After I had the idea to create a mental health / wellness app to help people live happier and healthier lives, I decided to conduct some research to see whether such an idea would be a feasible business model. In other words, whether there was a market opportunity for this app. I became obsessed with the mental health niche (as big as it is) and studied it scrupulously to fully understand it. I sought out and analyzed the top mental health apps / niches on the App Store. I looked at the # of downloads they had, read the reviews to see what they were getting right and wrong, searched if they were growing / profitable (ex. if they were hiring on their website), etc. I even searched more broadly on Google Trends, keyword searches, and other sources to see what people were searching for over time, what was trending. From this research I came away with various takeaways:
Takeaways:
• Mental Health awareness and advocacy is a growing phenomenon
• Mental Health facilitated through Mobile Apps is a growing market
• Within the Mental Health niche, there are more saturated and unsaturated markets
• CBT / Journalling is a market with high demand but lower competition
• Stoicism itself is experiencing a resurgence (media consumption, book sales, etc.) indicating a high demand, but little to no competition on the App Store (except for "stoic" app).
The conclusion being, that there was absolutely a market opportunity for a CBT / Journalling / Stoicism app on the App Store!
- Alan Mind and Stoic were among some of the apps we looked at as part of our market, competitor, and UX research.
Browsing all the different Stoicism communities and media channels (Reddit groups, Youtube channels, Podcasts, etc.) we analyzed the audience through various quantitative and qualitative methods. From this we generated a sample user/customer profile to inform many aspects of our app. We chose to represent this in the form of a User Story as in common in UX:
- As someone who appreciates/follows Stoicism, I want a simple, convenient, and effective way to practice and benefit from Stoic philosophy, so that I can live a happier and more fulfilled life.
Stoic Nature: An app that affords users various practical methods to enrich the quality of their minds and lives, entirely routed in and congruent with, a philosophy that they appreciate and/or follow (Stoicism).
After conducting our preliminary market research, having a user demographic in mind, and ideating & sketching out the design, we set out to build Stoic Nature. We implemented all the features we felt afforded an effective journaling experience, especially ones that made a habit out of journalling (ex. push notifications as reminders - Hooked Model). These included:
• Swipe through Stoic quotes. Favourite and share
• Start the Day & End the Day daily journals
• 50+ guided journals that cover all areas of life
• Blank journal for total freedom in writing
• A brand new journal prompt every day
• Browse all journal entries (search & favourites)
• Notifications to help build journaling habits
• Info about Stoicism & Psych. in every journal
• Track your day streak, total days & entries
• All entries are data encrypted (100% private)
I like to begin my visual design process by contemplating what I want the design (and ultimately the brand) to represent and convey - informed by who the target market (user demographic) is, and what our place is within that market. I like to express this in the form of words, called visual language. This guides the Mood Board, which then guides the Style Guide, which then guides the design itself. Visual language (which guided this Mood Board): Tranquility, Serenity, Simplicity, Strength, Durability, Resilience, Ancient Greece/Rome, Rustic, Philosophical, Introspective.
Aligning the Style Guide with the above Mood Board I decided to go with a darkish navy blue as the primary colour for Stoic Nature. Studies show that Blue is the most universally welcomed colour, has a calming affect, and symbolizes serenity, stability, reliability, and even wisdom. For these reasons it was a perfect primary colour for the app. I went with a variation of greys for the secondary colour, as grey and blue form a complimentary colour scheme. Grey also keeps the design simple and unobtrusive. Finally, I used a marble background and philosophically inspired illustrations to convey an ancient philosophy aesthetic.
Stoic Nature is an IOS app that was built using the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node). It is integrated with various AWS services. To enhance user engagement, we utilized the power of Google Cloud Platform, leveraging dynamic web hooks for real-time updates and notifications. Stoic Nature is also integrated with Twilio, Apple, Facebook, and Google authentication services so that users can sign in to the app using their preferred method. On the Back-End side, we implemented Data Encryption so that all saved journals are 100% private and secure.
Years of UX work have taught me the importance of conducting User (Usability) Testing while designing a product for real users. Empirical data and personal experience bear out its importance in refining the design and ensuring a given product meets its intended users' needs. Without testing, we are designing in the dark! While designing Stoic Nature we conducted 5 User Tests in-person which helped us improve the UX of the app.
Conducting User (Usability) Testing while designing a product is important, but gathering feedback from real users after you go live is an instrumental step in the product lifecycle. Following Agile Philosophy, we went live with the MVP of Stoic Nature and prioritized gathering user feedback as quickly and effectively as we could. MVP contained various UX features to ensure user feedback is gathered, including a "Give Feedback" option on the Profile page, and a prompted "Share Feedback" modal triggered after the user has opened the app 5 times. See below. In addition users can share feedback on all our social outlets.
I'm very happy that I made the decision to build Stoic Nature. It was a lot of work, but an incredibly fulfilling and rewarding experience that made me learn and grow in so many different ways that will benefit my career in tech. It is also incredibly rewarding to see real users who are using the app and deriving value from it! This is the most gratifying experience of all!
The MVP for Stoic Nature has officially been launched. I will continue to work at my permanent position as a Product Designer, but will always continue to work on Stoic Nature on the side. Our prospects for the future remain bright, and I look forward to the day where Stoic Nature becomes a real business. Our immediate next steps are to market Stoic Nature to reach the intended market, gather as much user feedback as possible, and then cater our service accordingly to meet their needs.
