Overview
Awareness VR is an early startup that aims to create guided, meditative sessions that assist users in understanding their thoughts and sense of self through immersive technologies. The team worked together with the founder and interested potential users to create a VR concept, consisting of 3 meditation environments.
Team members
Avril Yang, Abby Choi, Thomas Tran
responsibility
User Research, User Testing, Design (partial)
tools
Miro, Figma, Minsar Studio, Oculus Quest 2
ethnography
Through interviewing regular meditators and potential users of the product, we were able to narrow down our design focus to: environment and meditation customization, interactions, and auditory experience.
We asked questions to understand the typical meditation behavior of users as well as how they perceive virtual technology and currently available VR meditation apps.
Personas
We created 3 different personas to represent our diverse audience group: a curious minded, tech saavy trendsetter, a busy worker who spends most of his time in front of the computer, and a meditation guru who regularly meditates and practices self-care.
user journey map
Next, the team created two user journey maps divided into four stages to portray the user's experience and thoughts while interacting with the product.
initial design focus
Using Minsar, I was able to create a no-code mockup of the home, solo and group meditation environment.
participatory workshop
The team wanted to find out what type of environments can evoke the users’ calm state and what elements and environment users prefer in their meditation space.
We invited 4 participants on Zoom to participate in 2 activities, including an Icebreaker, the Art Critic and Build a Space exercise. As our participants were among the older generation without prior knowledge of Figma, we considered simplified process, accessibility, visual appeal, and limited content for our activities.
We also included the following "cheat" key for easier navigation on Figma.
The Art Critic
Participants were asked to choose 3-4 images and write down 1 sticky note about how the image makes them feel. The goal of this exercise was to learn from potential users how they like their meditation environment and what environment would stimulate a sense of peace to them.
Insights
Overall, the workshop demonstrated that certain images evoke the feeling of tranquility and stillness, whereas other pictures did not have the same emotional value.
Build a Space
Next we invited participants to build a custom, ideal meditation space through dragging and dropping different elements onto the artboard, then annotating important elements of the space. These isometric elements were designed by other team members.
Insights
This workshop showed us what type of setting was ideal for each meditator to meditate in. Although there are notable differences, they all spoke about a common theme with trying to feel and become a part of nature, or the space around them.
Assets available and example environments
Feedback and thoughts
final meditation spaces
