Dimensional is an interactive personality assessment app that provides users with in-depth insights into their traits, cognitive patterns, and archetypes. Through structured quizzes and AI-driven analysis, users can track personal growth, compare results within a broader community, and unlock deeper insights over time through daily engagement.
In this critique, I will walk through the personality assessment process to evaluate the app’s usability through the lens of design theories from The Design of Everyday Things and How Artifacts Afford. My focus will be on the user experience of completing assessments and receiving feedback, rather than exploring extended features like community engagement or subscription models.
Walkthrough
Dimensional offers a structured yet flexible self-discovery experience. Users start with a short personality assessment, followed by modular follow-up quizzes that explore different aspects of behavior. While completing all assessments can take at least two hours, users can engage at their own pace.
The app is divided into five main sections: Home, Assessments, Go Deep, Results, and Profile. Home serves as a hub for recent results and daily quizzes, while Assessments houses personality tests. Completed results are stored in Results, with Analysis providing detailed evaluations and Traits summarizing key characteristics. Go Deep offers AI-driven insights, and Profile acts as a personal archive.
Dimensional’s intuitive layout keeps self-reflection ongoing, allowing users to track growth and revisit insights over time.
Assessment Feedback
One of Dimensional’s strongest design elements is the immediate and structured feedback provided upon completing any single assessment. Rather than making users wait or navigate elsewhere, the app delivers layered insights in a logical progression. Depending on the quiz type, user feedback varies. However, certain elements remain consistent across all assessments. Users always receive a general result, which may be displayed as an Archetype (for personality-based assessments) or a values chart (detailing where they rank on specific dimensions). Regardless of quiz type, two core feedback components remain constant: Discovered Traits and Top Traits, each accompanied by a rating bar, visually indicating where the user ranked. This step-by-step model prevents cognitive overload, allowing users to absorb their results in a way that feels intuitive and informative.
Beyond delivering clear insights, this progressive feedback structure encourages continued user engagement by making the process of self discovery rewarding and interactive. The app essentially gamifies the experience, allowing users to unlock insights about themselves in a way that feels fun and exploratory rather than static or passive. Additionally, results are accessible from multiple entry points, through both the “Results” and the “Assessments” pages, further promoting flexibility and discoverability. By providing immediate, structured, and engaging feedback, Dimensional both enhances usability and incentivizes users to return and continue exploring their personality over time.
Error Prevention and the Retake Feature
Dimensional is one of the few personality tests that I have come across that incorporates error prevention mechanisms, allowing users to retake assessments without having to restart the entire process. This feature enhances usability by minimizing the impact of accidental errors, such as misinterpretation or selection of an unintended response, giving users the opportunity to correct mistakes. Additionally, it acknowledges that personality and perspectives evolve over time, ensuring that users can refine their insights as they grow and change. By eliminating the frustration of unnecessary repetition, Dimensional guarantees that feedback remains adaptive, resulting in a more effective and personalized assessment experience. Additionally, multiple signifiers reinforce that retakes are an option. Upon tapping any assessment result, a clearly visible retake button appears on the bottom left corner. If users miss the initial queue, they are again reminded on the primary individual result page, where a button display features both the text “Retake” and a double arrow cycle symbol, strengthening its purpose through both visual and textual signifiers.
To further reinforce error prevention, Dimensional includes a two-step confirmation process before allowing users to retake an assessment. When a user selects the retake button, they are first prompted with a confirmation page that boldly states, “Are you sure?”, followed by an explanation of what retaking the quiz will do. Two response buttons – “Yes, I understand” (shown in red) and “No” (shown in grey) – use color to signify the user’s decision. If the user confirms by selecting “Yes, I understand,” a secondary pop-up appears, asking, “Why are you resetting?” Users can then select from “I dislike my results,” “I want to see if I’ve changed,” or “Other,” encouraging self-reflection while also allowing the app to gather insights on why users choose to retake assessments. Through this layered approach to error prevention, the app allows for retakes that are intentional, informed, and easily accessible.
Trait Analysis Constraint
One of the biggest usability issues in Dimensional is the requirement to invite and gather friends within the app in order to unlock certain analysis features on the results page. While this constraint makes sense for comparative analysis features, which obviously require multiple users in order to glean meaningful insights, it is frustrating when applied to personal insights that could be accessed individually. Although interaction with the app makes it apparent that fostering community and spreading user engagement is a core objective of the app, the implementation of a multi-friend requirement feels restrictive rather than encouraging. This constraint not only artificially limits access, it discourages users from engaging with the app unless they prioritize social connections. Users who prefer a more solitary experience or do not know more than three users who also own the app are unnecessarily blocked from personal insights – arguably the app’s primary purpose. If users are not able to access all insights (excluding those only available through a premium subscription), they may lose interest or abandon the app rather than seeking out friends.
While it makes sense to refuse access to features that rely on multi-user insight, the current structure proves negatively discouraging. Instead of a rigid friend requirement, Dimensional could instead offer multiple pathways to unlock previously inaccessible personal analysis features. One alternative is gradual unlocking through app engagement, where users complete a set number of daily quizzes (a feature already present within the app) rather than relying on friend connections. For example, a feature could unlock after completing three consecutive daily tests, ensuring progress is based on individual engagement. Further, if fostering social engagement is a key goal, AI-based community data could replace direct friend requirements. In fact, aspects of community data are already being integrated into certain features of the app. Upon completion of daily quizzes, users receive a percentile score that compares their results to others within the app, demonstrating that meaningful insights can be provided without direct social connections. By integrating similar features within the results page, one could argue a stronger sense of community emerges, allowing users to connect with a broader network rather than being limited to their immediate social circle. By implementing either of these solutions, the app would better align with Norman’s principles by enhancing flexibility and user autonomy, allowing users to engage with features in a way that suits their preferences rather than being restricted by arbitrary restraints.
Conclusion
Overall, I really like the app and appreciate how well-thought-out its core design features are. The app does a great job of balancing personalization with interactive features, making self-discovery both engaging and insightful. While some restrictions—like the friend unlock system—could be refined to improve accessibility, the overall design remains strong, offering an immersive way to explore one’s self.