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Drawing from personal challenges encountered during school and juggling multiple personal responsibilities, I found it difficult to manage personal wellness. Thus, I created Mindful Minutes — a digital platform designed to keep you focused and provide a safe space for those navigating through the challenges of academic life.
All aspects of the design process including ideation and research were done independently as part of my 4th year thesis project.
This leads to negative consequences for their mental and emotional well-being, such as an increasing lack of motivation. Learning how to effectively manage one’s mental and emotional well-being has significant benefits such as improved cognitive function, enhanced focus, and self-awareness.
How might we help users cultivate mindfulness and effectively relieve stress in their daily lives?
Mindful Minutes is a digital platform that allows students to relieve stress in their daily lives by curated activities catered to the user’s needs and preferences.
Users can access a variety of features of mindfulness practices through the app including mediation, daily journalling, and finding communities. Upon using the features, users go through an onboarding process that resets every time they log in.
Users may practice mediation that reduces stress and anxiety levels as well as help improve overall focus and attention.
Users can journal and view their journal entries as a way to provide a safe space for their emotions and to look back on positive experiences to reflect and feel less anxious and confident about themselves.
Users are guided to the dashboard where they can pick from the curated activities. This also provides quick access by displaying the available options in their personalized dashboard.
Communities are available for users to connect with and provide a safe space to share their experiences and challenges and receive support.
A timer that integrates study breaks in between sessions with guided mindfulness exercises.
To gain a better understanding of the obstacles that people experience, I decided to conduct a few user interviews. These helped me inform certain patterns and themes relating to people’s experiences, challenges and pain points that assisted in possible design solutions.
Users reported having support systems around them have a positive impact to overcoming academic and personal challenges.
One of the main factors that lead users to experience high stress is the lack of motivation which leads to poor time management.
Users would benefit from easily accessible stress management techniques to promote overall well-being.
Based on the survey results, many participants (aged 18 to 25) reported experiencing significant levels of anxiety primarily driven by academic stress.
A majority of the participants indicated that heavy workloads, pressure to perform well, and other personal responsibilities were major contributors to their mental health struggles.
of college students indicate their general health to be in very good or excellent condition
of college students report feeling overwhelming anxiety
of college students report experiencing above average to high levels of stress
Using the insights gathered from the primary research, I divided them into categories. I noticed that time management was one of the key factors affecting participants from managing their overall responsibilities. This also helped me identify certain patterns and connections needed in order to meet user needs and behaviours.
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Heavy course load and high expectations causes constant pressure and stress.
Inability to manage time due to procrastination and distractions.
Due to feeling overwhelmed.
Meet Sabrina, a freshman college student. Her goal is to find a way to manage her academic and personal responsibilities without compromising her mental health, but faces difficulties in doing so due to lack of time management and stress.
In order to bring light to the pain points and opportunities users may experience along the way, mapping out the user journey has helped to visualize the actions, emotions and pain points needed to fulfill user goals.
Upon conducting research and discovering key takeaways, I finalized the design requirements in order to resolve the pain points for a seamless experience.
Following the design requirements, I drafted the lo-fi wireframes to visualize the structure and considered how users would navigate from the onboarding to the features.
After gaining a clear vision of the initial wireframe draft, I created the first iteration keeping mind of the features and design requirements needed. Creating the first iteration of the design made me realize there were loads of room for improvement still.
Upon completing the first draft, I seeked out feedback in order to improve the design and user experience. I specifically wanted feedback on the visuals and whether the prototype itself was easy to follow.
Given the feedback, I've been able to make a few changes to the design.
I realized compared to the original background colour in the previous iteration, keeping it simple and clear was the best choice when it came to visual accessibility.
I also added more features as I felt that the first iteration was a bit rushed. Following this iteration gave me a clear vision on future steps for improving user experience for future iterations.
Mindful Minute’s style guide was inspired by shades of green that would bring a sense of peace and tranquility promoting a sense of calmness, relaxation and serenity during the user experience.
Users are more likely to feel relaxed and at ease when interacting with a product that use soothing colours, enhancing their experience and keeping them motivated to stay engaged with the platform.
Testing began by gathering participants to go through specific tasks within the app to evaluate how easily users are able to complete them.
By conducting this usability testing, I was able to observe and take notes on what went well and any issues that have occurred.
Before starting the session, I guided them through a series of question to further identify usability issues and areas for improvement:
Reflecting back on past iterations, multiple changes were needed to be made to achieve the look of the final design.
Improved homepage
Compared to the first draft, I made the background clear to improve colour contrast and clearer navigation. smth about visual structure
More Features
I added more features to enhance functionality and support user needs compared to the first draft that felt rushed.
Timer added for efficiency
Removing the video for a mediation timer would limit distractions and could provide more flexibility and customization.
Instructions provided
Instead of a mediation player, I added instructions to guide the user along the exercise. They would also be able to go at their own pace.
Added prompt for entries
I added a prompt for the journal entries to facilitate reflection and encourage regular entries.
Microphone option
Users have the option to use their voice to record their thoughts if they don't feel like typing.
Throughout the project, I learned that I had to make multiple iterations in order to achieve the final design. I also had to seek feedback from peers and professor in order to refine the design and notice any gaps that were missing.
During the research phase I identified many recurring themes and pain points among users such as a lack of motivation and inability to focus, which helped guide the design of the features such as timers for time management, and meditation for improving focus. Since a lot of college students (myself included) have experienced these personally, it became more easier for myself to relate to others during the research process.
