UI/UX research for Headspace App

Headspace founded in London, the United Kingdom in 2010 by Andy Puddicombe and Richard Pierson has established itself as one of the world’s most popular health and mindfulness meditation apps. Appealing to college students and young professionals, Headspace has discovered a formula that brings customers back at night to wind down and reflect on their stressful days, while recharging for the next things to come. Following a very simple affordable subscription model, Headspace is currently valued at around $320 million and has captured around 54 million app downloads of users around the world. The company recently recorded $100 million in annual revenue as of 2019

Headspace has changed the game they have made meditation the new norm and they have drastically looked to improve the lives of their customers. Truly a company moving in the right direction to help tackle major issues such as loneliness, stress, depression and so much more.

Headspace is one of the few companies leading the way for mindfulness meditation however, there is one significant competitor that has adopted a similar yet different business model, which has seen them skyrocket to a $1.9 billion valuation in 2019. Calm is without a doubt the world’s most used meditation app, featuring mindfulness stories led by some of the world’s most famous celebrities including Matthew McConaughey, Lebron James, and Eva Green.

In order to stay competitive in the market, Headspace needs to find opportunities to stay hungry and grow its product and user experience. The company already has a huge advantage with its large following. It is now vital that they look to grow and take the podium position in becoming the leader in the meditation app space.

Headspace currently carries a wide variety amount of different mediation options in their app, these include mediation led by Andy (founder), life advice, ASMR, sleep radio and many other forms of vocal meditation and music.

Currently, the majority of their meditation episodes are narrated by their founder, Andy and have recently introduced a female voice. If you have ever used Headspace it's hard to argue that Andy has an amazing ability to invoke calm, stability and reassurance in his voice.

However, there are limitations with everything, and over time there is a chance the narration and the customers will grow tired and seek change or excitement to continue using something. Like every young millennial, a user is not heavily loyal to a specific app or product (excluding the obvious giants such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google).

According to Statista, in 2018 Health & Fitness apps have an uninstall rate of 27.8% within a 30 day period. What this means is that every 30 days 27.8% of the apps downloaded are deleted from the respective mobile devices.

Hooked, a book written by Nir Eyal talks about how customers have stimulus points that keep them hooked in using a product or service. Nir calls this The Hook Model and it consists of these four stages, trigger, action, variable reward, and investment. Nir’s methodology is second to none a great starting point for any company looking to increase engagement. Below I will share briefly the main takeaways directly from his book.

The trigger is the actuator of behavior — the sparkplug in the engine. Triggers come into forms- — internal and external. The trigger makes a user take the initiative in starting their hooked journey. External triggers are focused on telling the user what to do next, it usually by placing landmarks or information in front of them. Giving them the push to act on it.

Internal triggers show the user their next steps through associations that have been embedded into a user's subconscious.

Action is the behavior done in anticipation of a reward. To initiate action, doing must be easier than thinking.

The more effort — other physical or mental — required to perform the desired action, the less likely it is to occur.

Nir references Dr. B. J. Fogg, Director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford as an easy to follow model to understand the driving factors of a customer's actions.

The Fogg Behavior Model is as follows

The user must have sufficient motivation

The user must have the ability to complete the desired action

A trigger must be present to activate the behavior

In order to fulfill the actions a customer makes, they need to be rewarded. Products need to deliver on their promises, and it is crucial throughout a customer's journey with a company they come to the same place to solve the same problem.

In his book, Nir focuses on three types of rewards, for the purpose of this case I will focus on the rewards for the self.

Nir defines rewards for the self as,

The search for intrinsic rewards of mastery, competence and completion.

People are driven to conquer obstacles, even if just for the satisfaction of doing so. Pursing a task to completion can influence people to continue all sorts of behaviors.

The last and final step of the Hook Model is Investment. Before users create the mental associations that activate their automatic behaviors, they must first invest in the product.

Unlike the action phases, which delivers immediate gratification, the investment is in anticipation of rewards in the future. Through investment, it increases the chances of a user coming back on a service or product as they use it more. They value the form of content and with an investment, it closes the loop of the Hook Model and creates an opportunity for the cycle to start all over again.

