Timeline: March 2020 - June 2020
Project: User experience and usability evaluation
My Role: Research, diary study, results analysis and report writing
Understanding how the current Headspace features encourage users to use the app and develop a mindfulness practice.
Headspace is a highly successful mobile application that provides its users with meditation content. Its mission is to “improve the health and happiness of the world” by delivering audio meditations. Headspace’s mission is rooted in encouraging individuals to develop a mindfulness practice, by daily meditating and attempting to transfer mindfulness teachings into their lives.
The success of this app in helping its users to develop a meditation habit and it’s engaging user experience, led to the development of this research project. Overall, the main focus of the project was to understand how current Headspace features encourage users to use the app and develop a mindfulness practice. This was done by identifying: the most effective features at encouraging users to meditate on a daily basis; usability issues that could prevent users from establishing a daily meditation routine; the long-term effect of Headspace on mindfulness.
Headspace mindfulness features
Run streak goals.
This feature records the number of consecutive days meditated and sets overarching goals which allows users to keep their motivation on track.
Today's Headspace.
This feature helps users overcome meditation boredom by introducing a daily meditation.
Basics course.
Headspace highlights the importance of starting a meditation journey “on the right track” with their Basics Course.
Journey timeline.
This feature provides users with an overview of the meditations done throughout their usage.
Methodology
Diary study.
For this project, a diary study was conducted as a remote usability test. Five participants filled in a daily diary over the course of five days. The diary study had several objectives:
To evaluate whether there were consistent frustrations/problems with the app
| Gain insights on behavior changes over the course of the week
| Ensure the method was non-invasive (since meditation is a private activity)
| Measuring mindfulness state prior and after Headspace usage
| Understanding users overall experience with the app
Insights
Engagement
Participants were engaged with the app. Four out of five participants meditated on a daily basis. They mentioned that the app’s motivational components were well integrated and that the gamification elements contributed to their motivation.
Mindfulness
Users felt slightly more mindful after using the Headspace app during one week.
Overall evaluation
Participants were overall enthusiastic about Headspace, when asked what they appreciated the most, four different themes surfaced: ease of use, aesthetics, relaxation and motivation.
Some of the feedback
“I found the app easy to use. Some specific tasks were harder to perform but overall for the purpose of meditating it was really easy”
“I liked meditating it relaxes me”
“I liked the design and the voices. The script is really interesting”
“This app motivates you to do this (by popping up each day and giving streaks)”
Recommendations
Bottom navigation adjustments
Journey Timeline and Run Streak features are perceived to be hidden, thus it is advised that a Timeline button is added to the bottom navigation of the app to increase visibility. The effectiveness of this adjustment in increasing users’ motivation to meditate and overall engagement could be explored by conducting A/B testing.
Information architecture evaluation
One of the participants was not able to find one of the features. Headspace could perform a card sorting study to gain insights on a better structure for the application and consequently improve its usability.
Take-aways
Gamification
Gamification elements in the form of positive reinforcements can support habit formation, more specifically the development of a mindfulness practice.
Accessibility and ease of use
To support habit formation, it is important that Headspace is accessible and easy to use. A participant suggested that because the app was easy to use it was attractive. Thus, an application with a clear structure can motivate users to frequently use it, since it does not require much cognitive effort.