credible and human. The challenge was not simply to design another wellbeing app, but to create something that respected autonomy, reduced overwhelm, and supported sustainable behaviour change.

Anthologie partnered with iLA to help turn this ambition into a live digital product. The result is NowNext, a free, evidence-informed wellbeing app designed to fit into real lives, not idealised ones.

Hand holding a smartphone disp laying a habit-tracking app. The screen shows weekly progress with checkmarks for completed days, habit categories such as sleep and exercise, an option to add a habit, and buttons to view habit details.

The challenge

Designing a wellbeing product for people aged 45–65 presented a number of intersecting challenges.

This cohort is highly diverse, spanning different life stages, health conditions, cultural backgrounds and levels of digital confidence. Many participants in early research described an intention–action gap. They understood the importance of wellbeing, but struggled to translate that awareness into sustained action.

There was also a risk of alienation. Language or design cues that felt judgmental, clinical, or overly focused on ageing could quickly disengage users. At the same time, the product needed to be evidence-informed and credible, without positioning itself as a therapeutic or clinical tool.

From a delivery perspective, iLA was working within tight funding milestones and an accelerated timeline. Building a bespoke platform from scratch was not viable. Any solution needed to balance rigour, usability and speed to market.

White brick wall with printed category sheets and rows of handwritten sticky notes arranged beneath them. The notes are grouped by theme, indicating insights or feedback captured during a workshop or research synthesis session.

Our role and partnership

Anthologie worked alongside iLA as a strategic and design partner, leading the product vision and experience from insight through to launch. Our role spanned:

Product and experience strategy
User research and validation
Behaviour-led journey design
Brand and naming development
UX and UI concept design

Early in the process, Anthologie identified the value of leveraging an existing, proven technology platform to support faster delivery without compromising the experience. A fit-for-purpose partnership was formed with Concord Health, delivered by Zyrous, enabling the team to focus effort where it mattered most.

Zyrous supported the technical delivery through its Concord health platform, providing a scalable foundation while allowing flexibility for future iteration. This model allowed Anthologie to lead strategy and experience design, while ensuring the product could be delivered efficiently within real-world constraints.

The partnership brought together behavioural insight, human-centred design and pragmatic delivery, creating a clear pathway from research to a live, scalable product.

Printed mobile app screen mockups are taped to a white brick wall, each showing habit tracking content with progress bars and buttons. Small sticky notes with handwritten comments are attached, indicating feedback and iteration during a design review session

Four lived experience adults sit around a conference table in a bright office, smiling and listening during a meeting. Laptops, a water carafe, glasses, and a bottled drink are on the table, with a glass wall and workspace visible behind them.

Close-up of a man raising his hand during a meeting. Other participants sit blurred in the background at a table, suggesting an active discussion in a bright office setting.

Grounded in insight

Anthologie led a rapid but robust research and validation program with people aged 45–65 across diverse backgrounds and life contexts.

Research surfaced several consistent themes:

Wellbeing was understood broadly, encompassing physical, mental and social health
Fear of future dependency was a strong underlying motivator, but not something people wanted foregrounded
Users wanted guidance, but also autonomy and control
Small, achievable actions felt more realistic than aspirational goals
Language, statistics and visual cues could easily trigger anxiety or disengagement
Validation testing reinforced that there was no single “right” pathway. A one-size-fits-all experience would fail to reflect how people actually live.

These insights shaped every aspect of the product, from onboarding and goal setting through to tone of voice, content structure and interface design.

Five smartphone screens show a habit detail flow for reducing device use before bedtime. The sequence includes overview, streak and progress stats, weekly tracking with checkmarks, reminder settings, and a logging screen with commitment notes and monthly view options.

Designing for behaviour change, not perfection

NowNext was designed around a simple but deliberate idea: support people to make small, sustainable changes that fit into real life.

Key design principles included:

Guided and self-directed journeys
Some users wanted help getting started, others preferred to choose their own path. NowNext offers both, allowing people to move fluidly between guided recommendations and self-directed habit selection.

Starting small, building momentum
Habits are designed to feel achievable. Progress is tracked and acknowledged, with the option to increase or adapt goals over time as confidence grows.

Situational commitment
To help bridge the intention–action gap, users are encouraged to think about when, where and how they will complete a habit, making it more concrete and actionable.

Flexibility over rigidity
People’s lives change. The app allows goals to be adjusted without penalty, reinforcing that consistency, not perfection, is what matters.

Sensitive, inclusive language
Messaging avoids judgement, alarmist statistics and loaded references to ageing. The tone is supportive, practical and grounded in evidence.

Behind the scenes, wellbeing domains and habits were structured to reflect the reality that behaviours often overlap. Foundational habits can positively influence multiple aspects of wellbeing, and the recommendation logic was designed to reflect this nuance.

Collaborating with Anthologie and Zyrous has been an amazing experience. Their expertise in UI/UX, digital solutions, and design-led thinking resulted in a mobile app that has far exceeded our expectations. Beyond capability, their genuine passion for our purpose and vision was clear, and it showed in the outcomes.

Tyler Daries NowNext Product Lead, Independent Living Association

Seven smartphone screens displayed side by side against a dark background, showing a habit-tracking app. The sequence includes onboarding with an illustrated character, habit selection, habit setup, progress tracking, a dashboard, notifications, and a content article page

The outcome

NowNext is a free, evidence-informed wellbeing app developed by iLA and now live across Australia. It supports people aged 45–65 to build habits across physical health, sleep, nutrition, mental wellbeing, brain health and connection in ways that feel realistic and sustainable.

The app is free to use, with no ads and no hidden costs, continuing iLA’s long-standing commitment to accessible, impartial support.

In the lead-up to launch, NowNext was evaluated through a five-week trial with around 100 Australians aged 45–65. Participants onboarded into the app, completed surveys at baseline, mid-trial and end-of-trial, and their in-app behaviour was tracked.

Findings were consistently positive. Wellbeing measures improved over the course of the trial, engagement remained strong across the five weeks, and around 90% of participants found the app somewhat or very easy to use, often describing it as motivating and supportive. Feedback highlighted opportunities for refinement, including more flexible scheduling and clearer progress views, helping inform priorities for future iteration.

Designing for complexity, with people at the centre

NowNext demonstrates what can happen when behavioural insight, lived experience and delivery pragmatism are brought together.

Rather than prescribing a single path to wellbeing, the app supports people to define progress on their own terms. It acknowledges that lives are busy, motivation fluctuates, and change rarely happens in straight lines. Small actions, taken consistently and without pressure, can still have meaningful impact over time.

For Anthologie, this project reflects how we work in complex environments. We listen deeply, design with people rather than for them, and translate evidence into experiences that are usable, sensitive and scalable. We work closely with partners, respect real-world constraints, and focus on building foundations that can evolve.

NowNext is live and continuing to grow. As the product evolves, learning from real-world use will inform what comes next. The work shows that designing for impact is not about grand gestures, but about creating the right conditions for change to take hold.