Meditation Feature

The Project

I was tasked with designing a meditation application for use by patients who do not receive the full 8 hours of sleep. The purpose of this exercise was not to design a fully-fledged meditation app, instead it was to showcase my design thinking process and to take the solution as far as I could in the short timeline I was given.

Part 1

Discover and understand users

This section is all about discovering and understanding the user's needs, goals, and pain points. I set myself a few research goals before getting started.

1. Learn as much as possible about my potential users
2. Understand current solutions and the competitive landscape
   
3. Determine if and how I can leverage new technology and innovation

Survey and user characteristics

I sent out a user using Google Forms and received 80 responses. Here is a summary of the average user’s characteristics:

• Between the ages of 15 and 64
• Does not sleep throughout the night
• Lives in an English speaking countries (USA, Canada, UK, Europe)
• Resulting in this issue lasting atleast 12 months

User feedback

Here’s what some of the users said when asked about thoughts on meditation.

I wish there was an app that was solely focused
sleep meditation.

I want something simple that targets my problems.

I have had trouble sleeping since I was 12 years old,
but there are hardly any resources out there.

I shouldn't have to pay to be able to sleep throughout
the night.

User persona

Katie Hurley

30 yrs old | Toronto, Canada | Consultant

Bio

Katie values her sleep a lot throughout the night. She is having trouble coming home from work and unwinding for the evening. She has been able to fall asleep sometimes but will always wake up during the night and has nothing to turn too to fall back asleep.

Goal

• Being able to unwind after work
• Experience a full nights of rest
• Able to turn to an app when she gets anxious

Pain Points

• Using multiple apps for everything gets annoying
• Does not want to pay to be able to sleep
• When will I be able to sleep again?

The competition

These are the 3 digital meditation apps that came up most often in survey responses. My goal was to compare what features they had to offer in order to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.

Pros:

• Large selection
• Ease to use
• Encourages consistency
• Offers multiple languages

Cons:

• High monthly subscription

Pros:

• Great for beginners
• Various meditations
• Soothing interface
• Options for sleep

Cons:

• Lack of sleep meditations

Pros:

• Personalized to you
• Custom length on meditations
• Use offline
• Change the voiceover

Cons:

• Large file size, expensive

Part 2

Problem definition & ideation

At this stage it was time to re-define my goal and narrow down its scope based on the insights I gained from users. Because of the short timeline for this exercise, I chose to focus on a single feature.

Problem statement

Users are looking for a simple, cost effective meditation application that is suitable for sleep.

The idea

A sleep meditation feature

To address the users pain points I decided to design a sleep meditation feature app. It would make the app a “one-stop-shop” to solve sleeping problems and everything associated around it. The planning feature would let
users like Katie:

Feature requirements

Based on Katie’s goals and needs, the app should:

Be convenient

• Allow her to access it anytime of day
• Store information so that it's organized and personable

Be transparent and trustworthy

• Always displays the source of content
• Allowing the app to track progress of her sleep

Katie's journey

What steps Katie takes before, during and after her involvement with the app.

1. Katie is on her lunch break at work
2. She wants to unwind
3. She pulls out her phone
4. In the app, she creates an account
5. She browses a few meditations she might want to try
6. She browses multiple sleeping meditations that are offered
7. She saves them in her account so its easy to access later
8. She puts her phone away and gets back to work

User flow

I wanted to be realistic in what I could achieve given the time limitations, so I decided to focus the solution on 2 aspects of meditation: sleeping sounds and user navigation.

Part 3

Wireframing, visual design & prototyping

This section demonstrates the designed solution, from low-fidelity wireframes to a high-fidelity prototype. Figma was used as the design tool.

Low-fidelity wireframes

I designed some wireframes that focused on Katie’s goals and would allow her to:

1. Have access to the app at all times
2. Find and bookmark interesting meditations so she can return to them later
3. Browse sleep meditations
4. Experience a full nights of rest

The final designs

All of these elements finally come together in the final designs. Users will begin with a login portal and be able to work from there.

Welcome & Topics

Research revealed that having multiple options is beneficial to the user. This feature let’s people use different meditations for different use.

Details of a course option

A scrolling tab bar keeps users engaged by allowing them to browse all meditations offered with ease. Users can research and plan all sleeping meditations ahead of tiime. They can come back when they’re ready to start.

Sleep options

Users can discover different sleeping meditations that suit their individual needs.

Last words

While carrying out this exercise I had to make assumptions and trade-offs in order to make progress and stick to the timeline. Here are a few of the constraints and trade-offs that I considered:

• Usability testing: I did not have time to carry out user testing in this exercise. Ideally, I have liked to incorporate feedback from users on the designs through usability testing at various stages of the design process.
• The design is only meant to demonstrate an idea, to show how a sleep meditation app could be designed and integrated into a regular meditation application
• The planning feature has not been designed in its entirety, therefore Katie can only carry out the first few steps of finding and using the meditations
• The saving component of the apps features have not been designed