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The Simplest Path to Mindfulness
What is Peach Mindfulness?
Peach Mindfulness is a web application that coaches its users in the development of their mindfulness practice.
Peach was founded towards the end of 2019 by Quyen Balter. After working for corporate companies as a software engineer for many years, Quyen brought to life a dream to develop technology which supported people in the development of consistent meditation practice.
Philosophy & Unique Value Offering
Peach’s philosophy consists of two core beliefs. First, meditation is not a one size fits all deal. Everyone is unique, and the struggle and time it takes to find what works well for each of us is often a deterrent that gets in the way. That is why personalization is a critical feature of what Peach offers. Understanding specific needs, wants and challenges is a first crucial step to being able to meet users where they are. Peach focuses on providing a tailored program for each individual.
Second, like all things natural in life, growing on the path to mindfulness requires patience, time and love. Peach tends to the meditation practice of each user, guiding them through the stages of their growth, checking on their progress and needs along the way.
I met Quyen a year and a half later. Peach Mindfulness was up and running on the market and had several hundreds free subscribers. However, Quyen found that although there were no shortage of people willing to try the offer for free, there were not enough willing to pay for a subscription.
Quyen's goal was through user research, to understand where the shortfall of her offering was, and what her users most needed in order to find value in paying for a subscription.
The Challenge
Peach's launch was a strategic outreach offering users the chance to sign up and meditate for free for 30 days. It coincided with the worldwide pandemic, and Quyen found that in her first offering of the technology via Facebook ads, there was no shortage of sign-ups.
My Role:
UX Designer | UX Researcher
Duration:
June 2021 - Nov 2021
The Project:
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Improve the landing page by ensuring it spoke to the unique value proposition in a clear way.
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Discover any opportunities to improve the technology so that users would be motivated to pay for subscription service.
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Identify any areas needing improvement.
1. The Landing Page - a redesign & test
Research method: User Interviews
The original landing page seemed to function well enough for users to sign up for the free offer. Quyen wanted the landing page to better communicate the unique value offering. She wanted to move away from gaining users via a free offer, and compel users to buy a subscription.
We decided to delve deeply into understanding how users browsed the landing page and to discover if they were able to grasp what Peach offered and find value in it. But first, she had some immediate changes she asked me to make.
THE ORIGINAL LANDING PAGE
Simplify the menu bar to include only basics.
Remove some of the "free trial" call to actions.
State Unique Value Prop!
Replace with subscription package options.
Re-think the copy. Soften language to be less "salesy"
Feel more inviting
THE RE-DESIGNED LANDING PAGE
Simplified menu, eliminating "free" option
One main call to action up front & center.
A simple tagline speaking to value prop added.
An inviting quote to capture a mood.
A blurb that speaks directly to the unique value prop.
Condensed copy speaking to "how" Peach works.
Three package offerings giving users an opportunity to choose.
The Re-Designed Landing Page - User Interviews
Goal:
To discover:
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What are users’ overall impressions with the page; what are the values they saw that Peach brings from reading the page.
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How users are currently solving their challenges with meditation today?
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What do users think and understand from each section?
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Are users willing to take action?
Method:
Screeners sent to invite users 18 and over who have interest in meditation.
Five virtual interviews conducted over Zoom.
Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes.
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Users asked to scroll through as they normally would to check out the site, while they were silently observed.
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Users asked to think out loud.
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At the end of the process, users were guided through a carefully crafted discussion guide.
There were three parts covering separate areas in the interview:
A) The Overall Impression of the landing page.
B) How users currently solve their meditation challenges.
C) Users' willingness to take action
INSIGHTS
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS OF THE LANDING PAGE
USERS CURRENT CHALLENGES/ SOLUTIONS
USERS WILLINGNESS TO TAKE ACTION TO SUBSCRIBE
uplifting, calming, empowering, clear, delightful, clean, welcoming
Greatest challenges: getting back on track, creating a consistent habit, negative self talk when they fall off.
"I will pay if you can help me to create a ritual, a real lasting habit ... instead of being another goal I have to achieve"
Sampling meditations encouraged a sense of trust. Trust, in the sphere of wellness is crucial.
What doesn't work is just another app offering many meditations.
Titles of segments, highlighted text and concise wording was well received.
What has worked: gentle prompts, compassionate self-talk, less pressure, interesting mix of mindfulness practices.
"Anything that starts to come off too "salesly" makes me think they just want my money"
"What is hardest is making something I know is important, a priority in my life, and understanding why I haven't"
Users wanted call to action more accessible throughout.
What Peach could communicate better: give more background on who is behind Peach.
"If I take out my credit card, I feel that credibility ... the security that comes with that is important to me"
Is $9.99 good value for what Peach offers? 3.5 out of 5 said yes.
Based on the landing page experience, would you sign up? 5/5 said yes.
4/5 could accurately state the unique value Peach offers after browsing.
Three main TAKEAWAYS
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To develop trust by efficiently communicating the unique value offering in the earliest steps of sign-up.
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To offer a tool for lasting change rather than a quick-fix.
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Discovering the source of what challenges their mental wellbeing is essential to be able to offer lasting solutions.
These discoveries led us into phase 2 of the re-design of Peach's technology.
At this point, our team expanded to include a product manager as well as a behaviorial psychologist who consulted to brainstorm how we could effectively enhance the experience.
We decided that instead of asking users to simply sign up for free, taking their basic contact info - to go a little deeper. At sign up, they would now do a survey (designed with Typeform) which would require users to think a little more deeply about what was bringing them to Peach, and why they wanted to meditate.
