Establishing a community-focused yoga app to inspire practitioners of all ages and skills
UX / UI Research & Design
Note: This is a fictional, self-directed project, completed for the requirements of Designlab's UX Academy
Challenge
The goal of Savasana, a modest yoga startup, is to encourage individuals to practice yoga in spite of the pandemic's affects. As of right now, students can use their app to register for classes. Yet in response to growing demand, people are now looking for deeper connections with others.
Outcome
The project's output was a wellness app based on two personas that were derived from data. The main goals were to foster a relationship between yoga instructors and their students and to offer tools via a Community Hub to support the development of their practice.
Data-Driven Personas
A persona spectrum with two unique personas is the initial outcome of an extended study that involved both quantitative and qualitative research. Every character is classified according on their yoga experience and has unique "Needs," frustrations, and goals. For a deeper look at the process of creating these personas, scroll down to view the study methodology.
Customer Feedback
The main goal of this project is to create a Community Hub feature that facilitates deeper bonds between students and instructors and offers tools to support both novice and seasoned practitioners of yoga. I used Figma to construct an outline that provides a summary of all the feedback.
Design Process
My role in this solo project was of the UX Researcher. I started the project and was in charge of every stage, including identifying user needs, creating data-driven personas, and designing the Community Hub.
Identify Team Needs
Interview Users
Competitive Research
Data-Driven Personas
3. Gather quantitative data
4. Derive insights from quantitative data
5. Introducing the personas to the team
Building the Community Hub
6. Finding the right tools
7. Building the Community Hub
8. Learnings
Identify Team Needs
Interview new and seasoned yogis
I was curious to find out about the current issues that yogis are facing when I began the project. How might their opinions help me with my research? I utilized Zoom to ascertain the areas of discomfort for every participant. Are we really aware of the pain points these yogis are facing and how we can support them?
2. Competitive Research
I created a list of the best yoga applications and contrasted the advantages and disadvantages of each after speaking with five participants. The main feature of these programs is the capacity to attend live yoga lessons. To keep viewers interested, these applications also feature daily short practices and yoga programs.
Data-Driven Personas
5. Introducing the personas to the team
Making sure they are put to use is the most important step in persona construction. Their purpose should be to support design discussions and serve as a guide for product decisions rather than to become a forgotten file in Figma. In light of this, the team was shown the personas.
3. Gather quantitative Survey data
To construct data-driven personas, I would require a robust dataset that encompasses both qualitative and quantitative information. I prepared a Google Survey with a list of questions to ask participants before collecting the data. Five respondents, from a range of age groups, nationalities, and degrees of yoga experience, completed the survey.
4. Derive user insights from quantitative data
Sorting our personalities according to the degree of "yoga experience" was the concept that emerged from going over the various facts. The numerical data made it easier to see key demographics like age and years of experience.
Building the Community Hub
6. Finding the right tools
I had to decide which tool the team should use to organize the application and develop the Community Hub feature after developing the user personas. To determine which tool had the best quality, the best value, and the most intriguing extra features, a detailed comparison was conducted. The decision was made to choose "Figma" because of its capacity to quickly prototype, provide feedback, and make better choices.
7. Building the Community Hub
After doing the research to find the right tool and signing up for Figma, it was time to build out the Savasana application. The biggest challenge here was to build the Community Hub with a small team. Therefore, I’ve built the application as a ‘no-code’ alternative.
8. Learnings
The most significant lesson I took away from this case study was that users are utterly unpredictable, and I cannot assume anything about their behavior because it might not match our expectations. It is crucial to always test, iterate, and ask questions because consumers are typically the ones that force you to reconsider your procedures and make design changes. The secret to designing well is to iterate and pay close attention to customer feedback!