UX/UI Design • Branding
Problem: Existing products that assist with learning the fundamentals of mindful meditation are either too expensive, poorly developed, or both.
Solution: Create an accessible and feature-rich product to assist humans suffering from stress, anxiety, and other mental or emotional struggles.
Tools Used: Sketch, Principle, Illustrator, Photoshop
Background
The most important aspect of meditation is the breath. Respire focuses on teaching the user mindful breathing techniques, guided by audio and visual interactions that are tailored to treat specific emotional imbalances. The ultimate goal is to create positive thought patterns that promote mindfulness and destroy negative habits.
While testing and reviewing various meditation-related apps, I noticed a lack of products that provided reliable help with learning techniques that make mindful meditation easy to understand. I also learned that the more features a product offered, the higher the price point was. The driving principle of Respire is - "A valuable skill that can help preserve one's well being must be accessible and digestible."
Respire's branding is designed to illustrate the honest and straightforward approach to solving this problem.
User Journey
Respire intends to help people genuinely. People can benefit from its core features free of charge, and power features like statistics and scheduling can be unlocked after a suggested donation is submitted.
The onboarding process has been carefully designed to be malleable and adapt to the user's existing comprehension of the practice of meditation. After setting up an account, you can choose to explore and learn about the benefits and fundamentals or hop right into curated meditation sessions.
Overall, the User Journey is designed to minimize friction and confusion as much as possible and empower quick navigation.
UI Design
When designing a User Interface from scratch, it's great to always start with low fidelity wireframes. This stage is integral to optimizing the Information Architecture and layout of elements on every screen the user will come across. The UI for Respire was designed to be minimal and complement its non-linear navigation.
When translating mockups into hi-fidelity, I realized what elements of the UX needed fine-tuning. Respire's design system is meant to be cohesive, focus on functionality, and leverage color to separate different features from each other - making wayfinding a breeze. The bold and simplistic layout of elements paired with the selective use of color helps promote a healthy state of Flow.
Color is an essential aspect of this product. Each color and gradient is derived from the branding style guide, but also heavily influenced by the different Chakras of the spiritual body and the emotional connections that are associated with them.
Conclusion
Respire is still a work in progress. As an ongoing side project, tasks such as refining the design system, conceptualizing micro-interactions, and diving deeper into features like data tracking are exciting next steps.
Respire has been such a fun and fulfilling project. For me, there is nothing more satisfying and rewarding than designing with the intent of having a positive impact on our environment and humanity as a whole.