UX: Usability Test on three Mindfulness-Based Apps for Android
Part 1 Redesigning the meditation experience
Since I began to practice MBCT one month ago, I have found several meditation apps designed to help users to live a mindful life. According to the research, little is known for the efficacy of the apps in developing mindfulness. Plus, the Chinese version of mindfulness-based apps are fewer. Since I am also attending the mindfulness-based program (MBCT), I am eager to take advantage of my UX knowledge to improve my daily meditation experience.
RESEARCH
Luckily, I found a review (Mani M, 2015) conducted a systematic review of mindfulness-based apps and evaluated their quality using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). It also pointed out several features of selected high-quality mindfulness apps. To summarize:
1. They had at least 2 of the 9 most common types of guided meditations.
2. They contained timers and provided reminders.
3. They provided progressive/program-based mindfulness training. (Notice that none of them were as systematic as MBCT or MBSR.)
4. They provided exclusive texts and videos explaining the concepts of mindfulness.
5. They provided an option to share the user’s experience in social networks. Some also had an app community.
In order to get an in-depth understanding of the apps, I chose three of them based on their MARS scores (Overall):
- Headspace: 4.0
- Smiling Mind: 3.7
- Buddhify: 3.4
PROCESS
Objective
Identify and address pain points to improve the meditation experience on Android app.
Test Parameters
- What: Three Mindfulness-based Android Mobile Apps (specifically, Huawei PE-CL00)
- Who: Five female students who participated the mindfulness-training program with me
- Where: Training Center, Cafeteria, Library, or Dormitory
- When: December 1-7, 2015
Usability Test Scenarios
- Search 1: Imagine you are feeling anxious and depressed. You now want to find an exercise to take the heat out of the situation and bring some needed calm. Can you show me how you would do that?
- Search 2: Imagine you are a novice at mindfulness. You now want to find a progressive/program-based mindfulness training. Can you show me how you would do that?
- Search 3: Imagine you are having your lunch alone. You now want to find an exercise of eating meditation. Can you show me how you would do that?
- Explore: Imagine you are a little confused about what mindfulness is. You now want to find more scientific information about it. Can you show me how you would do that?
- Question: Imagine you feel discouraged in achieving little after practicing for a week. You wonder if there’s something wrong with your practicing, so you want to find more support or feedback. Can you show me how you would do that?
- Record: Imagine you have practiced for three days. You want to review your previous practice. Can you show me how you would do that? What can you learn from your recording page?
FINDINGS
Top 3 biggest challenges female undergraduates encountered when they practiced mindfulness:
1. It’s hard to keep on practicing every day, because it’s monotonous and the effect is not as significant as many have imagined. So many interviewees admitted that they often gave up halfway.
2. Novices tend to get distracted easily and their minds wander a lot when practicing; some even fall asleep until the bell rings again. Thus, they often feel discouraged and doubt their efforts.
3. It’s hard to break the habits and apply mindfulness in action. For example, some interviewees argue that eating mindfully is unachievable because girls tend to have lunch together. When she eats alone the meal without using her cell phone, it is so tasteless.
Luckily, a research shows that Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) principles can enhance participants’ efficacy and planning.
Design Suggestions:
- Incorporate additional self-efficacy statements ( e.g. “Believe in yourself; keep practicing”) in the course materials to motivate users to turn motivation into action.
- Action planning. Let users to write down when, where, and how they plan to engage in the assigned mindfulness practice. Statements related to planning will also appear to improve their planning.
- Coping planning. Ask users to envisage potential obstacles that might hinder their practice, and concrete strategies that they would use to overcome them.
- Recovery self-efficacy. Add reminder statements to emphasize the importance of resuming practices when they lapse. For example, “If you fell asleep during practice, don’t be discouraged. Just learn to feel your body; you can do it!” Also, ask users to write down their successful experiences to further reinforce their regular practices.
- A variety of pop-up messages appeared in the following session to increase their efficacy. For example, if the users practice only 1–2 days a week, the message was “Keep working hard; you will feel the changes if you practice mindfulness regularly. Using the action and coping planning worksheets and your self-efficacy, you can practice more!”
1. Headspace
I used the storyboard to record User Navigation (Blue Path), Errors (Red Path) and Observations (Yellow Stickies). The storyboard is a more straightforward way to present the results and can help me to uncover the untapped desires and confusions they have across all of the user tests.
Issue 1: Icons have weak Clickability Signifiers
Design Suggestions:
- Make the “SINGLES” button easier to use and more obvious.
