The Mindfulness App: Product Review
There are so many meditation apps in Play Store and choosing which one is suitable for you will be quite challenging. Fortunately, Google has their curated lists of recommended application in editor choices. I’m already using Headspace for daily meditation, but it never hurt to explore other alternative and The Mindfulness App caught my attention. This application has a good reputation in the meditation community along with big names like Calm and Headspace.
First of all, if you google The Mindfulness App the top three links will land into their app and landing page but the rest of the links will give you the “Mindfulness Apps” review. I think they need to change their name to improve SEO. Anyway, like typical meditation apps, The Mindfulness App delivers a virtual meditation coach with a variety of topics. You will have a guided meditation experience and e-Journal that keeping track your meditation activity.
Even though there are many meditation apps out there, The Mindfulness App has its own way to differentiate its product.
Easy Onboarding
The onboarding flow of this app is seamless. They provide the right amount of information about the application and how to use its apps. Furthermore, the integration with google account and google fit are using SSO. My favorite step in onboarding is scheduling your time since the beginning, it will make you somehow have a sense of commitment to finish the routine.
Nature Sound Side by Side with Guided Meditation
I’m not a fan of white noise meditation. I’d prefer hearing nature sounds such as waterfall, birds chirp or any natural sound. Most of the application just provide guided meditation alone or have separated section for nature sound that intended to make you sleep just like in Headspace. But in this app, I found something that makes me cherish. You can play nature sound alongside with the guided meditation. They have various sounds such as forest, wave and many more. It will sweep out your loneliness and make you more focused on your meditation instead of just using a noise canceling headphone.
Certified Gurus
If there is something that makes this app stand out is, they bring out the Certified Gurus into their platform. The other apps sure bring their certified gurus into their app but in this app, they bring many famous gurus (I don’t know them but when I’m google their name, they have a reputation in meditation community). They provide variety of topics in meditation like self-healing, stress reduction and the other popular topic in self-help. To access the content, however, you need to be a premium member, but it is fair enough with that kind of credential.
Okay those is some good things I found in the app, but this app is not flawless. I found several interactions that bother me and ruined my experience.
Asking to Subscribe in On-boarding Process
They ask me to pay while on-boarding process. this annoys me that it makes me think a second to continue using this app. Oh and they only put the monthly price for annual subscription instead of pricing comparison. I think it is a good move to gain annual subscription. However, I think they need to put the monthly subscription side by side so user know how much the discount if I subscribe to annual subscription.
Hamburger Navigation
They still use hamburger. It will be great if they categorize their menu and put it into the navigation bar for visibility. One of the design concept is to hide information behind another abstract information. You don’t know what kind menu or action that wait for you if you click the icon Hamburger.
Wordy and Hostile Call to Subscribe
Why they put the price into my face when I just want to go to the settings and with wordy description? Again, they’re straightforward to make me pay for the app. I think they need to be subtle like asking me in the end of every session to upgrade my membership. Like hey they have 7-day free content you can bug me everyday. They also can revise “Try 7-Day Free Premium” with “Free Premium Now” and put the other details somewhere so people become more eager to use the button like what Duolingo do.
Confusing Card-Based UI
The card-based UI is making me dizzy because they cramp all their content without mind how I’m as user digest their app. They put so many nature photos on one screen and they are so different even you can’t see the colour scheme. There are no white-spaces and to be honest for meditation app I found this app kind of dark than calming — but this too subjective. They can make the app more engaging by categorizing them by gurus because I saw them as a competitive advantage in this app.
Weird UX Flow After Meditation
I found a thing that I don’t know whether it is a bug or not. After I’ve finished my session, they don’t automatically redirect me to the home screen. And I’m just waiting to be redirected. For several minutes I decided to click the back button. Suddenly they said congratulations. I’m confused. Do they expect me to repeat the session or else?
There are many short backs of this app but it doesn’t make this app bad. They have a premium content and all the essentials features are already good. They just need to work on the UI and UX more to make it competitive with Calm and Headspace with their outstanding visuals. I hope this app can evolve! But for now, I’m back to Headspace for meditation.
