Evaluating Gamification Upgrades via Personal Zen
The Background
Personal Zen is a mental health app built on clinical and neuroscience research to help users manage stress and anxiety. Blending journaling with gameplay, Personal Zen uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques to promote emotional well-being for its users through positive focus.
My Role
As the lead UX Designer and Strategist, I conducted competitive research, created wireframes and prototypes, and facilitated testing to evaluate key concepts.
The Problem
Despite a strong clinical foundation, proven gameplay effectiveness, and several enhancements, user feedback and data analysis showed that users struggled with engagement and consistent use.
Duration
Six Months
The Output
To boost user retention while preserving the game’s clinical mechanics, the product team decided to shift its focus to developing a more gamified app.
Personal Zen’s framework was utilized to validate the implementation of key game components.
Exploring the App
As a UI-UX Designer and avid gamer, I started with a cognitive walkthrough to understand the app firsthand. After completing a stress and anxiety assessment , which determined my playtime, and a game onboarding tutorial, I began playing Personal Zen to fully grasp its mechanics, recording key insights throughout the process.
Elevating Play via
Competitive Analysis
The product team aimed to improve the game experience by adding additional gamification features like points, a progress meter, and a summary screen.
To support this, I conducted competitive research on mobile games such as 'Cut the Rope' and 'Fruit Ninja,' selected for their similar game mechanics, for insight on potential gameplay improvements.
Tweaking Personal Zen
The research I conducted proved to be valuable in understanding game patterns, and the placement of the point system, progress meter, and game summary screen. Uncovered game concepts such as penalties, were deliberately excluded in order to preserve Personal Zen’s calming or meditative experience and have it be stress-free.
Testing the Designs
Once the designs were updated and received stakeholder approval, in close collaboration with the Product Owner, I created a research plan, a user testing script, and a clickable prototype to evaluate the changes with users, recruited through respondent.io.
You can view the research testing plan here and more details on the usability testing script with this link .
User Feedback
Post-usability tests, I documented and shared key insights with internal stakeholders, highlighting overarching trends I discovered.
Additional Discoveries…
Being the only UX Designer on this project and working for a startup in an agile environment was challenging as I learned about technical constraints and the delicacy of striking a balance between practical clinical needs and engaging gameplay.
Following usability testing, I synthesized my findings to internal stakeholders and proposed next steps or recommendations for continuous improvements.
Next Steps
To ensure success, I shared that it would be essentially to closely monitor user interactions and collect quantitative data on user engagement and gameplay experience to assess the effectiveness of the chosen design solutions before any subsequent adjustments.