3X4 Health is the consumer app for the 3X4 Genetics DNA test. As the sole product designer, I took a dense, practitioner-grade report and designed an app that shows people what matters most in their results and what to do about it.
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The Blueprint report held real scientific value, but it was built for practitioners. Customers needed a way to understand it and use it day to day.
I worked with the science and product teams, who turned the report into plain language, and designed an app that starts with your top priority and lets you zoom in for detail.
A live iOS and Android app that moves people from their cells to one clear action. The Genes First Plan has since replaced the first Summary Plan, with one small step each day.
3X4 Genetics tests how your genes affect the biochemical pathways in your cells. The Blueprint report covers 35 pathway insights across 10 health categories, down to individual gene results. More than 9,000 health practitioners use 3X4's science with their clients.
That depth is the product's strength, but it also made the report hard for customers to use on their own. A long report is easy to read once and hard to act on. People needed to know where to focus, what the science meant for them, and what to do this week.
Simplify the way results are shown, not the results themselves. Nothing could be dumbed down or overstated.
A customer should understand their results without a practitioner sitting next to them.
Every result should lead to something the person can actually do.
Our product owner took the science and made it readable, working with the science team. Each pathway result got a plain meaning and a matching action. My job was to design around that three-part pattern, and it became the backbone of the app.
A pathway result, rated by how much support it needs.
“Your cells are inefficient at removing toxins, impacting your cellular function.”
“Take broccoli sprout extract (sulforaphane) daily to support detoxification.”
Copy taken from the live app's public screens.
I mapped the information architecture as levels of zoom. The app opens on your top priority, and each level gives you the option to go deeper, all the way down to individual genes.
Your highest genetic impact, shown first on the home screen.
Where it all starts: the core pathways inside your cells.
How those pathways show up in your organs and systems.
Everyday things your genes make you more sensitive to.
All 10 categories and individual gene results, for people who want everything.
Simpler More detail
I mapped the end-to-end journey before any visual design, so the team could agree on the order of information while changes were cheap. It runs from ordering the kit and waiting for results to the part people come back to: their highest genetic impact, their plan, and their cells and body systems, with pathway and gene detail underneath.
I worked through those flows and the zoom levels in low-fidelity wireframes, then built clickable prototypes so the product owner, science team and engineers could walk the real journey and check the content in context. Then I handed off to the in-house engineers.
After launch, I worked with the product owner and the marketing team on research, including a customer survey. What customers told us shaped the next release: the Genes First Plan.
Results lead with your highest genetic impact: each body area opens on its illustration, with its pathways ranked from Very High down. Everything else is one tap away.
Why: showing all 35 pathways with equal weight hides what matters. Ranking them tells people where to start.
Pathways and sensitivities sit on an illustrated body, at the cell, organ or system they affect. People find their way by place, not by scientific name.
Why: most people know where their heart is. Few know what methylation means. The illustrated body works as an educational tool that feels familiar, and gives unfamiliar terms an anchor.
Every pathway result uses the same four-step scale, from Low to Very High. Each bar carries its rating as a word, so it never relies on colour alone, and each pathway shows the full scale so people can see where they sit.
Why: the scale comes from the Blueprint report, so the app speaks the same language as the report and the practitioners who use it. Learn it once and every result is comparable: follow the purple.
The first release’s Summary Plan paired each finding with one specific thing to do, using the same science, meaning and action pattern.
Why: understanding a result is only useful if it changes what you do. The plan is the reason to come back to the app.
Shaped by the customer survey, the Genes First Plan later replaced the Summary Plan: a plan people could live with, on the same science, meaning and action pattern.
The plan takes the person's highest-impact pathways and turns them into three pillars: what to eat, a daily supplement stack and how to live. Each pillar has three priorities and a Cellular Booster. It adapts to allergies, dietary restrictions and eating pattern, which people can change at any time.
Every action carries the same three parts: what to do, how often, and why it matters for your genetics.
A plan only helps if people act on it. Steps to Success turns the plan into one small, concrete step each day, right at the top of the home screen.
Each step is a single, doable thing, like a lunch idea built from three foods in the plan. It's tagged with the pathway it supports, and opens to a recipe idea and the reason behind it.
Why: "eat more omega-3s" is advice. "Buckwheat, beetroot and sunflower seeds at lunch" is something you can actually do.
Every step has two choices: Complete, or Do tomorrow. Past steps stay visible, a level ring shows progress, and people can rate each recommendation.
Why: a missed day shouldn't feel like the end of the plan. Moving a step forward keeps people going, and ratings tell the team which recommendations land.
Customers asked for a copy of their results they could save and come back to. I designed the 3X4 Health Report, a PDF made from their results: a personal cover, how impact is rated, every pathway on the same purple scale, and a page that hands them back to the app.
Pages from my own report. The gene-by-gene tables are left out.
Company work is described at a high level to protect internal data, customer privacy and the wider team's contributions. I don't share internal usage figures, so this case study shows what shipped rather than claiming uplift. Screens come from the public App Store listing and the live app, with personal results such as gene variants left out.
I'm happy to walk through the flows, decisions and trade-offs in more detail.