- Make the Clickability Signifiers stronger. For example: add shades or make 2D flat icons to 3D clickable buttons.
- Add more links to the Progress Panel. Don’t disappoint users when they want to get access to deeper hierarchy more efficiently.
Issue 2: Information Hierarchy is Confusing
Design Suggestions:
- Make the hierarchy more flat and easier to get access to.
- Add a Tool Panel or Diary Panel for users to record their emotions, feelings, thoughts, etc.
- Add a new link on the wrong path to help users find the exercises they need. For example, a button says:” SOS RIGHT NOW!”
Issue 3: Cute but Not Personalized
Design Suggestions:
- Add more text descriptions on what each exercise aims to and why it's important to users’ improvement.
- Add a History Panel and create some graphs that do allow a daily/ weekly comparison of how much effort and time users have devoted.
- Add a Tool Panel or Diary Panel for users to record their emotions, feelings, thoughts, etc.
- Create a community for users to answer their confusions and share their discoveries with each other.
- Allow users to change the speed and see the subtitles of the audio.
More Thoughts
All users said they were impressed by the aesthetics of Headspace. When I asked three users (out of 5) why they would choose it as their favorite one, they said they love its style. The other two users were disappointed at its complex hierarchies and limited details each exercise provides, but they still enjoyed its whole experience.
2. Smiling Mind
Issue 1: The Structure of Contents is Confusing
Design Suggestions:
- Make the program personalized to users’ ages after registration. In this way, the app can save much space on the Program Panel, and users need not scroll down to see the panels at the bottom of the page.
- Add some descriptions for the Bite-Size Panel and the Extended Panel (such as what users will download) before they really have to devote their time in downloading. Or just remove the downloading step and make users get access to the content instantly.
- Improve the Bite-Size Panel because its information hierarchy is so flat and contain so much information. For example, (1) list the contents in a meaningful way (length, complexity, category,…); (2) add another hierarchy to categorize different contents.
- Create some graphs for the History Panel so that do allow a daily/ weekly comparison of how much effort and time users have devoted.
Issue 2: Wonderful Training Programs, Bad Daily Activities
Design Suggestions:
- Add a variety of exercises for users to practice under different circumstances (programs, emotions, daily activities), just like what I have suggested for Headspace.
- Make the training program more scientific and systematic. Add videos, suggested readings and discussion forums for learners to delve into mindfulness. Just like what this amazing free self-guided MBSR website has done.
More thoughts
I love Smiling Mind, because it’s free and concise. Two users said that they would rather choose Smiling Mind for its progressive training programs rather than its lackluster looking compared to Headspace. But I still think that the programs are not immersive and comprehensive enough for users to seamlessly incorporate mindfulness into their daily lives. This is why I want to add many elements from MBCT and MBSR programs to make the app more like a companion guide rather than a podcast containing many audio tracks.
3. Buddhify
Issue 1: A Multicolor Wheel, Good Or Bad?
Design Suggestions:
- Add different modes of browsing to give users more control over their main page. Just like what Feedly has done for its setting; it has four modes of reading (Title only view, List view, Magzine view, Cards view) to personalize difference users’ experience.
- Categorize different exercises (e.g. moods, activities, circumstances). A music app Xiami gives us a good example. It automatically shows the radios named by the activities users might be doing on the Recommendation Panel, according to time and users’ history. Moreover, users can choose their favorite radio by filtering the results based on different categories (e.g. Recommendation, Original, Circumstances, Styles, Moods). Although I have 41 radios, it’s convenient for me to choose the one for my style.
Issue 2: Poor Community
Design Suggestions:
- There are so many good examples of community-building. For example, Pacifica has private groups for users to chat and share their data with friends and family. It also has public communities for users to share stories and advices with the community and users can vote on their favorite content.
- Regarding to the Question Panel, we can change the form of sending emails to instant messages, such as what Fabulous does.
More thoughts
Buddhify does best on combing various activities on a creative multicolor wheel. However, design never ends. Since several users said that they would rather combine the functions of Buddhify with the other two apps, I hope these design suggestions can make the main panel more intuitive and personalized.
Note: I don’t work for or represent Headspace, Smiling Mind or Buddhify. I’m a passionate UX learner and I hope to take advantage of my UX knowledge to improve my daily meditation experience :) Many thanks to Norman Tran, Eric Lee and Sean Melchionda. Their UX stories have taught me a lot.
