Project Brief

Muse is interested in launching a mobile application dedicated to meditation and mindfulness practices that will help users remain present and less distracted in their day to day lives. Muse would like to create an experience that would be accessible to users that are new to mindfulness practices, but that would also be beneficial to users that are well acquainted with meditation and mindfulness.

My Role

This was a solo project that took place over the course of a one week design sprint. I was solely responsible for all phases of design including: discovery, ideation, sketching, all synthesis, and all presentation materials including feature prioritization, storyboards and journeys. I also conducted research in the form of comparative analysis, user interviews, and usability testing.

Comparative Analysis

I began by studying several mobile applications dedicated to mediation and wellness. I found that there were quite a few of these applications available in the market. I discovered that many of these platforms offered limited features for free with the option to pay for premium services in order to gain unlimited access to all features in the future.

Interviews

I was able to conduct four user interviews over the course of one day enlisting students at General Assembly.

These interviews were focused on how mindfulness practices played a part in the participants’ daily lives and also how daily routines were prohibitive or conducive to self-care. Participants were asked what factors contributed to stress in their day to day lives and what the barriers were to developing better stress management techniques.

Insights from affinity mapping:

• I don’t have enough time for myself.

• I want to pay more attention to my mental well-being.

• I am encouraged to take better care of myself by my friends and family.

• I think that taking time for myself feels good.

  Using the synthesis of the user interviews in affinity mapping, I created the two personas and problem statement below. These personas were used to validate all design decisions throughout the rest of the design sprint.

Problem: David needs a way to put more time aside for mindfulness in his day to day life because he finds that work and other obligations take him away from these practices.

Solution: By developing a mobile app that provides David with mindfulness exercises that allows him to track his progress, he will be able to make more time for mindfulness in his daily life. This will be evident when David’s progress is tracked through this app, and shows his mindfulness practices have increased in comparison to when he wasn’t using the app.

Storyboard and

Feature Prioritization

I applied insights from affinity mapping and the personas that I had created into thinking about the features necessary to produce a minimum viable product that would serve the user. I chose to focus on making a product that would be relatively easy to understand for a first time user, but that would also remain a relevant mindfulness tool after longtime use.

I then created a storyboard as a use case for my primary persona.