What if meditation was like gaming?

Zenzone

✦ Situation

Users are not motivated to meditate everyday and they don't have 15-20min time to spare everytime.

✦ 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 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.

✦ results

60% less retention

from focus group study result

Habit formation in 21 days

based on the users empathy for a virtual pet

✦ Project Details

Role

UXD

Type

Solo academic project

Duration

3 Months

Focus

Gamification

Tools

Figma

✦ 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.

Meditate in increments

Meditate for as little as 2 mins. The app will remind you to complete your 21-min daily goal based on your phone activity.

✦ product design roadmap

NN Group's design thinking method

✦ User research

3 user interviews

20 min each - remote

Semi-open questions

1. Find why users prefer manual payments of variable fees

2. Find users' workarounds

3. Find competitions offerings

6 User interviews

Open-ended questions

Remote sessions

20-33 Y/O

3 M, 3F

Results?

Affinity mapping and clustering for insights and themes

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.

✦ Market landscape audit

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

✦ Ideation

Build the essentials product features and only that.

Gamification

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

A day in the life of Radient Rachel

Storyboarding

Every decision ever

User flow

Hand drawn wireframes

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

Visual branding

Calm colors mimicking mediation and inner peace

✦ FINAL DESIGN

Variable rewards

Complete the daily goal of 21min a day and get variably rawarded.

Investment - Trade and unlock

Trade your hard earned zenstones to unlock more levels

Buy props for the fish

Upgrade using your zenztones so that the fish grows with you.

✦ test for measuting skin in the game

mimicking the app to test risky assumptions

I used instagram DM to mimic the engagement of the fish with all 5 users

👍🏼 60%

Users continued meditation at least for 5 days. An image of users dashboard was shared daily with the fish to form a connection with the virtual pet.

❤️ 40%

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.

👍🏼 60%

Users continued meditation at least for 5 days. An image of users dashboard was shared daily with the fish to form a connection with the virtual pet.

❤️ 40%

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.

Users will re-engage with their meditation at a later time

Testing re-engagement via pop up

👍🏼 5/5

All users continued meditation at a later time to complete the goal of 21 min a day.

Users interaction with meditation buddy through instagram DM.

✦ Learnings

Self Reflection

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,” where users kept checking the progress of their virtual friends.

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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