Zenzone

What if meditation was like gaming?

Every meditation application is the exact same. Boring and tiring. Users are not unable to meditate everyday and they don't have 15-20min time to spare every time.

✦ Problem

How might we help meditators fit 21min meditation into daily schedule so that they can build a daily habit?

✦ Solution

Meditate with your koi fish.

Meditate with your koi fish for as little as 2 minutes at a time. Build up to 21 minutes daily, earn reward points, and use them to decorate or upgrade your koi’s world.

Role - Solo UXD
Type - Academic project focused on Gamification
Duration - 4 Months
Tools - Figma

60% more retention based on focus group study results
Habit formation in 21 days based on empathy for a virtual pet - a koi fish.

✦ Solution

Meet your meditation buddy

Just like a gym buddy, koi fish will motivate you to complete your daily tasks. You can buy props for the fish by trading your hard earned zenstone.

✦ product design roadmap

NN Group's design thinking method

✦ User Research

3 user interviews, 20 min each, remote, Semi-open questions

Theme - How users interact with meditation apps, what worked and didn't work?

✦ Research Findings

Lack of motivation - All tasks are the same everyday. Even if I want to meditate, it is extremely repetitive - Manny.

Lack of time - I don't have 30 min in the morning. When I get home after work, I still don't have that kind of time - Grace.

No time and no motivation

Users needed a flexible option which fit their busy schedule. They also needed something that keep them engaging thoughout.

✦ Competitor Analysis

All of them failed to address the users lack of time and motivation.

✦ Ideation

Build the essentials product features using Kano cards and Moscow method.

✦ Gamification

Baking in habit forming elements so that the user comes back for more everyday

✦ Storyboarding

A day in the life of Radient Rachel

✦ user Flow

Every decision ever

✦ Sketches

Inital sketches highlighting trigger, action , variable rewards and investments for gamification.

✦ Style Guide

Visual branding - Calm colors mimicking mediation and inner peace

✦ Final Design

✦ Testing user Engagement

Let's mimick the app for a week

I used instagram DM to mimic the users engagement of the fish with 5 users. The idea was to mimic the core functionality of the app via instagram DM's. This allows me to understand user's interaction regarding the most risky assumptions in the app.

Assumption 01: Users will meditate for atleast 5/7 days.

Hypothesis 01: Atleast 3 of 5 users will meditate for atleast 5 days

Success

3 out of 5 users meditated for 5 days and obtained a streak. This is a goo dindication that a combination of vertual pet and streak will motivate users.

Hypothesis 01: Atleast 2 of 5 users will check on the fish on day 7

Success

On day 7, I intentionally didn't send the DM and as a result, 2 of the users texted the fish first to see if they can start meditating.

Screenshots of users interaction with meditation buddy through instagram DM.

✦ Learnings

Learnings

A simple solution is often the best solution, provided that it effectively addresses the user’s problems that no other competitor is able to resolve.

Virtual pets were highly praised by users. Zenzone almost became like the game “Clash of Clans".

Changes

Animate the fish more. Include features like the fish prop being built, which provides instant gratification & future gratification.

Find a way to commercialize this project without affecting the core function. Empathy.

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