Work

About

Resume

Work

About

Resume

Work

My Hats

Interaction Designer
Brand Designer
Co-Creation Research

Duration

10 Weeks
School Project

Interesting Learnings

Learnings

Emotional Design
Innovation Principles
Co-Creation Methods

The Squad

Owen Hudock
Belle Duffner
Lara Kim

Problem Space

In today’s urban landscapes, high foot traffic and stimuli can become difficult stressors for children and parents navigating public spaces.

Primary Research

Growth Opportunity for Headspace - New Audience

Through a few first weeks of extensive secondary research, we found that there is a clear evidence that Headspace's ambition to expand its reach beyond core users to a broader demographic. However, we identified a gap in their strategy: Families. This underserved segment presents a promising growth opportunity. By understanding their needs, we aimed to unlock innovative solutions for customer acquisition and retention.

Through a few first weeks of extensive secondary research, we found that there is a clear evidence that Headspace's ambition to expand its reach beyond core users to a broader demographic. However, we identified a gap in their strategy: Families. This underserved segment presents a promising growth opportunity.

Transform Issues

Decompose and
Synthesize Data

Decompose and Synthesize Data Points

With our assumptions validated, we dived deeper into the conversations and data, meticulously unpacking the nuances of urban families' struggles. Through affinity mapping and analysis, we distilled the complex issues into clear patterns and themes, forming a solid foundation for our design process.

Primary Research

Insightful Emotions

As results from in-depth interviews with SMEs, our analysis revealed six core emotions that encapsulate the complexities of children and parents' experiences navigating public spaces, providing a framework for understanding the needs and pain points of urban families.

Real User Insights

Validating Insights with Real Voices

To ground our research in reality, we connected with families and SMEs, seeking to validate our findings and gain a deeper understanding of their struggles.

Center Digital Console

Extract Feelings Into Ideas

Extract Feelings Into Conceptual Ideas

From our distilled insights, we crafted a set of "How Might We" statements that crystallized our design challenge. A clear thread emerged: families yearn for spaces that foster meaningful, stress-free connections between parents and children.

The Solution

The Private "Room To Breathe"

We designed and prototyped a quiet private pod located in public spaces, for parents to help their kids regulate and learn about their emotions through mini interactive sessions to practice fundamentals of meditation.

By offering immersive personalized meditation sessions in a calming Pod, accessible via the Headspace app, Room To Breathe aims to promote lifelong habits of mindfulness and well-being for families in urban spaces.

Vision Video

Inside The Pod

Mindful Excercises for Modern Family

The center interactive console provides families with a range of options to address their emotional needs.

Immersive Guided Meditation leverages Headspace's existing hundred hours of content with custom environment,
Rapid Relief Session offer immediate relief breathing exercise in a form of a cute cat,
Meditative Playground let kids play to learn and practice mindfulness through interactive games and storytelling

New App Feature

Discover The Pod

This new innovative and premium experience was designed to integrate seamlessly with Headspace's existing design system, ensuring consistency in typography, color palette, iconography, and design principles across all interaction points.

Elevating Interaction

Gamifying Meditation

While trying to design meditation experiences for families, I leveraged the universal language of animal characters to create an engaging and approachable entry point for young minds. This character-driven approach not only sparks imagination and curiosity but also helps children develop a deeper connection with the natural world, fostering a sense of wonder and awe that is essential for cultivating a lifelong meditation practice.

In designing meditation experiences for children, I leveraged the universal language of animal characters to create an engaging and approachable entry point for young minds.

This character-driven approach not only sparks imagination and curiosity but also helps children develop a deeper connection with the natural world, fostering a sense of wonder and awe that is essential for cultivating a lifelong meditation practice.

Final Design

Progress

Meet Miu Miu -
Kid's Meditation Companion

With her sleepy demeanor and cuddly appearance, Miu Miu is designed to provide immediate comfort and reassurance to kids when they need it most.

Final Design

Progress

Meet Miu Miu -
Kid's Meditation Companion

With her sleepy demeanor and cuddly appearance, Miu Miu is designed to provide immediate comfort and reassurance to kids when they need it most.

Final Design

Progress

Meet Miu Miu -
Kid's Meditation Companion

With her sleepy demeanor and cuddly appearance, Miu Miu is designed to provide immediate comfort and reassurance to kids when they need it most.

Long-term Habit

Breathing Exercises for Kids

Teaching kids meditation from a young age helps form a lifelong mindful habit. By incorporating breathing exercises into interactive minigames, kids can develop this skill naturally, making it a seamless part of their daily interactions.

Research & Ideation Progress

Who Are The Users

What's Keeping The DEWKS Up At Night?

I uncovered a concerning trend among Dual-Earning Workers with Kids (DEWKS) in urban America: the crippling weight of depression, anxiety, and stress. The pressure to balance work, parenting, and social relationships is taking a toll, causing friction in households and affecting relationships with their children. This insight sparked an opportunity to design solutions that alleviate stress and promote well-being for DEWKS and their kids.

The Increasing Stress

Blurred Boundaries in Urban Spaces

Blurred Boundaries
in Urban Spaces

For DEWKS families, urban living adds another layer of stress: the erosion of private spaces. With crowded cities and overlapping social circles, personal moments often become public spectacles. Family events and activities are shared with the same community, leaving little room for intimacy or alone time. This constant exposure amplifies feelings of anxiety and stress, further straining relationships within the family.

Concept 2

Meditative Playground

A calming destination for families to step away from crowded chaos, featuring meditative activities and gentle gameplay. A shared space for parents and kids to rebalance and reconnect amidst the urban bustle.

Navigating the Crossroads

The Balance of Business Feasibility and User's Needs

With two promising concepts, our team faced a tough decision. Time was of the essence, and we needed to converge on a single direction. To break the tie, we applied Innovation Principles, evaluating each concept through three lenses:

Feasibility: Which concept could Headspace realistically execute?
Desirability: Which concept aligned most closely with users' needs and desires?Viability: Which concept promised the greatest monetary and brand value returns?

Feasibility: Which concept could Headspace realistically execute?

Desirability: Which concept aligned most closely with users' needs and desires?

Viability: Which concept promised the greatest monetary and brand value returns?

To further validate our direction, we took our concepts to a local park, where we conducted a Co-Creation session with real urban families. We asked for their honest feedback, preferences, and ideas, empowering them to shape the final product

Teamwork

It Takes A Team To Innovate

Our team was formed in one of our UX Studio Class: Innovation. In this class, students will choose a brand that needs help, it may be a brand that was once a great brand and fell off, or it is still a good brand, but has a clear opportunity for growth and/or innovation. For our project, we chose Headspace, the original “meditation app.”