Balance

Who is Balance?

Balance, a meditation application, provides tailored meditation programs to its users. The majority of their customer base was obtained during the pandemic when they introduced a one-year free trial for new users.

Discover

Competitive & Comparative Research

During the initial phase of our discovery process, we conducted competitor and comparative research to gain insights into the current meditation app market. As many of us were unfamiliar with the Balance app, we dedicated time to explore its features and offerings. Subsequently, we conducted a feature inventory to compare the Balance app with direct competitors like Headspace, Mindfulness, and Calm. This allowed us to assess the unique features and strengths of each app within the competitive landscape.

User Research

As a team, we conducted 15 user interviews with individuals aged between 23 and 40, specifically targeting those who have engaged in meditation within the past 2 years. These interviews provided valuable insights from individuals with prior or ongoing experience in meditation.

I asked indirect, open ended questions to find out:

• The key pain points hindering mediators engagement and long term meditation habits.

• Why users initially downloaded the app (motivators).

• If providing users with metrics and data from headbands would encourage engagement and use of the app.

To efficiently analyse the interview data and spot recurring patterns, I employed an affinity map (see image below). Despite the large volume of insights, I set a dedicated time limit for this task. Nevertheless, the affinity map proved highly valuable, quickly revealing crucial patterns and key findings, which aided our confident transition to the Define stage.

Affinity Map

3 key trends were identified from user interviews:

• Motivation: Users don't feel motivated to meditate regularly.

“I find it hard to form new habits, I usually need to work towards a goal to stay motivated”

“I didn’t feel like I was getting anything out of meditation, so I just stopped doing it”

• Habit: Users struggle to develop and maintain a meditation habit.

“If I could have seen some kind of improvement I might have carried on using the app”

“It’s so important to track my progress and see achievement, or I don’t feel like there is a point in continuing”

• Value: Users don’t see the monetary value in paying for a mediation app.

“The paywall made me stop using the app”

“I don’t see the point in paying for an app to meditate, I can just do my own meditation, there’s nothing the app gives me that I can’t do by myself”

Persona

In the define phase, we identified our target users and understood their needs and frustrations. To guide our solution development, we created a persona named Jenna - a busy 32-year-old working full time in a fast-paced corporate environment. Jenna represents our target user who seeks guidance in establishing a meditation habit. Her persona allowed us to empathise with her challenges and design a solution tailored to meet her specific needs.

Problem Statement

After considering our user persona, we honed in on our problem statement. While we acknowledged users' concerns about the meditation app's perceived value compared to its subscription cost, we chose to prioritise the most significant issue related to tracking measurable progress.

‘Jenna needs to establish a consistent and long-term habit to effectively reduce her stress level after work. However, she lacks motivation to meditate, and feels frustrated by the lack of progress and measurable achievements’

We can see Jenna's journey starts positively with her meditation practice. Nevertheless, her inability to track progress eventually leads to a decline in motivation, contributing to a negative user experience.

We also addressed this problem within a user flow, emphasising at different stages that Jenna lacks a means to track her concrete achievements. This absence of motivation for her to repeat her actions increases the likelihood of Jenna abandoning her meditation habit.

Solution Statement

“Jenna needs a way to view tangible achievement and progress updates to give her the motivation to form a consistent meditation habit”

Design Studio

With our ideas and user flow in place, we were set to begin low-fidelity sketching. We held a collaborative design studio session over Zoom, combining our main "How Might We" statement and research insights. We generated numerous ideas and defined app features, user flow, and wireframes to address Jenna's problem.

We conducted two rounds of 5-minute sketching. In the first round, we noticed similar ideas such as:

• Connecting feature for the Muse band

• Progress tracking

However, the results were limited. So, we proceeded with a more fruitful second round.

During the second round, we identified key pages and features to include in our mid-fidelity wireframes.

Common themes emerged, such as:

• The Muse headband feature on the navigation bar

• Brief details with a three-step guide

• Symbol for navigation bar connectivity.

• Progress tracking and metrics

We shared our sketches and selected the preferred features from each to develop the mid-fidelity design.

