Clutter to Clarity
a Still Me case story
chapter 1
Dear meditation apps
Once upon a time, a group of founders, designers, and developers — spanning the likes of Google to Spotify — came to a collective realization.
Meditation apps can be weird sometimes.
“Calm doesn't always make me feel calm” — former user
“Headspace isn't giving much space to my head" — former user
These are profoundly impactful apps that I deeply admire for spreading mindfulness to millions. So what was the source of this?
We embarked on a comparative analysis, reached out to former users, and examined their reviews.
Here were our top insights —
Too many choices
When people are anxious, they don't want to think.
Paywalls and dollar signs can feel at odds with the intention.
Too much visual noise.
It can sometimes be too stimulating.
chapter 2
Build fast, learn fast.
It might not agree with conventional wisdom, but I sometimes like to jump straight into prototyping. Having a real artifact for users to get their hands on can be a profoundly rich tool for discovery.
I mocked up a simple prototype, housing only a prompt and an input field, with the question:
“What’s alive for you?”
The core idea was to collect the user's response, and use AI + text-to-speech to generate a personalized guided meditation based on their feelings.
I passed along my design documentation and user flows to our Dev team and ...
Boom! Deployed.
Engineers are magical machine elves.
chapter 3
Data, our good friend
The launch was exciting — thousands of users
Buuuut ...
Every consecutive week, the number of returning users sharply declined, leaving a 30 day average retention rate of 10%.
Not great, but anticipated.
After all ..
We were eager to fail.
Eager to learn.
chapter 4
Testing, testing, testing
A product in the hands of users meant a soil ripe for learning. So what was it? Why the low retention rate?
To get that juicy knowledge, I worked alongside our lead researcher to plan a two-part research project.
First, a Diary Study to track how the app fits into daily routines. And then, some User Interviews.
Meet some of the humans among our group —
Tania, who struggles to see the point of meditation.
David, a busy father of two (adorable) babies.
and Cody, just a rad human humaning.
chapter 5
Sweet sweet synthesis
Shout out to Jess, our dedicated User Researcher, for synthesizing our learnings.
Three major pain points stood tall.
Not enough time
Lack of upfront guidance
Meditation is elusive
These were the combined insights from several bits of qualitative findings. To elaborate —
1. Many people simply struggle to find the time.
2. Others don't even know what they're feeling, so it can be a bit intimidating to face an empty input field
3. And some have defeatist associations with the very idea of "Meditation," despite it spanning hundreds of techniques.
Cool. Now for the fun part.
After really familiarizing ourselves with the challenges at hand, it was time to start solutioning.
I began to workshop, through which many ideas emerged.
https://customer-030f3mauil1zt4hs.cloudflarestream.com/10eacfdc80c0abaf059d2bc901d2ab4e/downloads/default.mp4
Like, what if the app ... was a game? And you tilt the phone to collect your feelings?
https://customer-030f3mauil1zt4hs.cloudflarestream.com/2ce9c3fbfeef072c3877c9a4e1a86685/downloads/default.mp4
Or what if it was a smartwatch app that monitored your heart rate, so it could be available anytime?
https://customer-030f3mauil1zt4hs.cloudflarestream.com/3c3e46740ff6ac3a35f0b57dfb73078d/downloads/default.mp4
What if instead of the loaded term "meditation" we called it a "stilly"?
And so the ideas continued on and on.
Eureka moments can really come from anywhere.
No idea is too radical when brainstorming.
chapter 7
Hi-fi supercool design time
At the end, I took our best ideas and gauged responses from users and stakeholders.
Using Figma and Protopie (as well as a bit of Photoshop and After Effects), I designed a high-fidelity, fully interactive prototype.
Here's what we landed on —
https://customer-030f3mauil1zt4hs.cloudflarestream.com/ae9436d55376bf48ce09b14b87053c9b/downloads/default.mp4
Tinder, but for your feelings. Instead of open-ended prompts, you just swipe to express and explore your feelings.
https://customer-030f3mauil1zt4hs.cloudflarestream.com/4e4c595113bc9badc68cb0ec6066f6b9/downloads/default.mp4
Mini-tations: 30-second experiences that minimize commitment, but still allow you to go deeper if you keep listening.
https://customer-030f3mauil1zt4hs.cloudflarestream.com/e58a39f567d7f65f02e35db6b97e1a39/downloads/default.mp4
Ditched the word "meditation." Now, we talk about feelings—a concept everyone can get behind.
We rolled out a limited update and have been eyeing the 30 day average retention rate.
10% to 17%.
A good indication, but of course, in the world of product development, there's always more to be done.
I wish I could say this endeavor was a resounding success, but ...
fin