2. Enhancing Personalization in sign-up
Research method: Usability Testing & User Interviews
As we discovered that developing a users trust was imperative in their decision to invest in Peach, we also learned that when signing users up, we wanted to get to the source of why they felt they needed meditation.
Peach was striving to show users that while many modern apps were offering meditation as a treatment for anxiety, depression and many other pschological pressures, Peach got to the source of the true sense of dis-ease. As a result, what Peach offered was opportunity for lasting relief. The key to understanding why users were coming was to first try to differentiate their symptoms from the source of their discomfort. We began with a more personalized sign-up.
Sign up experience became a combination of collecting their basic data, while teaching the user the "how & why" of Peach.
Identifying how Peach from differed from other meditation apps was stated.
Having the user quantify their stress level was important - both as a data measure & for the individual to acknowledge in the process.
Identifying stressor helped us (and them) get closer to the cause of their challenge.
Going deeper to the source helps us identify what kind of curated program to offer that would be most beneficial.
At the end of the questionaire, we summarize with exactly what they can expect to receive.
Enhancing Personalization in sign-up - Usability Testing
Goal:
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Test the functionality of the pathway, measuring by time and any direct or indirect clicks, and finally, the success rate (signing up), and rating.
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Discovering how users feel about the process.
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Understanding whether or not users consider sign-up time too long.
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Discovering whether users better grasp Peach’s unique value offering, based on the sign-up experience.
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Highlight any points of confusion for the user, whether it be language or direction.
Method:
Screeners sent to invite users 18 and over who have interest in meditation.
Five virtual interviews conducted over Zoom.
Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes.
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Users were given a task and asked to browse the site and sign up.
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Users asked to think out loud.
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At the end of the process, users were guided through a carefully crafted discussion guide.
The results of our testing were compelling. The pathway proved 90% functional. Users were all able to complete sign-up in under five minutes. Users felt a sense of purpose about what they had committed to, and very importantly, the questions they were asked encouraged them to believe that what Peach was offering was an important tool, and that Peach had a heartfelt mission. We had established a sense fo trust and now users were looking forward to their experience.
Equipped with a re-designed homepage and an effective sign-up process, Peach launched it's second major marketing campaign on Facebook.
Usability Testing Results
Marketing in a post-pandemic climate.
What we discovered, very quickly was that conditions in the post-pandemic marketing platforms had changed. When Peach originally launched, it was a pivotal moment. Early 2020, the pandemic was beginning, there was a general sense of panic. Most people were experiencing deep stress, and most were in lockdown - and working within the new constraints of the digital world. Peach's original ease into the market, gaining huge numbers of users signing up for free meditation is not surprising, when considered retrospectively.
In the present reality, however, almost two years later - the giants in advertising platforms, like Facebook where Peach had relied heavily had drastically increased their prices. To add to that, the wellness market had become a huge trend and the competition was spending way more than Peach could compete with at this level.
Peach faced a rock and a hard place. Yet, we knew that we had loyal users that were committed to their subscriptions and were consistely using the technology Peach offered. We decided to do a round of user interviews with Peach's most loyal users to understand what they found most valuable with Peach, and why of all available platforms on the market, they continued to choose this one.
3. Reaching into the database - Peach's most loyal users
We discovered that those willing to test Peach, and those eager to talk about how useful it was to them all had a similarity. Age and job status seemed to be a common factor. We agreed to go back into the database and look at the most consistent, as well as longest standing users of the technology and do a deep dive into what they valued most.
User Interviews
Goal:
1. Who are these users? What are there lives like? Are there commonalities in their experiences?
2. How have users' meditation practice changed since using Peach?
2. What is the most valuable thing that Peach offers to them?
3. What are the greatest challenges with using Peach?
Method:
These interviews were a little more personable. Five existing users who had their accounts for the longest, and used their meditations most consistently were emailed. The email first thanked them for their continued support, acknowledged that they were deeply valued. We then explained that their feedback would be monumental in understanding how we could extend our reach to others who could benefit from a consistent mindfulness practice. We had no trouble in booking five virtual interviews.
Takeaways:
1. All users were over 55 years old. Most were retired. Most valued a sense of consistency and discilpline in their lives, and knew the importance of maintaining good habits.
2. With Peach, they had been meditating consistently for at least six months. They considered this a healthy habit and were experiencing less and less difficulty in the actual practice of their meditation.
3. The most valuable thing that Peach offered was simplicity. They liked receiving a text message at thier chosen time, every day with the meditation sent so they didnt have to lose any time searching for something. All they had to do was show up, and plug in
4. The greatest challenges expereinced was a sense of direction. Many felt like they were "hitting a ceiling". They sensed they wanted to progress on their journey - and felt a need for understanding what direction the technology would take them next. The concern was that without progression they may lose interest.
From these interviews, it was clear we needed to create a Persona. We had identified the main user for Peach. It was imperative to create a caricature that captured some basic statistics as well as their wants, needs and goals.
Next Steps & Recommendations
There were many lessons along the way in this project. In retrospect, we asked ourselves if the step we took last perhaps we should have taken first? For me as a designer, the most pressing consideration is how to balance taking on the challenges that a stakeholder may believe are the biggest priority, versus going through the very strategic UX process to discover what the real problem is.
In this case, by the end of the contract, we were clear that our target market for Peach was a very specific niche. It targeted an older generation, who did not want fancy tech that iterated to improve with updates. This audience wanted simplicity and consistency. Quyen's next great challenge was to discover how to market her product to them.