Deeply App | Dr. Cybele Wu

Tracking effectiveness of meditation

Role

UX Researcher

I was responsible for research (secondary and competitive), user-testing, and information architecture (card sorting).

Team

When?

2 designer/reseachers (Mitva Tiwari and Staci Stranzi) and me (user researcher)

August- September 2021

Tools

Figma, Google Docs, Whimsical, Trello, Zoom

The Challenge

Although most meditation apps have the ability to track the number of minutes or days of meditation, few have the ability to keep the meditator accountable. Our challenge was to create a way to track progress. By creating a reward system, meditation becomes a more constant practice, thereby, using a way to stay accountable.

Competitor Research

The purpose of this competitive analysis was to understand effectiveness and progress in meditation. Although Strides and Period tracker are not meditation focused, they do provide some alternative ways to track sessions.

In regards to trackers, Strides was the most helpful, with notes on sessions. Period tracker was also nice with notes, emotions, and feelings.

In regards to meditation apps, the only tracking was the number of minutes, days but no evaluation of how well they did. However, Chopra had some nice programs. Plum village was organized in a very nice way from short to long, introductions, and variety for timers. Tergar was the only meditation app that had an evaluation with a notes section on particular sessions.

(Conducted by Mitva)

Personas and User Journeys

Rachel

Rachel's Customer Journey

Mark

Mark's Customer Journey

Wireframe Screens

Thanks to the expert design skills of Mitva and Staci, they created wireframes based off of the secondary and competitive research, as well as the personas and user journeys.

Wireframe Usability Test Results

Each member of the team conducted wireframe usability tests, using network contacts, as well as those from a survey that Staci conducted.

Onboarding included a chatbot, as a way for getting users onboard through a conversation about mediation needs.

Issue

Onboarding is taking too long.

Solution

Condense chat to get the user to the main screen faster.

Issue

Solution

Lacking clear navigation in the onboarding experience

Provide clear & familiar navigation within onboardin

Issue

Too many write-in interactions with the Chatbot.

Solution

Remove all write-in interactions with the exception of the users name.

Issue

Excessive reading for the user

Solution

Simplify and clarify copy in the chat experience to streamline the process

Lo-fi Prototype

Modified-Delphi Card Sort

Conducted by Staci and Cybele

Our stakeholder was interested in us doing a card sort to identify categories for the meditations. In most card sorts, they are either open or closed. The other option is a Modified Delphi Card. It was based on the research method, called the Delphi Method, a methodology used for consensus or forecasting. I conducted the Delphi Method in my dissertation.

To learn more about the Delphi Method, go to this page from the Rand Corporation, who originally developed the method.

The "seed" was an individual who was an Information Architecture. He was given a set of cards an created categories and arranged them according to how he saw fit.

Screenshot of the first card sort by the seed.

Screen Shot 2021-10-13 at 9.10.17 PM.png

After the seed had completed the sort, the board was copied and shared with the next participant. Each participant had a chance to iterate (moving cards around, adding new cards, adding or changing category names. After each card sort, the board was copied and sent to the next participant. There were a total of 10 participants in the card sort, including the seed.

To analyze the card sort, a whimsical board was created from all boards, including moves and name changes.