MINDSET
MINDSET is the second iteration of the original Meditate.Live project concept. After a four-month sprint and learning from our target users, we decided to pivot into the more comprehensive wellness tracking space, expanding upon the single wellness practice sector of meditation. We took these learnings to address the larger issue of consistent habit-building through MINDSET.
Several similar key elements, noted with an asterisk, from our initial research overlapped and have helped us during this phase of the project.
TIMEFRAME: 2020
TOOLS: Sketch, Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Overlay
PROBLEM
72% of users admitted to falling off their original wellness habits and target goals.
Whether it may be a lack of motivation or a personal matter, one common recurring problem we noticed amongst users working on wellness habits was the lack of a social support system. Push notifications lack intimacy - the lack of a human presence on the other side fail to jumpstart the “activation energy.”
QUESTIONS
What are existing habits do you practice consistently?
What pain points have you encountered trying to build new wellness habits?
What existing tools do you currently use to help build consistency? Why?*
How receptive is social accountability when a user is tied to a 1-on-1 partnership?*
WhY ARE USERS FAILING TO REACH THEIR WELLNESS GOALs?
“One week. If I fall off, I’ve noticed it gets harder to stay consistent after that first week.”
“There’s no ‘penalty’ if I miss my target so I tend to get lazy and forget.”
“I’ve downloaded different habit trackers, but eventually, I just drone out the automated notifications if I’m busy.”
PERSONAS
83% of surveyed users said a support system is important in reaching their goals.
How might we ENCOURAGE USERS to stay consistent ALONG their habit-building journey?
Continuing to build on the idea of peer-to-peer engagement, the MINDSET initial alpha prototype is built on a mobile web browser with authentication, facilitating user interaction and reminders are all sent via SMS text messaging.
HIGH-LEVEL GOALS
Build self-wellness habits and practices into consistency.
The most important step in building habits is to do it consistently. When left to the individual, it becomes harder to get back on track after one has fallen off - our unique social feature hopes to address that pain point.Optimize Peer-to-Peer User Engagement.
MINDSET differs from other habit trackers by pairing similar, goal-oriented individuals with one another, tying together their self wellness progress. With gentle, personal reminders from a buddy, we hope to increase practice amongst users.*Build a community of like-minded individuals.
Wellness practice is a form of self-growth and sharing the personal journey is often a point of pride and reflection. With the relationships built through custom pairings, we hope to build further on social features and provide a hub for users.*
DESIGN CRITERIA
Authentic
Active data again helps users track their progress and journey. Comparing completion rates help “game-ify” and initiate genuine interactions and support.
Rewarding
Though self-wellness has no definitive metric for success, MINDSET’s goal is to help users achieve their daily goals to turn them into habits.
Practical
Building new habits can be a long process but we’re confident a cohesive pairing system for users will help each one stay on track.
STYLING
ARCHITECTURE
Fast updates so you spend more time working on wellness and less time on our app.
Working on daily habits should not be overly complicated. The dashboard with listed user habits has fast and easy swipe functions to quickly update user progress.
No two habits are the same.
The nuances of different wellness practices differ from user to user. Adding and editing custom habits are made easy with “Frequency” and “Reminders” as options to help guide users on their wellness-journey.
Never feel alone on your journey.
The goal is to pair individuals with similar goals with one another create a co-beneficial relationship for both users. Users won’t have access until manually paired by the MINDSET team.
Partners also rotate on a bi-weekly basis so users don’t have to worry about the experience becoming stagnant.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The self-wellness sector is booming.
Market research statistics and facts aside, our own interviews revealed more than 68% of users actively try to work on at least one “good habit” per day.*Existing habit tracking apps are limited to solo experiences.
Similar to our findings with meditation-specific apps (below), existing habit tracking apps fail to create a personal partnership amongst users, let alone one that is custom based on habits and goals.Users are drawn to socially engaging digital tools.
Existing apps like Headspace and Calm fail to create social value for their users. Without a Peer-to-peer feature, users fall off quickly. 90% of surveyed users have either app downloaded but less than 20% return to the app more than once a week, if at all.*Thoughtful partnerships keep users engaged.
Though receptive to the idea of a meditation partner, one reservation more than half of our interviewees noted was “comfort level” with regards to peer-to-peer engagement. Almost all users agreed a level of trust must first be established.*
REFLECTION
As an ongoing, continuation of my previous Meditation.Live project and case study, it is rewarding to see the progress on a day-to-day basis, while actively onboarding initial alpha users. Key findings include:
Users fail to utilize the existing SMS-based communication to help one another. Rather, our automated SMS messages are what prompts users to work on their habits.
Lack of transparency between users creates a sense of hesitation and causes reservation. To address this, profiles are immediate features to roll out next.
More than half of our alpha users have confirmed this tool is actively helping them stick to a new habit. We plan on implementing additional features to address the nuances of different habits.
Having the opportunity to speak with eager users to better refine the design has been a wonderful experience time and time again. Since “wellness habits” are not exclusive to any specific demographic, much of the excitement comes from the potential features to design in the future - further building upon this peer-to-peer based habit tracking platform.
Come give our prototype a try!