The Design of a Successful Mindfulness App

The Design of a Successful Mindfulness App

In a world where people are bombarded by reminders, headlines, schedules, notifications, emails, direct messages, and prompts, a new trend is emerging. Smartphone users are turning to the source of their stress for calm and relaxation.

As mindfulness and meditation come into the mainstream, there are major opportunities to capitalize on a growing interest in self-care. Yoga, guided meditation, and mindfulness practices are increasingly available via mobile apps, and the audience for these products continues to grow.

Mindfulness apps were one of Apple editors’ four “trends to watch” in mobile development in 2017 and the last year has seen an even greater proliferation on mobile devices. Given the successes and failures of many of these apps, here’s what it takes to design a successful mindfulness app.

1. Color

Color has a huge psychological impact. Not only will color define your brand, it will define the experience of your app. Mindfulness apps need a color scheme and UI that has a calming, grounding effect. Color has an underestimated power in app design, but ignore it in a mindfulness app at your own peril.

Blue is known for its association with water, air, intelligence, trust, and its calming effect. But does that mean blue is your only option? There many other colors that reduce stress, including lighter shades of green that are associated harmony and nature, violet, pastel pinks, and soft yellows or greys.

2. Handle Reminders with Care

Mindfulness apps are supposed to be your escape from the daily grind and the constant bombardment from your phone. Handle reminders and push notifications with care, or else watch your users defect.

A good mindfulness app takes its lessons seriously. It encourages users to find and set their intention for mindfulness, and to write it down from the outset. Users will find that their own intentions will be far more powerful than any push notification to keep engaged.

3. Personality

Every successful mindfulness app has a personality and not everyone is going to agree with it. Decide on your audience and embrace your app’s unique personality.

4. Free Plus Subscriber-Only Content

People want time to explore mindfulness apps and decide if it’s right for them. Make enough free content (or free trial periods) available so that new users can get an accurate feel for what it’s like to use your app. It’s common for mindfulness apps to make their complete library only accessible to monthly or annual subscribers.

Finally, you need to work with mobile app developers who understand your goals. Android and iPhone app developers Guaraná Technologies are one example of an app studio that worked closely with mindfulness experts to create Evenflow. Evenflow is an app that allows you to stream and save guided meditation sessions. The sessions are composed using both a background music track and an audio track. This posed a challenge when it came to audio file management. You can click here to learn more about Evenflow’s design and development.

Mindfulness is a quickly growing category in app stores as more people try to find time for self-care and meditation. Design a mindfulness app that helps people find calmness and tranquility in a wild world.