Case study: a Yoga App
I designed this app to help people live a healthier lifestyle
Statistics
Based on the recent research conducted by Zenith ROI agency:
Daily internet usage per capita worldwide 2011-2021, by device
Published by
, Jan 27, 2021
This statistic presents the average daily time spent online by internet users worldwide from 2011 to 2021, sorted by device. According to Zenith Optimedia, in 2018, the average daily minutes of desktop internet consumption per capita amounted to 39 minutes and is projected to slowly decline until 2020. However, daily mobile internet consumption is set to increase to 155 minutes in 2021.
In a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) in the Spring of 2020, nearly half (45 percent) of adults in the United States reported that their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the virus. As the pandemic wears on, it’s likely the mental health burden will increase as measures taken to slow the spread of the virus
Goal
In this case, the practices of yoga and meditation can help reduce stress, strengthen the immune system, improve blood flow, and release muscle tension. The abundant health benefits of yoga and meditation have proved to reduce stress and anxiety among individuals.
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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is thought to be one of the most common mental health disorders in the world.
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A 2017 meta-analysis of 23 interventions looking at the effects of yoga-based treatments on depressive symptoms overwhelmingly concluded that yoga can now be considered an effective alternative treatment for MDD.
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Both movement-based yoga therapies and breathing-based practices have been shown to significantly improve depressive symptoms.
Who will benefit from my app
Target Audience
Anyone can practice yoga irrespective of age and size, but based on my research the age group for my app would be between 19 to 70 years old.
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Young adults, Millennial's who need guidance and support for a healthy routine and lifestyle.
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People who are in their mid 30's n 40's with families who needs encouragement and inspiration to build a healthy routine for themselves.
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People who are aware of the benefits of yoga and passionate about learning.
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My Design Process
I used the "Design Thinking" approach to find solutions that are useful, useable, and desirable. Needs analysis. Opportunity mapping to create a Human-centered design.
Conduct research to a better understanding of my users.
DEFINE
Use my research to observe my users needs and current problem.
PROTOTYPE
IDEATE
Brainstorm solutions, highlight opportunities for innovation
Build genuine, tactile- representations of my bast ideas.
TEST
Conduct testing with my users and iterate based on feedback.
Document the final solution and put the vision into effect.
IMPLEMENT
EMPATHIZE
Research
I conducted an Online Survey among my friends and family to cover people of all ages and all walks of life. This was done to understand the true users, their pain points, wants and needs. I gathered some insightful data from the analysis done via google forms.
I performed a competitors analysis with the existing yoga apps to have a better understanding of how they are functioning in the market. This helped me identify the main pain points, user needs, frustrations and which features to include in my app that no other yoga app is offering.
Based on the responses received from google forms, I analysed the above results and conducted Personal Interviews with a few users to get more insight into their frustrations, goals, behaviours, wants, needs and motivations through observing, engaging and empathizing with them.
Sansa Yoga
Yoga glow
Daily Yoga
Downdog Yoga
Competitor Apps
Sansa Yoga
Yoga glow
Daily Yoga
Downdog Yoga
Persona
Based on the information gathered in the research phase, I analysed my observations and synthesised them in order to define the core problems identified until now. I created 2 Personas to consolidate all the information available and to make the users more concrete.
Kathy Kim
30 years
Freelancer
Cooking, Traveling, Music
I need a yoga app that can help me learn the basics of yoga in the comfort of my own house.
Name:
Age:
Occupation:
Interests:
Pain Points:
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Doesn't have any yoga centers near by
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Need guidance in making healthy meals
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Lack of motivation
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No personalized trainings available to achieve her goals
Goals:
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Prefers to have an option of a trainer
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Needs suggestions on healthy diet
Bio:
Kathy Kim is a single mother of 2 year old girl, her routine revolves around work, taking care of her daughter. She wants to try yoga to stay healthy and reduce stress. She cannot leave her child at home. She needs an app that can help her learn yoga without her leaving the house.
Few times that I have tried yoga the feeling was amazing. I need an app that can customize my workouts for my own needs.
Name:
Phil Wendel
Age:
43 years
Occupation:
Software Engineer
Interests:
Sports, Traveling, Blogging
Pain Points:
Bio:
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No proper place to to practice yoga
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Expensive memberships
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Lack of information on postures and breathing that can lead to potential injury
Phil is an IT professional who strives for a work-life balance. He recently started yoga at a near by center but unfortunately his classes got canceled due to Covid 19 spread. Now finding a place where he can continue his practice has become a challenge for him
Goals:
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Needs all in one platform for health fitness and mental growth
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Needs online community to make learning fun
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Guidance in yoga postures
Card Sorting
Card Sorting is a technique used to generate the Information Architecture or the navigation flow of an app/website with the help of users.
Based on the information gathered during research and persona phase, I was able to decide the main categories of my app. Hence, I performed online Closed Card Sorting with a few of my family and friends to understand which feature fits best under which category.
Information Architecture
Based on the insights gathered in the card sorting technique, I created a brief Information Architecture to structure the content appropriately on the app. This was a challenge as I had to maneuver through the usability and navigation problems to ensure I save the number of clicks and time of the user in accomplishing a task.
Screen Flow
Initial Sketches
Sketching is a crucial, yet often overlooked, aspect of design process. Sketching is a very efficient way of communicating design while it allows to try out a multitude of ideas and iterate them before settling on one.
I draw a lot of basic sketches to consider the problem from different angles and to consider different solutions. While drawing such sketches, I am also striving to generate as many solution variants as possible.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes (paper sketching)
Wireframes
High-Fidelity Wireframes
Branding
I explored various logo symbols and to be able to clearly communicate my app’s brand identity and what it values as a brand.
Finally, I found the right verbiage to entice users "Your journey starts here" seemed perfect for my yoga app
Flash Page
App Icon
LOGO
Color inspiration
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F4E6DE
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Iconography
Designing
User Interface was designed considering the following laws of User Experience:
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Fitt's Law
Fitt's law states that the larger the distance and smaller the size of the target, the longer it will take. Call to action (CTA) buttons should be placed in the right position.
Example:
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Hicks Law
Hick's law helps users simplify their decision-making process. This law was used to ensure simplicity in the number of choices offered to the users.
Example:
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Zeigarni Effect
Was considered to ensure the users are aware of the tasks completed/incompleted
Example:
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Miller's Law
Miller’s Law states that an average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus) in their working memory. Organizing content in smaller chunks will help users to understand, process and memorize easily.
Example:
Visuals
Based on the research, carefully selected UI features, color scheme I strategically design these visuals with the help of Figma.
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Flash Page
To evaluate the entire task flow of the design, I created a fully functional prototype.
Usibility Testing
I performed usability testing with a set of my family and friends to evaluate the efficiency, usability, functionality, aesthetics and other important aspects of UX. I created a set of questions to test how the users were using the app. Following are the results and a few responses obtained as part of the testing:
Learning
This was my first-ever, solo UX project and the entire experience was no less than a roller-coaster ride. I thoroughly enjoyed learning and experimenting throughout the entire process.
I had to maneuver through challenges starting from the research phase where i was trying to gain enough clarity on the users, their frustrations, needs and wants to figuring out the appropriate and necessary features for the app to testing them with the real users.
Future Goals
This project helped me understand the importance of keeping aside all the assumptions we tend to have in our minds, and engaging with the users to craft a better experience for them.
As i continue with my learnings and gain more experience in UX field, I would like to revisit this project and try out new things to improve the overall design. Following are a couple of things off the top of my head:
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Add interesting animations to the prototype
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Include more gamifications to engage the users