All credit goes to Nir Eyal and Dr. BJ Fogg

The question remains, how can Headspace grow and encourage their users who are already heavy users of the product to do 2 things — use the app more frequently throughout the day and stay on the platform consistently over the long term and incorporate it as a daily routine for their users. Throughout this case study, I will focus on incorporating Nir’s Hook Model to increase engagement in Headspace’s business.

Headspace has roughly 1 million paying subscribers, with over 190 companies paying for the service for their employees. Though these numbers are high there is always an opportunity to grow. I went around universities in the San Francisco area and spoke to students about their experiences using Headspace.

I use it probably every other day. I always try to use it before I sleep while lying in bed because that’s generally the only time of day I have free. The problem is I fall asleep easily so I never really finish a full episode — UC Berkeley, Senior

The content initially was great but some of the topics get stale and I usually only log in when I have a tough day or am in need of a recharge. It would be cool to have something that engages me every day, but I don’t think Headspace has got me as a daily user just yet — University of San Francisco, Senio

I had the monthly subscription for 3 months but realized that it gets repetitive, which makes sense from a meditation app. I guess I lose interest easily, so if they gave me a reason to use it every day I would. To be fair, they offered me a pretty good student discount when I left after 3 months, so I did sign up for an annual subscription, but I still am not using it that much — UC Berkeley, Freshmen

These are just some snapshots of the conversation I had with students in the San Francisco, Bay Area. Our society is surrounded by people who seek immediate gratification and after speaking to these students it became clear to me that Headspace lacked that Hook factor to keep them coming back for more. In order to tackle this, I have proposed two solutions to bring new opportunities for Headspace.

1. Mindfulness Gamification

Gamification: the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation.

We see gamification everywhere. Sometimes we are aware of it but there are some apps that have shown us, with a little bit of an incentive to use the app people will come back for more. Currently, Headspace provides individual users with stats about their progress with the company. Below is a sample screenshot from my personal app.

The app has some aspect of sharing your progress with friends, however, there is still this stigma in our society about mental health, mediation, and therapy which has caused a significant amount of users to remain quiet on their experiences.

The sharing aspect of inviting friends will always drive new users, but in order to increase engagement, I suggest incorporating gamification in the form of tokens or credits being rewarded to users after they complete an exercise, episode or cycle. There does not necessarily have to have a financial or actual reward for high performing users but users like recognition for progress. Providing them coins or credits for their time, subconsciously lets them know they are moving forward and progress. It is the push people need to come back every day and seek to improve themselves.

Below is a snapshot design I have built to bring to life the possibility of this concept. I personally am addicted to apps that simply give me coins or credits (which have absolutely no value) for simply reading an article, or checking in every day. It doesn’t take more than 5–10mins of my day and it keeps me in line and accountable in maintaining a habit. I have seen the benefits of using those apps, so imagine the benefits from a meditation app that’s the main goal is to improve self-help. The limitation is unlimited and I believe Headspace’s users will significantly increase their day to day engagement.

2. Visual Meditation

Meditation comes in many shapes and forms, the most common practice is the direction Headspace has chosen — voice episodes. While this is certainly the most proven method and it has clearly shown in the company’s success, people have short attention spans. Headspaces’ episodes are generally between 5–15 mins which to most people in a short period of time, however, mediation is normally done at night and before bed. People are tired and are subject to falling asleep without much control of their actions. It is natural for them to be tired and their attention span after a long day can let them doze off into a deep sleep cycle.

After doing research into other meditation practices there is an upcoming trend of Visual Mediation.

“Visualization is daydreaming with a purpose.” - Bo Bennett

There will be skeptical people who believe meditation that requires hard focusing with the eyes is the exact opposite of meditation. That being said, mediation is not only about relaxing, it’s about focusing, so finding something that keeps a user highly focused visually can prove to be mutually beneficial.

My proposal for Headspace is to add a new feature within the app the requires users to interact with almost a “game-like” experience where they need to train their eyes to focus on certain objects for a period of time. This isn’t the same as mind training games such as Luminosity and Elevate. My proposal requires less interaction with your fingers but more with your eyes. The goal is to train your eyes and your mental state to remain calm, clear and forward-thinking without letting other thoughts into your mind.

