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Aware, redesigned
A year of shipping, a year of feedback, and an app that needed to grow up.
After a year of shipping meditation content — 27 courses and 50 Singles — the prototype had served its purpose. The redesign sprint addressed five things we couldn't ignore any longer.
§ Role
Design lead
§ Timeline
One redesign sprint, following twelve months of prototyping
§ Team
Small in-house team at zoojoobe / Aware
§ Year
2018
Why the redesign was important
The prototype phase of Aware was a long, public experiment. We tested an array of master voices, A/B-tested flows and layouts, and ran several business-model bets in parallel. By the end of the first year we had a documented list of issues with the design — and this sprint set out to address them.
Issues to address
1. Minimise internal dependencies on each team
In the test period we released about 27 courses and 50 Singles. Each release had too many moving parts and pulled time from collateral, content review, and marketing. We templatised the release process so a new course could ship without holding three other teams hostage.
2. Address the 18:9 reachability issue
In 2017 taller 18:9 displays became suddenly popular, and they came with a new problem: reachability. The previous design anchored most of its CTAs near the top of the screen. Engagement dropped on the taller phones. We moved the CTAs down — closer to the thumb, closer to the truth.
3. Ability to take multiple courses
The previous design mandated the Foundation course as a prerequisite. But many users had already meditated for years, or wanted to start with a more focused track. An opinion survey told us 82% of users wanted to take two or more courses simultaneously. We rebuilt the navigation around that, instead of around our curriculum.
4. Improve engagement on Tools
Users who tried Ambient sounds or Breathe converted to monthly and yearly subscriptions at a noticeably higher rate. Both were buried in submenus. Promoting them into the everyday loop was, on paper, the cheapest conversion lever we had.
5. Make the visuals aesthetically pleasing
“Aesthetic designs are considered better designs.”
The prototype shipped over a weekend. It served its purpose, but it had a list of small visual inconsistencies — drifting type sizes, two colour systems pretending to be one. The redesign normalised the system.
Onboarding screens
Illustrations by Humaaans from Pablo Stanley — a kit we leaned on hard for the walkthrough.
Designs
Foundation course — day one walkthrough
The user’s first experience after sign-in.
User walkthrough into the first day of the Foundation course.
Player screen
The Singles player.
The Shelf
The Shelf stores your active courses, so you can access them quickly without cluttering the homepage.
Ambient sounds, on the home loop
Ambient sounds to accompany guided meditation. They help avoid long silences during a session, and quietly nudge the conversion lever.
Profile, doing real work
The profile screen, now doubling honestly as a subscription pitch.
Course description
Course description.
Homepage — the everyday page
Homepage. The user’s everyday page.
Singles — ambient control
List of items, with gesture controls
Master view
Singles — details
Outcome
Aware was acquired before we could ship this version of the app. The dream still lives on as Roundglass Reach — which, in a roundabout way, is also where the Voyager story begins.