Our team’s goal is to tackle the issue of developing habits regarding mindfulness. Although mindfulness is a broad term, it encompasses the idea of being aware and focused on the present moment, commonly by taking time to acknowledge one’s feelings, thoughts, and surroundings. As we collect data from our diary study and literature review, we wanted to learn more about our competitors. More specifically, we wanted to learn what made our competitors unique, what worked and what pitfalls each of their solutions into for their target audience.
01 — MyFitnessPal
Description
MyFitnessPal is an in-depth calorie tracking app that gives users calorie suggestions to meet their goals. It allows people to track their calorie intake both by searching for foods as well as scanning barcodes. The app can also pair with wearable fitness trackers to allow data from that to influence a person’s calorie goals. Although its target audience is not the same as ours, MyFitnessPal successfully completes our main task: changing someone’s behavior. It does so by creating an easy to use UI that latches onto people’s preexisting “habit” of eating. Although it is very successful with its goal, the app itself is rather boring and cluttered with no real visual aid other than a graph or two on the entire app. Unique value proposition: Attaches the new behavior to a well-grounded pre-existing behavior.
Pros
- The most common functionalities easy to use and find
- Easy to use
- Offers more complex features for power users
- Attaches desired behavior change to existing behavior (eating)
Cons
- Boring aesthetics
- Perhaps can create negative behaviors attached to a fundamental behavior
- Overwhelming for new users
02 — The Mindfulness App
Description
This app allows users to do as many or as few mindfulness activities as they would like. It allows users to specify how often they would like to be reminded to do activities and put in preferences for which activities they enjoy. Some features include courses taught by professionals, activities for different target feelings (destress, awareness of the body, etc.), and understanding how stressed a person already is. This app was made for the power user, offering many courses with each course having several exercises and activities to allow users to grow with their mindfulness habits. That being said, it is a little overwhelming for someone who is just beginning their mindfulness journey since the multitude of options and conflicting “calming” aesthetics somehow seems to be screaming “TIME TO BE CALM” right in the user’s face. Unique value proposition: Allows users to focus on a mindfulness that targets a specific experience they want to have (destress, body awareness, focus, etc.).
Pros
- Lots of options for mindfulness
- Allow users to think about their goals as they chase them
- Allow users to set their own notification rate
- Give motivation daily
- Many many many courses for the power user
- Has a stress test to determine already present stress levels
Cons
- A bit overwhelming for a new user
- Some content behind a paywall
- Though a free account has a ton of stuff still
- I personally don’t like the aesthetic… too much going on with different “calm” aesthetics
03 — Happyfeed
Description
Happyfeed is a gratitude journal that allows users to document their moments of happiness up to three times per day. Users are encouraged to take a moment to reflect before writing a small blurb about what they’re thankful for and snapping a quick photo. Happyfeed users can go freeform with their writing or seek inspiration from provided prompts. Power users can take advantage of Happyfeed’s advanced features including the option to set daily reminders at their most convenient time and the opportunity to share their progress and selected moments in private groups. Unique value proposition: Happyfeed provides a lightweight and inviting interface to do a single task and do it well – reflect and record your daily gratitude.
Pros
- users can easily set a daily journaling goal with frequency options spanning from “easier to start the habit” to “recommended by research”
- users can opt into gratitude nudges by using a daily reminder that can be set to their most convenient time
- has calendar and map views that display past moments across time + space
- calm + cool color scheme with serene scenic artwork scattered throughout
Cons
- journaling is limited to a single photo + text – no flexibility for more creative alternative outlets
- can’t add more moments after completing a daily journaling goal – user is LIMITED to at most three moments a day!
- tab navigation to record a moment is not immediately obvious
- nudge text was a random quote that doesn’t necessarily encourage the user to open the app and reflect
04 — Day One
Description
Day One is a journaling app available on the iOS and Mac App Stores. Some features include syncing among devices, allowing photo and video upload, and automatically generating metadata like location, weather, date, and time for journal entries. The app allows precise organization of all your journals and entries, giving you timeline views, map views, and more. You can add tags to entries and search by filters, and can even integrate with other Apple apps like Health to track mindfulness minutes. To help solidify journaling habits for its users, Day One can send reminders through system notifications or text, provide daily journal prompts, and show a streaks or calendar view to keep the momentum. Day One offers a premium membership that gives users advanced options like auto-importing social media posts, handwritten entries or drawings, voice recordings, and more. However, a free account is plenty powerful for the majority of users. Unique value proposition: An all-in-one journaling app that is extremely customizable and perfect for avid journalers.
Pros
- Free version has plenty of powerful features
- Easy to organize and sort journal entries
- Integrates with other apps like Apple Health, Spotify, YouTube, Strava, Fitbit, and social media platforms
- Offers different ways to encourage you to keep the habit
Cons
- Too complicated for new users
- Designed for longer journal entries, so takes longer to complete each day
- Premium version gate keeps basic features like voice memos and drawing
05 — Five Minute Journal
Description
The Five Minute Journal app captures the essence of the best-selling Five Minute Journal and ports the experience from the physical into the digital. Users can add journal entries via a guided flow that provides prompts along each step. Journalers can revisit previous entries by scrolling through their timeline or by selecting a date in the calendar view. Paying users are able to navigate a gallery that showcases photos and videos from daily journals and a streamlined widget that leads directly to the journaling flow. Unique value proposition: The Five Minute Journal app provides a digital journaling experience true to the original paper experience – crisp, clean, and modern.
