Tune Your Mind And The Rest Will Follow
MINDTUNE
BACKGROUND
MindTune is a professional development video-based content platform.
It offers users access to a personal development video library with quality advice from lecturers accessible anywhere and on the go.
A PROBLEM TO SOLVE
There is a need for a personal development video platform that understands and caters to the unique needs of its users. Currently, there is a lack of options that provide truly personalized helpful content for personal growth.
Our solution is to create an accessible, customizable platform that allows users to easily access personalized video content without intrusive marketing content.
THE PROCESS
My process started with understanding business needs and user stories, then using wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes to test and iterate efficiently.
Phase 1
UNDERSTAND
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Stakeholder interviews
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User interviews and questionnaire
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Market research
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Competitive analysis
Phase 2
DEFINE
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Interpret findings
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Define insights
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Set design challenges
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Defining the problem
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Personas and mindset
Phase 3
SKETCH
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Site map
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Define insights
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User flow
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Visual concept
Phase 4
DECIDE
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Implement a design approach
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Wireframes
Phase 5
TESTS
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High fidelity prototype
Phase 6
VALIDATE
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User testing iteration
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Feedback
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Iteration
RESEARCH
We studied the delivery experience of video, streaming, and podcast services, in addition to how personal development, spirituality, and consciousness content are taught and learned.
RESEARCH METHODS
• In-depth user interviews: 5 interviews.
• User survey: 24 respondents
• Competitive research
• Literature review
INDUSTRY RESEARCH
In 2019, the personal development market was worth more than $38 billion.
By 2022, the industry is expected to grow by another $13 billion a year.
38B$
Industry value
13B$
Growth by 2022
5,000+
Lecturers
COMPETITIVE AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
We reviewed similar and analogous companies to identify trends and gaps, competitors' strengths, and how we can capitalize on their weaknesses.
Competitors were categorized into 3 areas:
• Meditation and mindfulness services
• Personal development courses and video platforms
• Music and movie players (streaming)
COMPARATIVE TAKEAWAYS
THE DO'S
A strong visual identity that implements and supports the message
Use the community to maintain the relationship and motivation
Let the user proceed at his own pace
Consistent and uniform video length
Inspire and motivate for practical actions
Personal dashboards allow users to immediately access the content they’re looking for without too much effort
THE DONT'S
Aggressive upsells and marketing image
Focus on achievement progress and reaching goals
Diagnosing needs/preferences using exhaustive measures
Inconsistency in the actions the user needs to take for customization
Disconnect the community from the platform (Maintain it on another platform)
USER RESEARCH
We asked 24 participants in the target audience (consume personal web development content) about their content consumption habits.
Online survey | 24 participants | In their 30’s or 40’s
WHAT KIND OF CONTENT?
WHEN DO YOU HEAR THE CONTENT?
Most users listen while doing different activities
such as running, driving, or doing chores.
How often?
More than twice a week
How many?
More than one video in a row
Where from?
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Personal development apps
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Online searches
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Social media
PERSONAS
The persona technique may not be suitable for all projects, especially when dealing with diverse or complex audiences. In these cases, focusing on specific variables may be more important. However, some audiences, like Mindtune users, may be more easily grouped into general categories.
Meet
ALLEN
Why Allen?
Allen was created using user survey findings and personal experiences with personal development students during our research for this project.
Some demographics
46, divorcee +2
Manager of a vehicle fleet in an industrial company.
in one word...
Conqueror
In many words
Allen loves to demonstrate knowledge and own the room. to talk and make conversation.
He sees himself experience in life. A beginner's mentor, he strives to give his knowledge to guide others.
He needs very accurate videos on a topic that interests him, so that all his important time will be spent learning and conquering new areas of knowledge.
"With my level of knowledge and experience, I need advanced videos content that suit me, I don't have time to waste in searches."
- Allen
CONTENT CONSUMPTION
WHEN?
Driving
Bedtime
Exercise
WHY?
Energy boost
Mastering
WHERE?
MOTIVATIONS
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Conquer areas of knowledge
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In-depth learning of topics
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Time saving
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High quality and advanced content
FRUSTRATIONS
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Conquer areas of knowledge
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In-depth learning of topics
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Time saving
-
High quality and advanced content
"With my level of knowledge and experience, I need advanced videos content that suit me, I don't have time to waste in searches."
- Allen
Meet
ABBY
Why Abby?
Abby represents the "constantly learning" user segment. She was developed from real experiences with personal development students and interviews conducted during our research.
Some demographics
in one word...
Idealist
In many words
Abby loves to engage in spirituality, she meditates, reads books, and listens to lectures to always expand her knowledge about consciousness, subconscious, energies, etc.
