We conducted 100 in-depth user interviews during time spent at TechTown Detroit (2024), MSU Apple Developer Academy (2025), and our social impact + wellness initiative Runners High 5k, targeting individuals who use cannabis for wellness purposes such as managing pain, anxiety, or improving sleep.

These semi-structured interviews explored participants' routines, motivations, and challenges related to cannabis consumption and health tracking. Participants were invited to complete short surveys and maintain a one-week cannabis journal, providing valuable quantitative context on tracking habits and offering real-life examples of how participants record the effects of cannabis, often using inconsistent methods like notes apps or paper journals.

To further enhance our understanding, we conducted a competitive analysis of existing cannabis journaling apps like Releaf and Tetragram. This helped identify gaps, such as difficulties users face in remembering strain effects and manually logging experiences. We compared these apps' features with Apple Health's capabilities to uncover integration opportunities

After data collection, we used affinity mapping to group recurring themes like 'memory of effects' and 'dose experimentation,' which informed the creation of personas. Journey mapping workshops followed, where we visualized user scenarios with and without a cannabis tracking tool to identify key touchpoints and emotional highs/lows.