Pros
- has several pages in the journaling flow to prompt user for different reflections at each step
- the home screen widget is very streamlined and encourages users to journal
- insights page shows tons of usage statistics and a word cloud of terms that frequently show up in your journals
- paying users can add custom prompts to the journaling flow
Cons
- the journaling flow is cluttered with several pages of prompts that might fatigue casual users
- the journaling flow starts off with a random quote that doesn’t necessarily encourages the user to reflect on their day
- users cannot add multiple entries for a single day
- the styling + format of the app feels sterile – captures the essence of a strict paper and pen journal
06 — Momento
Description
Momento is a journaling app that allows users to keep track of memories without having to consistently focus on journaling. One unique feature of this app is that it connects to other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Spotify, allowing it to automatically journal aspects of your life that you may not have thought to write down before or do not want to repeat. Users can attach photos to their journal entries, or attach their journal entries to specific locations so one can see the stories they have accumulated in various places. The appeal of memento is that it makes it easy to look back on your life, either chronologically or by location. Without even having to actively journal, users can see how they spent their time digitally and in the real world. Unique Value Proposition: Streamlines the journaling experience by connecting to other apps and social media platforms.
Pros
- Connect to external social media sources to keep track of little things we wouldn’t normally keep track of (podcasts we listened to) and avoid rewriting things
- Reminder feature lets you set when you want to do quick bursts of journaling.
- Search memories by location or by date
- Easy access to writing notes, amount of work and effort needed is minimal
Cons
- Need subscription in order to add multiple photos to a single note
- Memories may become cluttered when accessing all of your social media feeds
- Lack of text formatting options
- Users motivation and purpose of journaling may change if they become reliant on the automated journaling experience
07 — MindFi
Description
MindFi is an app that is targeted towards busy workers who want to engage in mindfulness practices. This app is uniquely marketed towards employers who wish to increase the productivity of their workplace and destress their workers. The majority of the activities on the app are designed to be short interventions in the workday that allow users to break free of their routine and take a moment to destress and decompress. By starting with a 1 minute breathing exercise, users can build up their mindfulness habits and increase their capacity to longer meditation activities. The app provides a wide range of activities and allows users to quickly identify practices best for their current situation based on short Buzzfeed-like quizzes and their mood. Unique Value Proposition: Integrate short-periods of mindfulness activities and meditation without breaking your routine.
Pros
- Calming purple aesthetic and lighter font relaxes users as soon as they enter the app
- Gives you a quantitative score after a self assessment which allows you to track their own progress and compare themselves to other users
- Users are able to set the timespan of their meditation practice or breathing exercises
- Recommendation takes the form of short quizzes that users tend to find enjoyable. Users like learning things about themselves.
Cons
- User motivation may shift from trying to improve themselves to trying to be better than other MindFi users
- Too many options can get overwhelming, especially for new users who don’t know where to start.
08 — Daylio
Description
Daylio describes itself as a self-care bullet journal with goals, mood diary, and happiness tracker. It allows for customization through different types of icons and emojis, color themes, and more. Some features include ‘Year in Pixels’ tracking, daily/weekly/monthly goals to motivate users, and regular reminders. Most importantly, Daylio lets users easily analyze the statistics of their moods and activities and look at monthly or yearly trends. It offers several types of quick daily trackers, making it simple and easy for new users. On the flip side, power users and avid journalers may find Daylio’s capabilities limited since it is more of a mood/habit tracker than a diary. Unique value proposition: Fast and fun daily habit tracker that allows users to easily see statistics and trends about their behaviors.
Pros
- Simple and fast way to journal/track habits
- Easily see statistics and trends with visualizations
- Minimalist design but still allows some customization
Cons
- May be too simple for power users
- Not suitable for those who want to journal with text
- In-depth statistics and visualizations require premium version
- More of a mood tracker than a diary
09 — Insight Timer
Description
Insight timer is a 99.9% free, massively popular meditation app that offers 100,000+ guided meditations. The sheer volume of choices distinguishes it from other apps in the market; in many ways, it serves as a robust search engine for finding the meditation style that works best for each individual user. Perhaps its greatest feat, however, is its ability to retain and engage the users it converts: Insight Timer achieves longer session durations than the likes of Netflix and Facebook and has reached a customer retention rate 5 times that of its primary competitor, Calm. Interestingly, the product has managed to create many opportunities for community engagement that foster a sense of belonging (ranging from discussion groups to organization-specific communities). Unique value proposition: Insight timer offers a truly free meditation experience that provides users with a vast range of resources that can cater to their unique goals, all while fostering a sense of community amongst its user base.
Pros
- The creator’s genuine intention is to make people happy. They don’t hawk their paid features (this would be antithetical to the relaxing nature of the app they’re trying to achieve!), and they value monetization only insofar as it allows them to maintain and scale the product.
- In contrast to Headspace, which relies more heavily on visual and interactive experiences, Insight Timer is grounded very specifically in meditation that exists outside of the user’s device.
- Insight Timer offers a wide range of courses that can meet the needs of almost anyone seeking to maintain or grow their meditation habits, ranging from beginners to experts.
- Beyond guided meditations, the product offers highly personalized tools that can help users facilitate their own mindfulness activities.
Cons
- The vast library of options can be intimidating to those just starting out, and the app doesn’t offer any form of onboarding to guide users toward what they themselves will find most effective.
- In a similar vein, the app is difficult to navigate compared to its competitors. Apps like Headspace and Calm offer a simpler, more guided experience.
Consolidating Insights
Lastly, we mapped these comparators on a 2×2, ranging from low to high time commitment and low to high intervention (success rate).
