Oak Meditation
Breathe in. And out. In... and out.
Learn how the award-winning meditation app was built.
role
Product Designer
year
2024
platform
iOS
overview
Oak teaches people traditional, proven meditation techniques practiced for centuries. I helped design a new version of Oak to guide users through the meditative experience: from onboarding to habit formation.
my role
I led design, research, and strategy, facilitated cross-team collaborations and workshops, worked closely with data scientists, and explored new frontiers in behavioral science.
status quo
First version of Oak was already live on the App Store when I started working on the new version. It allowed to dive into real data on how people interact with the app (retention, types of meditation, session duration) and interview users.
user feedback
"I can’t say that I’m a meditation nut or anything, but when I go on retreats, or even a class, having a teacher makes all the difference to understanding the benefits of the practice and if I’d continue. This seems like it's lacking that guidance."
— A user tester who meditated with Oak 1.0
"I don’t really care about growing that oak... I have no idea what it means and how it relates to me. I want to feel like I’m on a journey and that I’m progressing. The tree is not enough."
— A user tester's feedback on the visual metaphor of growing a tree in Oak 1.0
Process
To create a new version of Oak, we used several Design Sprints.
In each Sprint, we started by prioritizing a problem to solve, ideated and sketched new features and improvements, decided which approach to test, created an interactive prototype, and validated it through qualitative user testing.
Each new iteration was tested before creating production-ready designs and handing them over to the developer.
Sketching feature ideas for one of Oak's iterations
Evolution of Oak's home screen, from v1.5 to v2.0
first iteration
In the begining we set initial goals like making results tangible to first-time users, and engaging both experienced and beginning meditators for the new version of the product.
The first iteration explores onboarding users with
a compelling story and allowing them to choose a tree to grow, so that users have a deeper connection to their new habit.
user testing
I led qualitative user interviews, iterating on design with PM and content designer in between. Users liked the simplicity of the flow, and the major tweaks we made were content ones — to make sure we speak the same language with our customers.
"I can’t say that I’m a meditation nut or anything, but when I go on retreats, or even a class, having a teacher makes all the difference to understanding the benefits of the practice and if I’d continue. This seems like it's lacking that guidance."
— Carie, experienced meditator
"Being able to choose a tree to grow is interesting. Reminds me of tamagochi but in this case I have to meditate to keep it alive."
— John, hasn't meditated before
final design
After running a few tests with experienced and beginning meditators, we learned that meditations usually took place at the same time, with the same parameters, which were rarely adjusted. Also, to fully show the disciplines that Oak teaches, we went for
a grid overview on the home screen, which helped people get inspired to learn new things.
results & impact
After launching in 2018, Oak's redesign quickly build a loyal following of meditators everywhere. Tens of thousands of users engage with it daily. Oak received an exceptionally high rating of 4.8 out of 5, based on 21.9K reviews. In 2019, Oak was acquired by Big Sky Health.
Oak was featured in Apple App Store's "New Apps We Love" and Product Hunt's Product of the Day in 2018.
learnings
Working on Oak taught me how to ship fast. The whole redesign took only 3 weeks and included multiple iterations, collaborating with the founder and engineers.