Both of these suggestions I have outline bring together my main idea — getting users Hooked. As outlined early the Hook Model has 4 main parts — trigger, action, variable reward, investment. I will explain how incorporating my proposals in Headspace will help tackle each of these approaches.

Trigger

The great thing about Headspace there is already a trigger. It is highly likely that a user who downloaded the app had an “aha” moment that made them think about finding help through meditation.

When a person has a hard day and is looking to wind down they have Headspace to go to. This first step is crucial, and right now Headspace is seen as a use-as-needed service. Meaning, when stress starts to creep in or users need to find a sense of calm they log in. The goal now is to get users to open it regularly which leads to the next stage, Action.

Action

As previously mentioned The Fogg Behavior Model is as follows:

The user must have sufficient motivation

The user must have the ability to complete the desired action

A trigger must be present to activate the behavior

Sufficient motivation — the need to focus and relieve stress every day is already present so motivation shouldn’t be an issue.

Ability to complete an action — this is where my proposal for visual meditation comes into play. Visual meditation will enhance their meditation practice, and at the same time not exert more time or energy. Keeping it simple and effective will lead to drastic increases in engagement.

Trigger present — I wrote early how subconsciously a user seeks to relieve stress and that Headspace already has this nailed down so the trigger is already present.

Variable Reward

The reward is simple — gamification. What is a better way for someone to meditate more with an app that gives them credit and recognition for doing a good job? This works in sync and provides a mutually beneficial relationship. Incorporating some form of acknowledgment of the hard work and time a user is logging in every session, hour, or day can be monumentally beneficial for engagement.

Gamification comes in many forms, some believe that Instagram is seen as a lead example. The concept of likes and comments brings nothing more than recognition and joy to the user who posted the photo. If Headspace can incorporate rewards into its platform it can lead to more opportunities to expand the product.

Headspace has over 54 million downloads, but only 1 million paying subscribers. There is an opportunity to convert those who aren’t paying into more valuable customers. For example, for users who are currently using the free plan on Headspace, perhaps there is a way to encourage them to log into the app every day for 5 mins and complete a small task. These small tasks can have a ripple effect and help unlock premium service opportunities down the road. This is already a proven model, so Headspace needs to find a way to merge into its platform.

Investment

There is a clear benefit for users on Headspace — meditation, and self-help. The pricing plans Headspace is already at a reasonable price point, with their student subscription exceptionally low priced. It is clear they understand their target market and want to democratize meditation and potentially phase out expensive therapy alternatives.

There are two forms of investments for Headspace, time and money. We have already established the financial burden is at a reasonable rate. The big demand for Headspace is engagement in the app. A session is already 5–15 mins long which is a great amount to comprehend the information in a short time. The goal for the company should be to have a user log in two or three times a day, so those 15 mins sessions now total 30 -45 minutes of total time spent a day. Users will see the investment benefits from setting aside more time to bring the mind to ease.

As an avid customer for Headspace, I can personally relate to the opportunities to help the company grow. Most companies hit growth plateaus and find it difficult to remain relevant and competitive in the industry. The companies that have survived and thrived have imbedded Hooked habits into our lives.

When was the last time you checked your email? Bought something on Amazon while you were in a Target store? Used Facebook or Instagram for longer than the 10 minutes you planned on? Used Google over Bing or Yahoo?

It all becomes second nature to an individual when we make it a habit. These platforms led users to subconsciously use something with the intention to gain something out of it. We seek comfort in the things we use and that is natural and these companies have perfected the Hook Model. Habits are hard to break, so it is natural for it to be hard to start a new habit. The key is consistency and repetition.

Headspace has capabilities to be an app or experience that should be used every day or even several times a day. It is essential that mindfulness and mental health are being treated with purpose. I encourage those of you who are interested in trying any meditation app let alone Headspace, to give it a serious try and stay consistent in using it daily. Create a routine and a habit will grow, and you will reap the benefits.

Special thank you to Nir Eyal for his excellent book, Hooked.

Special thank you to the founders Andy and Richard for building a company that seeks to improve self-help with Headspace.