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Adding friction to increase effectiveness

Oseh

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Problem

The MVP version of the homepage sacrificed important data and context in favor of simplicity. It didn’t give users a reason to come back every day and continue their mindfulness journey.

Requirements

  1. Frame Oseh as a partner in user’s mindfulness journeys
  2. Introduce streaks and goals in a way that respects Oseh’s users’ agency and schedules.
  3. And with this, hopefully increase user retention!

How Do You Want to Feel Today?

The first task with the homepage was to create a more engaging experience. I initially proposed adding an aspect of randomness which would add friction to the homepage experience and slow users down. Having to search for an emotion would give the user a moment of pause to make them actively decide how they want to feel.

These early explorations proved to be difficult to produce with different character lengths. But, these concepts built the foundation for the final homepage: a scrollable, asymmetrical grid of emotions that prioritizes discoverability and fits well into the split level homepage.

Goals + Streaks

Through a long process of iteration and discussion about what the most effective extrinsic motivation could be, Paul and I found ourselves plotting on two simple metrics: a personalized goal (set during onboarding) and a current streak (that only breaks when you don’t hit your goals).

In an effort to respect Oseh’s user’s agency, we opted to not create a dopamine rodeo with streaks ending in catastrophic fashion. We aim to encourage users for doing well, not put them out for missing a day.

Final Homepage

No element exists on its own—I was able to repurpose the homepage goals indicator to turn a survey question into a fun interaction for Oseh’s onboarding flow.

Conclusion

When in doubt, trust the process. The first iterations of the homepage were made in March ‘23, while the final iteration was stamped for engineering in January ‘24. While the first designs didn’t solve the right problems, the experiments built a foundation we could return to after nearly a year of improving every other piece of the app, from building Oseh's design system to their onboarding.