Deeply

An Industry Design Project

Overview: Researched meditation experience to increase user engagement.

Client: Deeply

Role: Jeffrey Neo (UX researcher) and Peter Storm (Strategy consultant).

The Challenge

Deeply is a free meditation app that allows content integration with platforms such as YouTube and Spotify. We collaborated with the founder for this 3-week project.

As a new start-up, Deeply wants to gain a deeper understanding of meditators’ experience, focusing on their interactions with meditation apps.

Since this is a three-week project, we wanted to generate quick but impactful user research for our client. We took a rapid research approach, finishing one research per week.

First, we worked with our client to identify three high-impact research questions that could be addressed with rapid research.

• Are meditation app users receptive to an app that allows content integration from platforms such as YouTube and Spotify?

• What do meditation app users look for in a 7-day guided meditation program?

• What are the components of an assessment toolkit to provide users with a curated meditation experience?

The Process

Since we used rapid a research approach, we wanted to do so quickly and effectively. We used the same process to answer each research question.

• Friday: Kickoff - Defined research questions (i.e., what we want to learn about users).

• Saturday: Plan – Wrote and confirmed research plan, interview guide, and screener survey.

• Sunday: Recruit – Sent screener survey.

• Monday: Pilot – Ran one interview. Tweaked the interview guide.

• Tuesday/Wednesday: Research – Ran seven interviews. Pulled key themes and identified materials from data to feed into the final presentation. Created video snippets. Provided a daily update to stakeholders, focusing on interesting/insightful quotes from interviewees.

• Thursday: Synthesis – Reviewed interview transcripts. Created affinity diagrams to identify additional themes and patterns. Crafted insights statements, how-might-we statements, and recommendations. Added supporting documents (e.g., videos, quotes, statistics) into a slide deck.

• Friday: Share-out. Presented insights for 30 minutes. 30 minutes Q&A with stakeholders.

Project 1: Understanding if meditation app users are receptive to an app that allows content integration.

Key deliverables included 5 high-impact actionable insights and 17 recommendations to inform future research and design roadmap.

Insight #1

Most meditation app users are need-based (vs. feature-based) users, only using meditation apps for a specific purpose, such as sleep. Need-based users will only devote limited time to making choices before each use. They value convenience and instant gratification.

“Needs to be easy. Fits the moment. I have a dedicated time I want to dedicate to it. It has minimal effort required on my behalf. Can be overwhelming to have too many choices.” -Peter

“Use meditation app when I’m stressed or feeling epileptic.” -Troy

“Don’t want to figure out what I want. Will not look for content. I don’t want to think too hard. Don’t want to be overwhelmed with too many options.” - Alex 

Insight #2

Need-based users do not see the benefits of an “integrative platform.” They are mostly satisfied the amount of content provided on current platforms and lack the motivation to integrate content from other platforms, such as Spotify.

“Don’t want to figure out what I want. Will not look for content. I don’t want to think too hard. Don’t want to be overwhelmed with too many options.” -Alex

“Won’t see a use. Might be nice to have, but that’s not what I’ll look for in a meditation app. Don’t like to do anything too much myself.” -Peter 

Recommendations

Based on this research, there is a larger group of need-based (vs. feature-based) users*. There is a potential for user-based fragmentation if Deeply implements the integrative platform. Losing existing user groups, mostly consisting of need-based users, maybe a significant repercussion with future product development. By focusing on feature-based users, which has a smaller user-based potential, the integrative platform may adversely affect user experience for the core user group (need-based users), leading to decreased market size, revenue, and valuation.

More research should be done to identify the target audience and to determine if this key pivot for the integrative platform will be beneficial or detrimental for Deeply.

*Statement is based on 7 interview samples and may be subjected to sampling bias.

Project 2: Identifying growth features for a 7-day guided meditation program.

Key deliverables included 7 high-impact actionable insights and 6 recommendations to inform future design roadmap. Examples of insights:

Insight #1

The “Hook” - Users require more motivation to start and remain engaged with the X-day meditation program. Meditation topics need to be focused and not generic. I.e., Scenarios must be on-point to attract users to sign up.

“Topics must be specific enough. If I can answer questions to better cater to us, that’ll be helpful.” -Christy

“Familiarity with the topics to be introduced.” -Dan

“It must cater to a specific scenario I need.” -Jack 

Insight #2

Overly generic categories - Users perceive categories to be too generic. Given that users value specificity and personalization, genericity is a barrier for use and engagement. Categories need to connect with users on a deeper level.

“My life is not just stress or sleep. It’s more than that. It’s in-between.” -Christy

Insight #3

“Tangible” Results - Users don’t always perceive “results” to be actual tangible results, such as how meditation improves sleep. Results may simply be positive reinforcements, such as reminding users how they succeeded in being engaged with the app.

“If I found the app is working for me, I will be far more likely to use it. If the app reminds me after X days, e.g., if you can do this, you will achieve results if the results are tangible.” -Dan

Recommendations

• Initial assessment - Provide initial assessment before presenting users with recommendations.

• Curated content – Provide curated content that resonates with users.

• Structure and continuity - Provide content that builds on each previous content, such as watching a TV show.

• Reminders with control settings – Let users decide how they’ll like to be reminded.

• Gradual progression - Unlock more days (e.g., 7 days) only when users have completed X meditation programs of shorter durations (e.g., 3 days).

• Social accountability - Create social accountability by bringing friends together for meditation and showcasing results in the app. An appropriate design feature requires more research.

Project 3: Identifying core components of an assessment toolkit to provide users with curated meditation experience.

Key deliverables included 4 high-impact actionable insights and an assessment toolkit with 6 questions to assess users’ preferences for curated content. Examples of insights:

Insight #1

Need-based scenarios - Users relate meditation to their immediate need/scenario (vs. future goals). Future goals may seem “holistic” from a product standpoint, but it is not a concept that users align themselves with.

“I will go for needs. I’m comfortable selecting that. Goals are more high-level, and it’s hard to always think about goals. Goals are different for everyone.” -Serene

“Goals sounds nice. But it’s abstract. People don’t think like this.” -Cindy

Insight #2

The voice-based feature is a key selection criterion for most users. Users often spend/waste time before a meditation session to find the “right” voice.

“The first few seconds, depending on the person’s reading voice, sometimes I listen to a preview. If I don’t like it, I’ll search for another one.” - Serene

“It is a big factor for me. Especially for sleep. For me, sleeping is crucial. I am trying to relax, not to think of other problems. I want a non-distracting voice. After the first few minutes, I will only find the right one.” -Cindy

Core Components of an Assessment Toolkit

• Must-have: Voice-based options, need-based options, and program duration.

• Good-to-have: Level of guide-meditation, soundscape preference, and reminder frequency.

Reflections

Efficiencies are everywhere. Look for it. Given the quick turnaround time for each research project, we had to avoid unnecessary steps and redundancies. For example, we created one screener survey for all three projects. We ensured the screener capture specific and generic questions to help me select the appropriate demographics.

Provide regular communication. Given that each project only lasted a week, it’s easy to forget/skip steps to conclude the project on time. However, we provided a daily update for the client, no matter how tired we were. Although we didn't receive too much feedback/replies from the client, she told me how important our updates were. It gave her the impression we were always moving forward with a purpose.