her zen
A mental health wellness platform for Asian women that supports and guides their habitual mental self-care through recommended content personalized to their emotional and lifestyle needs
UX/UI
Branding
Product Design
About
Her zen is a mobile-first mental health wellness platform for Asian women in their 20s-30s, that supports and guides their habitual mental self-care. Based on their emotional and lifestyle needs at the time, her zen will recommend content and structure that is suitable for each individual user to guide them towards their goals.
It is a space for women to go to regularly when they need a pick-me-up in between therapy visits, when they don’t want to feel like a burden to friends, or when they want a coach to help them develop healthy mental habits. It also provides relevant resources like guides and community stories for additional support.
In an oversaturated market of mental health care content, her zen does the curation and personalization for you.
The Problem
Asian women are feeling conflicted and unsupported when it comes to caring for their mental health. They want more community to face struggles, but end up dealing with issues alone; they wish to feel empowered, as they currently feel lost. Additionally, due to cultural barriers, there is a lack of sufficient knowledge, language, space, and community support for Asian women to engage in.
From my research, I discovered they have strong intention and motivation for mental growth, but needed something to bridge the gap between their intent and achieving their emotional goals. They also felt a sense of overwhelm to the amount of mental health content available on social media and other platforms, not knowing what was most suitable for their situation.
My Solution
her zen is a platform that I owned from start to finish. My research revealed that an effective solution would have to involve creating a go-to safe space, provide resources for building emotional language, have compatibility with existing day-to-day routines. Based on this and through competitive analysis, I created a platform that would provide a framework of a therapeutic approach to work through their emotional struggles, by curating a list of recommended exercises, podcast episodes and reflective journal prompts. The intent is for users to use this as a foundation and later as a frame of reference as they grow on this journey and find other supplementary resources.
The constraints of this project were to design only 1-2 user flows and screens within 2 months.
Affinity Map & Persona
UX/UI
The user persona was used to prioritize which features were necessary and served as guidance to determine my product goals. What do I want the user to walk away with thinking and feeling after using this platform?
I decided the product had to:
Provide a therapeutic framework that sets the tone and direction of their mental health self-care journey
Increase their awareness of their individual emotional needs and self
Focus on bridging the gap between intention and outcome rather than becoming “healed”
Site Map & Task Flows
Given the constraints of this project, I chose to build out 2 task flows: select their preferences choices for their user profile; and to select and complete an exercise from the recommended ritual list. I chose to keep it simple and utilize elements to keep the user on the designated learning path.
This second version of my mid-fidelity prototype shows the key screens for the two flows.
At this stage, I was focused on choosing which features and elements were the most essential, constantly referring back to my user persona and site map. The interaction had to be intentional and easy.
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Branding
Colors & Fonts
Wireframes
Product Design
Gentle Guidance
Her zen’s interface encourages personal discovery while giving users just enough support to feel competent and empowered.
The homepage serves as a preview of the platform and a reference to the user’s unique learning path. The profile and ritual preference options were selected based on interview research, reflecting issues Asian women frequently face. From there, the user will find a recommended list of exercises and content based on their selected preferences in “Ritual”, which updates as frequently as they choose.
The guiding principle of my design strategy was to increase users’ self-efficacy, giving them the tools to develop their knowledge so their confidence regarding self-care grows.
To satisfy the product goals, the content needed to be personalized to their specific emotional needs, the user had to be recommended exercises to gain the necessary knowledge and stay on a learning path, and a safe space to encourage their processing and reflections.
The sitemap shows her zen’s navigation and taxonomy, highlighting the pillars of her zen to be functional and unique. I categorized the functions based on results from card sorting, and how a therapeutic framework would translate onto a mobile platform.
Learning Path
Since the frequency of updates is up to the user to decide, the set of exercises presented each time would be divided up as learning modules. It was important to define the learning objectives of the module, to give the user a clear idea of its purpose and to locate where they are on the learning path.
To keep the user on the designated learning path, the exercises are chosen for them, but they can choose which one to complete in their order to retain autonomy.
In addition to the exercises, I wanted to provide a more open and passive learning alternative method and chose to include podcast episodes related to the learning module for passive consumption.
Her zen shows their progress of what’s been played or in the process being completed for users to feel competent and in control of their learning journey. Additionally, the in-app “Ritual Journal” serves as a space to encourage metacognitive thinking and digestion of the content.
The Design
After completing my user interviews, I categorized their answers into themes using an affinity map for user persona characteristics, product framework, and features.
My user persona was defined as “The Learner”. A woman who:
wants advice and support in the midst of a struggle
wants to learn more about her emotional needs to make finding suitable support easier
repeats old responses and patterns that are self-sabotaging
isn’t feeling confident or competent about which tools to use during mental spirals or a difficult time
Balance • Embrace • Nurture • Reliable
I believed this platform should encompass the aforementioned values, which informed my selection of the colors, fonts, and name.