Mid-fidelity Wireframes

We jumped right into Figma to start bringing our design to life. With the existing Balance app as our reference point, we focused on maintaining the current display and usability of the balance app while adding in additional features.

Added an additional icon in the navigation bar to provide easy access to the Muse headband screen within the app.

Mid-fi Usability Testing

We conducted user tests to evaluate our mid-fi wireframes before proceeding to our high-fidelity designs. We prepared a research guide in advance to guide us during the individual user testing sessions.

Following our individual user tests, we reconvened as a group to consolidate our findings. During the usability testing, we collected both quantitative and qualitative data to gain comprehensive insights into the user experience.

Quantitatively, users rated specific tasks on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 indicated ease and 10 indicated difficulty. Here are the task ratings:

• Navigating Muse metrics: 2/10

• Connecting the Muse band: 1.25/10

• Understanding the data presented in the Muse metrics: 2.8/10

100% of users successfully completed these tasks, reflecting a promising usability aspect.

Qualitatively, we observed several noteworthy points:

Constructive feedback:

• Users could not identify Muse was a new feature

  “I can navigate to the Muse screens but I wouldn’t have instinctively looked at the screens without being asked to”

  “I like the metics but I didn’t realise this was a new additional feature to the app”

• Users wanted an indication that the Muse headband was connected when they had left the Muse screen

  “I can easily find the Muse screen to connect the band, but I’m not sure how to check the band is connected once I have left this screen?”

  “I would like to be able to check if my band is connected or not when I begin my meditation”

• Users were unsure as to what the ‘65bpm’ metric referred to

  “I wasn’t sure what the BPM number was referring to - is this an average of my heart rate during the session? Or what I finished on?”

  “Does the BPM show me what I started on or what I finished on?”

Colour & Typography

Moving on to our high-fidelity wireframes, we started by focusing on the colour and typography of our design.

We were impressed with the typography used in the Balance app due to its clarity and simplicity, which strongly resonated with the brand message. Consequently, we opted for the "Inter" typeface as it closely resembled the current typeface in Balance.

Revisiting the issue

Jenna needs to establish a consistent and long term meditation habit to effectively reduce her stress levels. However, she lacks motivation to meditate, and feels frustrated by the lack of progress and measurable achievements.

High-fidelity Testing

After finalising the high-fidelity prototype's design, we embarked on testing several new features integrated into the Balance app.

Our first focus was determining the optimal colour for the 'connected' display on the headband. Our goal was to visually indicate when the Muse band was successfully connected to the app. As a team, we dedicated considerable time to this decision-making process. Initially, we considered using a green colour or incorporating a green drop shadow, but after conducting accessibility tests, we found that this choice did not meet our standards.

Ultimately, I came up with the blue drop shadow to signify the successful connection of the headband. Subsequently, 100% of users tested confirmed that this approach effectively communicated the connection status to the user.

Test designs:

Furthermore, in response to feedback received during our mid-fidelity user tests, we introduced coach marks to specific screens within the app. These coach marks served as visual cues to inform users about the introduction of Muse as a new feature. Subsequent user testing outcomes demonstrated a remarkable 100% recognition rate among users, validating the effectiveness of these coach marks in conveying the novelty of Muse within the app.

Next Steps

Following our usability testing of the colour palette, we found that the current blue and grey colours used in the Balance app are not perceived as user-friendly. To address this, we recommend adjusting the saturation of these colours and conducting additional user tests to gather feedback and determine the optimal modifications.

Additionally, our research revealed that users were uncertain about the meaning of "singles" when navigating to a meditation session. To enhance clarity and user understanding, we propose conducting further competitive research within the same app category to explore naming conventions used by other apps. By aligning with users' preferences for intuitiveness, we can identify the most suitable name for our category app, ensuring a seamless and user-friendly experience.

Key Learnings 

• Group Work Challenges: I learned that working in a team doesn't automatically reduce the workload or simplify tasks. Dealing with varying experience levels and the need to reach a consensus can make group work more challenging.

• The Importance of Communication: I learned that effective communication is vital for overcoming group work challenges. I found that regular updates, clear discussions, and open communication channels are essential for a successful team effort.