Muhdo
Turning raw DNA and epigenetic data into a health app people actually understand. A full product overhaul, from the results experience to the shopping flow, designed, tested, and shipped to iOS and Android in eight weeks.
Overview
Making sense of your DNA, without needing a science degree.
Muhdo helps people understand their DNA and epigenetics: how they're ageing, and what their genes mean for vitamins, skin, fitness, and more. The insight was powerful, but the existing app buried it under complexity, leaving users lost rather than empowered.
BeTheLeap was brought in to reimagine the whole journey, from buying a test kit, to receiving results, to knowing what to do next, and to ship a beautiful, fully functional MVP for iOS and Android inside an eight-week window.
The challenge
Complex science, an outdated app, and eight weeks on the clock.
The team wanted to radically change how people engage with genetic data, breaking dense health insight into meaningful, actionable recommendations. The old app made people feel lost. The new one had to make them feel in control.
- Dense DNA and epigenetic data that overwhelmed users and made them feel dumb
- An outdated app with cognitive overload: too many menus, unclear value
- A hard eight-week window to design, test, and ship an MVP
- Two audiences to serve: existing kit owners now, a broader consumer audience next
- Results had to build trust and drive action, and sales, not just inform
Your DNA is the most personal data there is. The app's job was to make it feel empowering, not intimidating, and never to make anyone feel dumb.
The approach
A discovery workshop, then straight into weekly build-test loops.
I led design embedded with Muhdo's founders and development team. We started with a two-day Discovery Workshop in London to align on vision, customers, and scope, then moved into tight weekly design, build, and test cycles against the eight-week deadline.
The Discovery Workshop in London: facilitating the team through hopes, risks, personas, and journeys to lock the MVP scope.
Align on the MVP
A Sailboat exercise surfaced hopes and risks; a value proposition matrix, personas, and customer journeys defined scope. We picked the strongest journey and built a proof-of-concept in Figma on the spot to make the vision tangible.
Design the results experience
The heart of the product: turning scores and genetic markers into bite-sized, colour-coded, actionable results across DNA, epigenetics, and a health questionnaire, including a 3D body and AR exploration.
Test, refine, ship
Weekly testing loops with feedback tagged and actioned, a shared QA board before launch, and a redesigned shop and website, all shipped to iOS and Android in eight weeks.
Planning the build
Sequencing the build to protect time for iteration.
With a hard eight-week window, sequencing was a design decision in its own right. As lead designer I scoped every feature into three versioned releases and mapped them week by week against the team's capacity, deciding what shipped in V1, what could wait, and what depended on what.
Crucially, the plan wasn't packed end to end. Each release carried an explicit build buffer and QA ran continuously, so engineering had room to breathe and user feedback could feed into the next version rather than piling up after launch. Planning for iteration up front is what made a beautiful, tested MVP in eight weeks realistic.
In the product
Genetic data, finally made human.
Results you can actually read
Every result leads with a single, clear score, then a plain-language "what does it mean", then a recommendation. Risk is colour-coded and broken into bite-sized screens, so a wall of genetic markers becomes something you can act on in seconds.
DNA and epigenetics, made explorable
Body age brings the science to life: your eye, hearing, and memory age against your real age. A 3D DNA helix and interactive body let people explore their epigenetic audit and gene expression, turning something abstract into something they want to poke at.
Brand & packaging
A brand with a point of view.
The work reached beyond the app. A bold packaging system gave Muhdo's supplements a confident, science-led voice to stand out on a crowded shelf, part of a reimagined shopping flow that helped lift sales.
Outcomes & impact
A fully developed, tested MVP shipped to iOS and Android in eight weeks
A redesigned results experience that makes DNA and epigenetic data clear and actionable
A reimagined shopping flow that improved user satisfaction and increased sales
Internal and external teams unified around one product vision: simplicity, clarity, and customer empowerment
An outcome-driven MVP approach that enabled rapid iteration against a tight deadline
Brand and packaging refreshed to stand out in a crowded market