How this meditation app utilizes technology to deliver mindfulness

I have been using Headspace for the last year regularly. Almost daily but practicing meditation by myself on the weekend. As a product Headspace is a technological marvel in today’s times. As someone constantly fighting burnout and anxiety as a tech worker, I felt the need to start practicing mindfulness. Fortunately, for me,

isn’t just an app that took me thru’ the practice of guided meditation but it has also helped me to transition into unguided meditation.

While working through the many advantages of using a meditation app like Headspace, I decided to jot down some notes on what makes Headspace so magical to use. How it relies on sensory audio to deliver an experience that is out of this world. A major part of Headspace’s magic comes from its soothing audio experiences and not so much from the visible visual design that we are so used to. Sound design has a higher impact on our senses as compared to visuals.

To make it fun and engaging, I am going to keep this article visually heavy and less wordy.

#1 Communicate information

Technology while being awesome can also simply take away so much time out of our day. Leaving us drained, tired, and not having enough time for those daily important tasks. For technology to work for us, it should require the smallest possible amount of attention. Technology should be used for mindful communication even while not speaking to us.

Technology can communicate but doesn’t need to speak.

One way technology can communicate without speaking to us is by creating an ambient awareness channel utilizing the entire spectrum of our senses. Headspace often gives mindful cues to get our minds back from distractions or use the sounds of the ocean to calm our senses and bring us to sleep. Mindful communication doesn’t need to take the user out of their environment. Headspace provides us with experiences that consider how the tech should be communicating status — voice, visuals/animations, or haptic.

#2 Solve problems, and nothing more

The primary reason why technology exists or is made accessible to us via hand-help devices is to inform users about potential risks, communicate with others, and create calm. In other words, anything that uses technology should solve users’ problems and nothing more. Anything more is more of a distraction creating newer problems that humans never asked for.

When we start using Headspace, most of us use the technology to put a plug into our problems. Although the habit never works in a long term, it is the most common way to start. Use Headspace as a way to be a quick solution long enough and you’ll gravitate towards its positive side. Hence, you will see that Headspace allows you to ease into the practice of meditation by providing you with solutions to your problems. These solutions are often broken down into five or ten-minute meditation practices that were created to solve certain modern-day problems like anger, anxiety, productivity, and more.

While we are talking about solving problems, we also need to consider the amount of tech needed to solve problems. Solutions shouldn’t be overly bloated. Following the solve problems and nothing more ideal, the feature set should be trimmed down so that the product does what it needs to do.

#3 Make use of the periphery

As we are trying to sleep, multiple things happen. First are the things that are troubling us that keep us awake. Then we calm our minds and hear the sounds surrounding us and silence our minds. As we silence our mind, our body releases its stiffness, and our jaw muscles get relaxed. These are some of the actions our mind and body take daily. Headspace’s meditation experts recognize that and use the periphery to remove the burden from our minds when we are having trouble getting into sleep or just trying to escape anxiety.

Meditation is peripheral and it moves from the periphery of our attention to the center, and back.

#4 Design for people first

Since a mobile app, these days unlocks so many emotions, there is a need for it to be carefully designed for humans first. Technology as I mentioned before, should be responsible for freeing people’s time and bringing a sense of calm. A well-catered bundle of technology will amplify the best of technology and the best of humanity.

Similar to apps like Headspace, we need to —

Design for people first.
Bots shouldn’t act like humans and vice versa.
Tech should be designed to amplify the best part.

#5 Technology should work even when it fails

Have you ever designed something without thinking about how the product degrades gracefully when the underlying technology it relies on fails? When WiFi or internet connection fails, your app should still function on cached data. There should cue for the user to come out of the failure loop. Plus, there should be mechanics in place to allow users to download and save important information beforehand.

There are interesting mechanics like these that fascinated me when using the product and brought me to the question — When the basic tech fails, does our product have the capabilities to default to a usable state or does it break down completely?

#6 Respect social norms

Notice how hard it is for the older generation to get used to technology? On the other hand, kids from a very young age adapt to technology and devices rather quickly. Why is that? The simple answer is that people take time to get accustomed to the product especially people who spent most of their lives away from technology.

There are hundreds of things that Headspace is trying to tackle and each experience needs to be designed with care and patience. Some of the topics people struggle with frequently during their lifetime are awareness, sleep, sleep hygiene, power napping, anxiety, toughness, dysmorphia, eating, cooking, loneliness, and stress.

When building an app for a wider audience, we should respect social norms and use technology in a way that allows humans to adapt slowly and easily. Headspace as an app or web platform is carefully designed to not violate social norms. Violating social norms can cause stress and hence, should be respected by any kind of technology. Easing in is a necessary part of the process. Gamification, nudges, leveling, and other such mechanics are important to build into apps.