My Life Meditation is an award winning mindfulness & meditation App. As part my UX Academy student portfolio I developed a new journaling feature to deepen their mindful reflection offer.
My Life Meditation is a 'veteran' mindfulness app. It is built on evidence-based practice and explicitly focus on helping users to understand their mood and better manage their emotions. Since mindfulness has become a wellness trend, the market for meditation Apps has grown hugely, but so has the competition.
Drawing inspiration from my daily habit of intention-setting and gratitude notes, I came up with an idea for an enhanced mindful journaling feature for My Life App. My idea was that this would draw up premium subscriptions and enrich users' opportunities for reflection when using the App.
Market Research and Competitive Analysis exploring a selection of products across the mindfulness, journaling and mood tracking app market suggested that:
My hypothesis was that a digital journaling feature focussed on setting an intention for the day ahead and looking back on the day just past could offer users a helpful reflection opportunity and lay the foundations for a routine that supports better emotional health.
For my User Research I combined traditional interviews with a mini prototype I built with Typeform to simulate simple 'Look Forward' and 'Look Back' logs. For a week I sent participants two daily email reminders at a time of their choice guiding them to the Typeform survey and collected the data in their logs. I then followed up with an interview to explore how the experience had worked for them.
Key insights from user interviews underpinned my design principles for the new features and elements in my designs:
"I have been using a journaling app and a meditation app regularly. I find both helpful, and it would make a lot of sense to get all that in one place."
Christina, 40
"Doing the daily logs has been delightful, therapeutic. It was gentle and lovely and it made me feel more reflective."
Helen, 65
My research confirmed the hypothesis that the proposed function would generate value for users and surfaced insights on what principles should inform its design. The challenge consisted now in deciding where within the existing App's architecture the new feature should be hosted in order to seamlessly complement the existing Check in and Journaling elements.
I started off mapping the current architecture and decided to create a new 'Reflect' section, which would be accessible through the App's bottom navigation menu and replace the current 'More' function (whose content I redistributed). My choices were aimed at creating a consistent flow within the mindful reflection elements of the App, while minimising alterations to current navigation.
I determined that my design efforts would focus on:
In designing the new screens I was mindful of providing options to capture different preferences, in line with key insights surfaced from the research. For example, I included screens that invite the user to pick a colour or a song as a way of expressing their intended mood for the day.
To keep the flow quick and simple, it is easy to skip entries and navigate directly to specific sections (in time, one could add the option to view only certain pages in one's flow) and a 'grab some inspiration' function in journaling provides helpful prompts on a user's frequently used words.
Inspired by user comments on how digital Apps can distract us from real world experience, I added little playful prompts to connect activity on the App to actions in the real world (i.e. the suggestion to wear something in today's chosen colour).
To maximise the value of the journaling experience, I enhanced the App's stats dashboard to include a chart of the day ratings & colour choices, recaps of the most frequent emotions captured and a filterable journal timeline.
I tested the prototype in one to one conversations and through the remote user testing service Maze.
I tested the prototype in one to one conversations and through the remote user testing service Maze.
Users found the feature interesting, attractive and easy to use. They were able to complete the tasks set out in my scenarios with an almost full rate of success.
Insights from user testing prompted design tweaks to improve navigation (e.g. adding captions alongside arrows to make navigation within journaling sequences more straightforward). They also inspired the development of playful prompts that aim to bridge the digital-analogue gap by turning a log in the App into an action in the real world.
Further items in my Feature Roadmap list would be:
When it comes to self expression, different people will need different modes to convey their thoughts and feelings. The UX designer's challenge is to provide options and choice, while delivering a seamless flow and straightforward navigation.
Great stats visualisations that help understand emotions and spot patterns are a highly valuable reward for users. Good UX design helps users get at a glance the most meaningful insights and offers tailoring options to increase relevance avoiding excessive complexity.
Drop me a line at fcignola@gmail.com
