Shirley Xu

What is Lemon?

Lemon is a mobile iOS app that focuses on providing Gen-Zers (1997-2015), collaborative mindfulness lessons to reduce their growing levels of stress

Problem Space

"91%

of Gen Z says they have experienced a physical or emotional symptom as a result of stress in the past year"

- APA (2018)

There has been a rise in stress among Gen Z, with ⅓ of the population claiming they have poor mental health. Work environment, social issues, and safety concerns are known stressors.

Gen Z practices mindfulness and meditation more frequently than other age groups, with “twice as many Gen Z” than Baby Boomers.

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Meditation has been proven to reduce stress in working professionals by 31% and could generate similarly positive outcomes for Gen Z as well. However, most meditation apps on the market are catered towards working professionals instead of Gen Z.

With this in mind, I developed a project question:

How might we tailor online-based meditation practices specifically to a Gen-Z audience in order to reduce their growing levels of stress?

User Interviews

I wanted to learn more about my users, so I decided to directly interview five Gen-Zers to hear their responses.

Goals and Objectives

Learn about Gen Z’s:

• Experiences with meditation

• Challenges with meditation

• Lifestyle fit with meditation

Participant Criteria

Must be born within the years 1997 - 2015

Interview Insights

Motivations

• Likes the relaxing feeling

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Pain Points

• Meditation gets boring after a while

• Would rather do something else more enjoyable (e.g. hang out with friends)

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Behaviors

• Spends 5-6 hours on their phone

• Taking a break from work feels unproductive

• Self discipline is difficult without support from friends and family

Solution

Make the mindfulness experience collaborative

• Spending time with friends

• More engaging & fun

• Helps keep accountability

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Making the mindfulness experience collaborative will allow the user to spend time with friends, creating a more fun experience and helps to create accountability.

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The task flow of this process is shown below:

Prototyping

Home Page

Version 1

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Users found it difficult to tell which lessons were unlocked for them

Wording of "The Basics" is unclear as to what action the user will be engaging in

Version 2

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Users still found it difficult to tell which lessons were unlocked for them when color were switched around

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Changed wording to "Start With The Basics"

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Layout looks too similar to Duolingo

Version 3

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Got rid of lesson locked/unlocked system and used colors to indicate mastery of lessons by levels

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Layout has been changed to avoid the Duolingo feel

Version 4

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Added bar on the side for explanation of levels system

(I later realized that colors are not the best for state changes. Ideally, I would have developed a more inclusive system that does not rely on colors and hinder colorblind users.)

Pre-Session Invite Friends Page

In-Session Invite Friends Page

Post-Session Page

Visual Identity

Wordmark Development

Marketing Site

What's Next?

• Interviewing a larger and more diverse sample size of Gen Z to better address user needs

• Considering different platforms

• Seeing which other demographics may benefit (e.g. low income individuals)