Yonderful: Designing a yoga learning app with a brand to clear yoga beginners' uncertainty
While yoga signifies peace, it is not the case for yoga beginners. They feel uncertainty and fear which hinder them from discovering the beauty of yoga.
To address this, Yonderful helps online yoga beginners experiencing uncertainty in approaching yoga with personalised, easy-to-follow yoga tutorials and expert guidance to achieve their yoga learning goals.
At its core, Yonderful is built on a fundamental positioning: Clear the uncertainty; Master with guidance.
As the founder of this business concept, I took on the development of the yoga learning platform, Yonderful, from envisioning its concept to designing the prototype, and also handled the branding and marketing strategies.
DURATION
ROLE
PEOPLE I COLLABORATED WITH
Problem Definition
Yoga beginners learning online lack the knowledge of doing yoga postures in the correct form despite an abundance of yoga resources, halting them from learning yoga correctly and demotivating them from continuing to learn yoga.
A quick glimpse at the highlight of the solution before going through my thinking process
Design Process:
Steps I took to solve the problem
Stage 1
Discovery
✍️What I did:
Secondary research
Interview
Survey
🎯Goal:
Ensure it is a problem worth solving
Understood potential users’ current practices of doing yoga and their pain points
🎖️Outcome:
A thorough understanding of users' pain points not only helped me to brainstorm the app's functionalities but also what the brand narrative should be.
A close look on what I did with each research method
Secondary Research
Survey
User Interview
Highlighted Result
1. Yoga beginners are the driving force behind the growing yoga market
Based on yoga statistics sourced from Made in CA, the Canadian yoga market reached a valuation of $861.78 million in 2022 and is expected to increase to $1,536.99 million by 2030. Within this expanding yoga landscape, a significant 98% comprises yoga practitioners at the beginner to intermediate levels.
2. Yoga beginners feel a sense of fear and they need advice
I further looked into what the biggest group of people in the yoga market -- Yoga beginners -- need. From the word cloud generated from the top 50 threads in r/yoga on Reddit, “yoga” and “beginners” show up most often, followed by “help”, “advice”, “recommendation”, and “fear” (generated as at 11:34 am Jul 30, 2023)
3. And, they do not know whether they are doing right or wrong when they are practicing
Some quotes from interviewees highlighting their uncertainty in learning yoga
I found my posture wrong until a friend told me.
I just mimicked what the instructor did. I don't know if it is wrong.
I can't follow the video thoroughly. I really need clear voice guidance
Key user painpoints consolidated from the discovery stage
Difficulty following online instructional videos
Uncertainty about proper pose execution and precautions
Lack of feedback on posture correctness
Instagram posts designed to promote Yonderful address potential users' concerns, as informed by the insights gathered during the research stage.
Stage 2
Construct the product and messaging blueprint
✍️What I did:
Investigate potential users' personalities and develop a persona
Create a brand messaging
Brainstorm features
Define the minimum viable products
🎯Goal:
Synthesize the potential users' behaviours, needs and challenges
Develop a brand messaging
Confirm minimum viable products (MVPs)
🎖️Outcome:
An accurate grasp of potential users' behaviours and needs
A clear direction on what messages should be conveyed throughout the features, interfaces and contents
A clear definition of minimum viable products (MVPs)
Understand users' personality:
Potential users are goal-oriented but in a state of self-doubt
After understanding users' pain points, I used the Big Five Personality framework to understand users' personalities and define their characteristics. The reason why I did this is that I wanted to know how Yonderful should work so that they would be attracted to the products, and what persona I should develop to allow me to make informed decisions.
Featured personality of the potential users
Goal-Oriented: Many potential users who come to Yonderful to learn yoga already have specific goals in mind. They are eager to work towards these goals and view Yonderful as a valuable tool to help them achieve their yoga aspirations.
Neurotic: Despite the abundance of yoga videos available online, users often find it challenging to master the practice. This struggle can lead to a state of self-doubt, as they worry about the potential setbacks they might encounter along the way.
Persona: Online yoga beginner who is doubting her ability to learn yoga despite her dedication to current practice
I developed a persona to represent the target user -- online yoga beginners who have zero or little yoga experience -- to help myself better confine my thinking when brainstorming the features.
Branding and core message: Design the narratives and features
With a deep understanding of our users, I crafted a brand script to chart a course for how our brand can aid users in reaching their goals. This process served to elucidate our key messages. Following this, I formulated a key message house, which outlines the messages users should get from our products and demonstrates how the features support each messaging pillar.
Brandscript (Template from StoryBrand.com)
Key message house
Core message:
Clear the uncertainty, Master with guidance
I want users to feel empowered to achieve their yoga learning goals with reduced uncertainty in every Yonderful's touch points, from the the marketing materials to the learning web platform.
Feature decisions beyond branding
Apart from initiating the key message house to decide the branding and features, based on the problem definition and user pain points, I conducted Crazy Eight exercise on my own to come up with more creative feature ideas. Subsequently, I consolidated all ideas with an Affinity Diagram for me to have an organized view of the ideas and defined the minimum viable products by categorizing the features into "Must Have" and "Nice to Have" groups.
View the details by reading my thinking processes below
Brainstorm features with Crazy Eight and an affinity diagram
Define minimum viable product (MVPs)
Stage 3
Design & Test
✍️What I did:
Conduct three rounds of physical and moderated usability testing, each involving 3-4 testers
Iterate the design based on testers' feedback
🎯Goal:
Ensure Yonderful aligns with users' needs and eliminates any confusing elements
🎖️Outcome: I made modifications to improve the UX and messaging delivery for Yonderful, with the major two modifications as follows
Clearer copywriting to inform users of the purpose of each activity: Users often found the body mapping and recording features of the web app confusing. To address this, I provided detailed explanations to emphasize how these features support users in achieving their yoga-learning goals.
Transformation from passive to active and instant feedback system: I decided to implement the instant feedback system following insights gained from the first usability test, recognizing the importance of delivering immediate feedback to users.
Read detailed testing feedback and modifications implemented
Key modifications after usability test #1
Key modifications after usability test #2
Key modifications after usability test #3
Interact with the prototype to see the user interface in action
Learnings
1. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
Numerous rounds of iteration have been conducted throughout the design process, following usability tests. This has been an immensely rewarding experience for me, as I have witnessed the gradual improvement of the outcome with each iteration.
2. Don't be greedy
Initially, I had devised various features and intended to create prototypes for each one. However, following a consultation with a mentor, I decided to prioritize the development of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This approach enabled more efficient allocation of resources within the confines of the tight wireframe.
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