CLICK TO PLAY • Meditation Day 2: During session, swipe towards the left when you've lost focus.
CHALLENGE / PROBLEM
SOLUTION & APPROACH
How do you create simple interactions that will teach users various techniques of Mindfulness while not distracting from meditation lessons or breaking focus?
Create series of simple animation that guide focus on various part of body. Once the meditation session begins, the only time the user interacts with app is to regain focus.
WIREFRAMES & WORK FLOWS
From Start to Meditation Session:
DAY 1 INTERACTIONS: Follow Moving Light
In day 1, the user is trained to follow a light that moves through out the body. As the circle of light moves throughout the figure, the user is instructed to focus on their own body part as shown in the figure. Every 60 seconds, the dot of light moves to a different body part.
DAY 2 INTERACTIONS: Swipe to Focus
Here, the user gains the ability to interact in a helpful manner. The swipe gesture is utilized to reset focus on new part of body. The user inhales as light grows, and exhales and it fades. The icon shows which part of the body they are to focus on. If the user is distracted by other thoughts, they swipe left to see a new body part icon which they are to focus on.
By creating this simple task of swiping when distracted, the user is given a chance figuratively reset, step back, and regain focus on a new body part. A wide range of meditation practices utilize slight physical gestures to help regain mental focus. Here we give the user that ability, while also toggling to a different icon of a new body part to focus on.
By swiping at times when focus is lost, the system is also able to track progress of the user during meditation session. While currently most systems track progress through the amount of time spent meditating, there is no metric that speaks to the quality of meditation they had. By keeping track of how many times they swiped to regain focus and when those instances occurred, the system is able to better give insight into the quality of meditation.
DAY 1: MOVING LIGHT
A/B USER STUDY & FUTURE STEPS
It would be particularly useful to study whether swiping to regain focus helps the quality of meditation. Varying early release game options to current users could yield insight into which version of the game is more helpful. In the case shown below, they study would look at the difference between automated light moving on its own, versus user driven motion of the light. The following questions should be evaluated:
- Is one interaction less disruptive than the other?
- Does interacting help the user maintain engaged during meditation?
- Is it easier to maintain focus when the system is guiding the motion?
- Does one method increase the amount of use? (Amount of sessions & length of meditation time).
Light moves automatically in timed intervals.
A / B
User moves light to any body part when they are instructed to.
PROCESS
Experience with Meditation & similar product.
While I've had nearly 16 years of on-and-off experience in various types of meditation & mindfulness techniques, it was important to put myself in the shoes of our users. The first thing you do as a user interested in learning mindfulness is decide on which app to use. In this case, I began by testing out several different apps currently on the market. I also tested a number simple mobile game apps to study different ways of maintaining engaged through simple interactions. Another key component was to continue to play the many Brain Training games available through the Lumosity App. It was just as important to understand the quality of games the user base is used to.
Ideation & Sketching
On the third day of using 5 different meditation apps, I began the ideation session. First, it was important to understand where in the flow of Lumosity these sessions would best fit. I sketched out a couple of different work flow scenarios. I decided on the version that allows users to first pick what they're individual / personal goal is as they approach mindfulness. Giving the user this first choice of how to approach learning would be very important.
Then, there were a number different concepts of interactions I sketched out. From a light simply moving across the screen, to using haptic feedback to guide the user in moving their phone in a circular motion. A number of meditation methods, from Tibetan prayer wheels, to "singing bowl" meditation, inspired the different kinds of interaction.
Helping the user evaluate their meditation sessions
I decided to further develop two of the ideas that were not only interesting from a meditation interaction point of view, but would also give greater insight to the user regarding the quality of their meditation session. In Day 1, the user is trained to simply focus on the part of the body highlighted. On Day 2, they are given the ability to swipe and move to a different body part every time they become distracted.
Prototyping Interactions
To test out the different interactions, after sketching the original ideas, I created a series of interactive prototypes. It was through using these different interactions, that I realized the order of Day 1 & Day 2: First train to follow the light, then given them a tool to regain focus. Through using the Adobe Suite (After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop), Sketch, and Framer I was able to go from lo-fidelity to high-fidelity in a matter of hours.