Covid-19 brought with it new difficulties to her life with them, she tries to deal with the knowledge and advice of her favourite lecturers and mentors.
32, Single, Business owner,
alternative medicine therapist
"Life is a journey of learning, we study every day until our last day. recently life has surprised me with a struggle, so I am using sources of knowledge around me more than ever."
- Abby
CONTENT CONSUMPTION
WHEN?
Morning
Bedtime
Exercise
WHY?
Relaxation
Coping
WHERE?
MOTIVATIONS
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Easy to use technology
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High-quality videos
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Expanding knowledge and getting to know new lecturers
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have ah-ah moments of inspiration
FRUSTRATIONS
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Longed search for the right video
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Dealing with settings in the middle of use
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Videos on irrelevant topics (Recommendations, search results, etc.)
RESEARCH KEY TAKEAWAYS
Our users are:
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Not beginners: They know the world of content, know its benefits, and understand the value of consuming it.
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Constant seekers: They have a constant desire to expand the scope of their knowledge.
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Medium-level technology: Our users are proficient in consuming content such as videos and digital lectures.
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Dynamic content consumers: The content that users consume is variable. There is no fixation on one subject or lecturer.
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Often multitasking: The user experience with the app should be fast, efficient, and simple.
THE CHALLENGES
Maintaining freedom of choice
How can we balance personalized recommended content with user need for discovery?
Delivering an engaging experience
How can we gather the necessary information for customization without overwhelming the user with questions before providing any value?
Integrating the business model
How can we balance promoting the business with maintaining a product DNA of marketing-free experience and content?
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Mindtune needed a concept that communicated the app's DNA, especially in its name. My team and I worked to achieve this.
How Mindtune become Mindtune? Inspired by self-Tuning Systems:
TUNING
Clear the noise one custom video at a time.
Get recognition for your specific needs.
Tune your mind and the rest will follow.
EXPERIENCE FLOW
As part of our research, we acquired superficial education in self-tuned systems.
Self-tuning systems are typically composed of four components: expectations, measurement, analysis, and actions.
We immediately saw how this pattern relates directly to our product structure
Before we built the use flow we started by dividing the experience into 4 parts
1 EXPECTATIONS
User preferences - When? Who? Why?
2 MEASUREMENT
Rate wellness level
3 ANALYSIS
Want to know what we found out?
4 ACTION
Play your video
THE OUTCOME
THE QUESTIONNAIRE
Expectations
1
Measurement
2
Analysis
3
To create an onboarding questionnaire that diagnoses a mental state, my team and I educated ourselves on how to diagnose mental states using questionnaires. We consulted with psychologists and read research on wellness and well-being questionnaires. Through this process, we were able to develop 5 effective questions that allowed us to map user preferences, familiarity with the content, and mental state.
1 EXPECTATIONS
2 MEASURMENTS
3 ANALYSIS
4 ACTION
THE TUNER
The tuner is the heart of the app and the center of the user experience. It adjusts user preferences based on mood and situation. The user can choose to redefine preferences at any time.
These are the 2 questions that tune the tuner in each use.
They focus on what's going on with the user right now by cross-referencing the onboarding questionnaire answers and the user usage habits to give him the most personalized content.
Welcome to the tuner player, but you can call it the home page.
The selected video player
Tuner Preferences
To select the video to be played
get more informtion about the video’s tags, topic and lecturer.
Scroll back and forth between videos
Additional further
(Favorites, Share, Comments)
related to the lecturer or the topic of the lecture, according to the user's behaviors / preferences.
PREMIUM TUNER
The premium subscription promotes the premium package to free users without disrupting the user experience. We achieved this through functional and visual separation of sales and marketing content.
Simply put, the premium content was only accessible from very selected places in the app, and when you entered the premium world - it would look exactly like that - as if you were entering another world.
A free user has access to the Primes feature from only 2 screens:
Discovery and Profile
THE CLOSURE
MindTune aims to influence users to improve their lives. To encourage action, we present a summary of the video's message and a related task at the end of each video. This closure appears on the screen for 15 seconds while the next video timer counts down.
FINAL THOUGHTS
MindTune had a distinctive DNA that posed business and image challenges and made it difficult to follow competitors' examples.
But where competitive research has not been sufficient, the research on diagnostics using questionnaires has allowed us to provide the user with a light and effective first-use experience.
Through extensive user research, we were also able to balance the content recommendation with freedom of choice that fits exactly with the nature of the experience we wanted to give the user.
As I always say, rely on research that will tune each experience to the right place.