I wanted the branding to highlight the balance women are striving to find in their lives, the natural feminine and nurturing side of women should be focused more internally than purely externally, and gently embracing the ups and downs of a mental health journey. I intended for the visuals to reflect a sense of comfort and calm for the users whenever they used the platform.
Focus on User Success
Users can select up to 2 options for their focus and goals, so that they are not overwhelmed by the variety of content and can concentrate on one (or two) thing(s) at a time. With a smaller scope of content and more repetition in exercises, the user’s perceived competence in exercising self-care should be higher.
The ritual preferences reflect factors that support or deter them from keeping a self-care ritual - finding the coaching style they respond to best, what part of their day they would fit it into, whether routine or novelty motivated them more, and how it complements existing care.
Usability Testing
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Usability Testing •
Before
Test Results
5 users were recruited to test the 2 flows via Zoom
Preference Selection
There was a 100% completion rate of under 2 mins, with an average of 2 errors
Their satisfaction levels with options available was 3.5/5
Select / Complete an Exercise
There was a 100% completion rate of under 4 mins (without full content), with an average of 1 error
The satisfaction levels with exercise options and design was 3.8/5
The overall experience of her zen satisfaction levels was 3.8/5
Feature Standouts
Simplicity and clarity of visual design
“I like how simple and not cluttered it was.”
“It’s well designed and calming, quite easy to read, everything looks clear.”
Variety in types of exercises and content
“I would want different ways to engage, like listen and write, and this lets me do that.”
“I really like the option of podcasts because naturally I like to listen more than read.”
“I liked having access to resources other than what’s in your ritual to give you the option to keep improving and learning.”
After
Seamless integration into current life routine
“This is great, I don’t feel too overwhelmed. These are things I can add into my commute or read before bed.”
“I don’t want the app to add stress onto me, and this is really simple and straightforward and easy to add onto what I already do or like to do.”
Iterations
This frequency-to-severity map assisted in my selection of which changes to make for the final iteration of my prototype. I categorized more severe feedback as ones that would affect functionality and experience the most, while less severe feedback didn’t break functionality and were small details that would make the experience from good to great. Due to time constraints, the edits I made are what is highlighted above.
Testers found the existing titles weren’t clear and asked questions about how the overall framework of exercises worked. While most felt the checklist format gave them order and a sense of accomplishment, it made two testers feel overwhelmed and confused about whether it meant they had to be done in order, and gave yet another “to-do” checklist to complete.
Therefore, I adjusted titles and added subtitles to clarify the purpose and framework of the learning path. I also changed the checklist format to a progress play bar to inform the user about both completion and progress if they want to go back and finish one.
Colors
“I love the colors that you’ve chosen.”
“I liked the colors a lot, they were very calming.”
Before
After
When testers viewed the exercises, 4 out of 5 shared they wanted a space to write their answers to the reflective questions within the page, so everything could be completed in one place. An option for voice dictation was added for accessibility and to cater to different preferences of reflective practices. Lastly, using the same visual layout for both “Mindful Activity” (moving image + audio), and “Guided Reading” (still image + audio) caused users to feel unsure about what to expect and slightly overstimulated. As a result, I created two different layouts for each type of exercise that helped the user focus on the right aspects.
Next Steps
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Next Steps •
This project proved that a platform like her zen is needed and has the potential to be an early intervention for Asian women who are ready to care for themselves regularly and seek structured support that is nurturing and trustworthy. Based on user feedback and personal reflection, these are some recommendations and future steps that could help guide the development of her zen:
Further research on learning behavior
Some of the suggestions that were given during testing would require more research to determine the severity of need for adjustments, and more insight into our users’ learning behavior. I’d like to research what prime duration and types of exercises would lead to the highest engagement and viewing rate. Secondly, is the visual of a plant growing for progress, and the play bar sufficient for motivation? It would be very useful to know whether users prefer a check on their participation rate or position on their learning path. Lastly, more testing to confirm whether users prefer an automated selection and order of exercises, or as it is now, where users can pick which exercises they want to do from the list.
Content expert to support content development
The main differentiating factor from competitors would be the content made specifically for Asian women, addressing the cultural nuances that general wellness platforms may not address in as much depth. Some struggles require a different language, perspective, and tone to make the user feel truly seen and understood, which would highly affect engagement. Future development of her zen would require the support of an expert in Asian women’s mental health to guide the content development and strategy.
On the right path
I received a very warm response from my test users that made me feel very encouraged and proud of this project. When I showed them the final iteration after making edits from their feedback, they noticed the changes I made and were happy to see how I listened and interpreted them correctly. It tells me that this product is on the right path of development, and with additional content, testing, and iterations, it can significantly support the Asian women's community.
