UX Research & Design

Building the next generation of well-being technology

Role: Lead UX Researcher

Company: Healthy Minds Innovations

There is a great deal of scientific evidence indicating that meditation practice can be significantly beneficial for the brain and overall well-being. However, even though the market for mindfulness products is rapidly growing, many people, for a variety of reasons, do not engage with mindfulness programs, let alone on a digital platform. So how might we create new well-being products that engage as many people as possible, yield maximum efficacy, and have minimal barriers to engagement? I led an extensive UX research program to help tackle this problem.

Mobile games and teens’ well-being

Role: Lead UX Researcher

Company: Healthy Minds Innovations

Healthy Minds Innovations developed a series of mobile games to serve as measures for researching teen well-being as well as to act as a means for young people to reflect on and further their well-being. I embarked on an extensive usability study to optimize the user experience of the games and examine their efficacy as well-being exercises. Working under tight deadlines and logistical challenges of working with people under 18, our study produced fascinating findings that played a critical role in the games’ user experience.

Scaling well-being in the workplace

Role: UX Researcher

Company: Healthy Minds Innovations

Companies across the global economy increasingly recognize that cultivating well-being in the workplace is critical to employee productivity, overall health of the individual, and the optimal functioning of an organization as a whole. Building upon decades of scientific research, Healthy Minds Innovations developed a set of professional development tools, called Healthy Minds @ Work, to measure and increase well-being in the workplace. 

To meet the demands of an evolving workplace economy, my research team and I were tasked with conducting an in-depth qualitative research study toward building a new version of the Healthy Minds @ Work program. After a thorough assessment of the existing product, my team and I collaborated with our UX director and product manager to conduct extensive concept testing and user interviews to uncover significant insights to inform the new version of the program. Our study’s findings made a major contribution to the design of an entirely new approach to measuring and actualizing workplace well-being. This innovative set of tools is versatile by design, accommodating employees of a wide range of backgrounds and organizations of any size.

Once the product was developed, my team and I executed an alpha test of the new program, which subsequently underwent iterations based on our findings. Then my team and I created a research plan for a live beta test. This plan incorporated usability testing, user interviews, and user surveys, to cover a complex range of employee and organization types. In addition, the study included scientific measures to collect data toward the publication of academic research.

Liberating Structures: Making meetings more productive

Who hasn’t been in an unproductive meeting? Liberating structures is a powerful set of facilitation tools that help make group interactions more fun and constructive. Yet the Liberating Structures mobile app, before my team redesigned it, merely served as a reference guide for facilitators.

My team and I embarked on a fascinating adventure to research and design a revamp of the Liberating Structures mobile app. Drawing upon our research synthesis, we designed a range of additional features to help with facilitation of “structures” as well as the planning and scheduling of meeting sessions. We validated and iterated our designs through usability testing and focus groups. Take a look at the case study to learn more about the project.

ICEBERG: An experiment in human connection

What if there was a remote communication platform that made it easy to exercise the joy of human connection without the overwhelming media bombardment experienced on conventional social apps?

My team’s research pointed to some major pain points that exist for users in the market of existing communication apps despite the existence of myriad product options. Working with the founder of ICEBERG, my team of three executed user research and designed some of the core features and user interface of this up and coming product.