Okay, it is 2021. We can’t stand living in a pandemic or even talking about it anymore. For many people, these two last years brought numerous challenges no one ever thought of before. Both our physical and mental health were put to the test in circumstances we never imagined we’d have to face.
In this new reality, people are rediscovering what wellness means and how to maximize it. Our goal then? Trying to come up with a solution to help people in this moment of such uncertainty.
But first things first.
What is wellness, after all?
To begin our research, we had to understand what meant to be well. Dictionary definitions mean nothing to us if they don’t relate to what people associate with the term “wellness”.
Our strategy was to go deeper into the question of “what does wellness mean?” and understand how people relate to the topic.
In our interviews, we realized different people have completely different strategies to feel well, but a few topics came up in almost every conversation we had.
- People are fed up with being online all the time;
- They feel their personal and professional lives are not fully separated, which makes them feel overwhelmed;
- They miss social gatherings and the feeling of belonging to a group;
- They realize that it is important to have self-knowledge and understand what works and doesn’t for them regarding wellness;
- They look for activities (either physical, creative, or meditational) to feel restored and balanced.
Curiously enough, most of them are aware of how well or not they are feeling but find it difficult to work on it.
“I know what I need to do in order to be well, but it doesn’t mean I do it.’’ — quote from one on the interviews
With this information in mind, we could understand what we were looking for in a solution:
“How might we help users rest and unwind when they are feeling overwhelmed with being online all the time for both work and leisure?”
Where do we start, then?
We took a look at solutions our interviewees were already using, to understand what was working for them.
Many talked about physical exercise
- going for a walk, maybe listening to a podcast
- working out using apps
- running at a park
- taking yoga classes
- meditating
And there were also creative activities
- writing
- painting
- going to therapy
- reading a book
- listening to music
We knew we wanted a solution that worked both indoors and outdoors, to promote these two types of activities since we realized most people normally use a mix of these two in order to relax and take a break.
We also realized that most apps cited in the interviews were focused on only one specific type of activity. There are workout apps, meditation apps, podcast apps, and etc. One of our goals was to walk away from this already existing format since many interviewees said they get tired of this type of app.
This being said, we came up with…
An approach to wellness, one PAUSE at a time
An app that gives you daily suggestions of short activities to promote wellness, relaxation, and some leisure.
On the home screen, you can choose between indoor or outdoor activities. The app shows you a stack of three cards with different suggestions. From there you can:
- shuffle between the cards and see what’s on each one
- check more information about each activity
- block this specific suggestion, so it doesn’t come up anymore (let’s say you don’t like meditation, then it wouldn’t be helpful for you to keep getting this as a suggestion)
Once you select the activity you’d like to take part in, just go ahead and start. There are options such as going for a hike, doing a quick workout, visiting a new café, listening to a guided meditation, doing some creative drawing, among others.
All activities take no longer than 30 minutes, and you can always cut it short if you need or want to.
The good thing about working with cards is that there is always room for scalability, partnerships with other companies, and customization of the suggestions for the user. The idea is to always have new options, to maintain the feeling of having some “fresh new thing to look for every day”, as opposed to apps where repetition is the main reason why people quit.
Next steps
One of the best pieces of feedback we received was about having different activities on the same app. Some people said they don’t feel interested in downloading an app exclusively for meditation, or for regular workouts. The multitude of options PAUSE offers fits perfectly into their interests, which may shift from one day to the other.
Also, limiting users’ options makes it easier for them to choose an activity to take part in. We didn’t want people who are already feeling drained to have to select from a long list of possibilities.
And while we could embrace most of our users’ needs, such as
- the search for feel-good physical and creative activities;
- promotion of new activities and self-knowledge regarding what makes them feel well;
- incentives to take a quick break from work whenever they need it;
- a break from their online obligations;
we still couldn’t solve the lack of a belonging feeling, as most of PAUSE’s suggestions are individual activities. Maybe a next step would be coming up with a sharing feature, so users can invite others to do the same card activity as them, simultaneously or not.
All of that, of course, after validating this in concept and user tests, to guarantee it aligns with users’ needs.
Takeaways
While it is quite difficult to solve wellness issues only using an app, we strongly believe that sometimes people just need a little push. PAUSE doesn’t promise to be a miracle solution or provide any result of some kind. We offer a time for yourself, a little break from routine and obligations, and sometimes, that’s all you really need to reconnect with yourself and feel a little more balanced.
In an ideal world, people wouldn’t need apps to remind them to take a break every now and then, but these two last years have proven us wrong. We need, more than ever, to pay attention to the little things that bring us peace of mind. Even if that starts with taking a single pause.