ObserVR
ObserVR is a VR meditation app that I prototyped alongside my classmates at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Due to increased feelings of isolation, work stress, and mental health challenges during the pandemic, we used design thinking to create a mindfulness app for young professionals based on the Slow Looking Framework.
Collaborative Project
1/2021-5/2021
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I conducted research on target users and the existing market. I interviewed young adults in order to better understand their needs when using meditation apps.
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I created prototypes for the menu user flow and the meditation VR experience.
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I tested the prototype with 16 potential users in the target audience. After testing, we made iterations based on user feedback.
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After gathering feedback, I assisted my team members in designing the initial product design in Unity.
Problem 🤔
Increased feelings of stress, anxiety and depression during the pandemic.
Opportunity 👐
How might we support young adults dealing with depression, anxiety, and stress?
There is a lack of meditation apps in the VR space.
Research 🔍
Meditation causes decrease in self-harm thoughts, disruptive behavior, stress
Slow-looking framework meditation helps to decrease depression and anxiety
When conducting interviews we found:
individuals did not want technology to interfere with meditation
Design Idea 💡
A VR meditation app in which users can experience settings of their choosing and practice slow-looking meditation.
Prototyping 📦
We used design thinking and needs assessments to prototype the menu UI. In our needs assessments and user tests, we found that users did not want to click buttons to navigate through the menu. Therefore, we created a menu where users could select options using their eye gaze. For our initial prototype, we used a 360 video so the testing users could give us feedback on the overall flow and design idea.
Testing 🧪
We tested our idea with a 360 video prototype. After testing with our target demographic, we developed our prototype in UNITY.
Iterating 🔄
Based on testing feedback, users wanted to meditate in animated worlds instead of realistic settings. Therefore, we created an animated prototype in Unity.