Jour
Providing a happy user experience, one mindful journal at a time.
Overview
The Mission
Jour is mental-health, wellness, and fitness Startup, that created a mindful journaling app for IOS mobile devices, in order to help guide users through self-therapy with daily writing habits. Although Jour’s initial launch was very successful they had a problem with their retention rate. Users were not continuing on with the app after the free trial period and they didn’t understand why.
The Business Problem
The mission, what can Jour do to increase their rate of retention for people using the app?
I collaborated with a group of UX Designers, and accepted the mission in finding the solution for Jour’s challenge.
The Solution
Redesign the Client’s initial onboarding flow so that it is more streamlined, straightforward and personable for users to arrive at the home page of the app. In addition, rearrange the premium paywall so that it is not as overwhelming to the user but yet still satisfying the business needs of increasing the retention rate.
Duration:
2 weeks sprint
My Role:
Information Architecture | Site Map | User Flows | Usability Testing
Team:
3 member team
Tools:
Sketch | Figma | Pen and Paper
Type:
Redesign navigation path and flow for the journaling app
The Research
Heuristics Evaluation
In order to understand how to solve the problem for Jour, we downloaded the app ourselves and performed a Heuristic Evaluation taking note that the app was aesthetically pleasing and somewhat easy to use. However, after further observations we noticed improvements could be made in the areas of:
freedom and control when navigating throughout the app
clear and consistent user experience similar to current mobile application standards.
Comparative / Competitive Analysis
We performed an analysis between Jour and their competitors and found that if Jour would like to get ahead of the competition, they should have the following:
a simple and organized onboarding flow
a monthly calendar feature that helps users organize their journals.
Since I was most curious about the flow and structure for the Jour app, I began to look into the information architecture of the app. After comparing the Jour app versus their main competitor Reflectly, I found that Jour’s original onboarding flow was too busy and greeted with too many question prompts and pay wall pages that could be overwhelming to users. My initial resolution, why not make Jour’s initial onboarding flow more streamlined and personable for a straightforward route to the homepage.
Onboarding IA Original
Jour’s onboarding flow is greeted with many question prompts and pay wall pages to go through before getting to the home page. They do not have an initial login onboarding screens that are easy to find.
Jour’s main competitor Reflectly’s onboarding flow also has question prompts and pay wall pages before getting to the home page. The difference, Reflectly’s initial login onboarding screen is visible upfront.
Onboarding IA Redesign
Based on the findings from the Heuristics Evaluation there was a need for consistency and standardization of Information Architecture along with user flows. The goal, to make Jour’s initial onboarding flow more streamlined and personable for a straightforward route to the homepage.
Observations & Analysis
Usability Test - Part 1
As UX Designers, we are often reminded that “we are not the users”. Therefore, to ensure that our solution to Jour’s challenge was not heavily influenced by our observations we took the app to the people by performing usability test to get an understanding of what others thought about the app.
Out of the 7 users that were interviewed, the following pain points were found during the test:
Users were unsure of where to navigate within the app.
Users were unsure of where the journals went afterward.
Onboarding was overwhelming.
The affinity map of the feedback from the usability test, that helped to identify where the pain points were.
The User
The observations and feedback from the first usability test helped tremendously as it identified the target audience to being the following:
People who valued time as a commodity
People who are on the spiritual side who enjoys journaling or would like to take up journaling as a hobby.
I assisted in gathering the data from the user tests helped in the creation of the user persona, Gabriella (Bella).
Brainstorming The Design
Our Team was a creative and structured group. So there were many ideas flowing throughout this project. In an effort for us to stick to the task at hand and not feature creep. We decided to run a design studio to help bring all our ideas and designs together so that we can come up with a solution for Jour.
Design Studio
Lo-Fidelity sketches of our ideas of the home page
More lo-fi sketches related to the organization and function of the journaling app
Site Maps
Since I was more focused on the layout and structure of the Jour app, I created site maps that laid the foundation for the redesign flow that would ensure intuitive and simple navigation
Original- The original site map had lots of content but was not very straightforward and intuitive to navigate.
Redesign- The redesign shows a more linear, intuitive and straightforward approach in navigating within the app.
The Development & Testing
Once the framework and flow of how the app would work in the redesign were in place, this is where the lo-fi and mid-fi wireframes were created for the onboarding screens that assisted in updating to hi-fi wireframes.
I, along with interaction designer worked on the connections for the prototype using the navigation maps and flows that I created as a guide.
Usability Test - Part 2
Once all the connections were made, the prototype was created. It was now time to take our redesigns to the test.
Out of the 4 users we asked for testing, usability tests were performed on the new design and flow. Based on the user feedback and data gathered the following iterations were made:
Usability tested version 1 = The “Try Premium” button in the “Make It Your Own” page was not intuitive enough for the user to realize it is a clickable button to sign up for the premium service of Jour.
Iterated version 2= The “Try Premium” button was positioned up top in line with the other settings, while the premium page was incorporated into the profile login section of the redesigned app. This made it more intuitive for users to see it was a call to action button.
Version 1 - Based on user observation and feedback, the “Try Premium” button in the “Make It Your Own” page was not intuitive enough for a call to action (CTA).
Version 2 - The resolution, incorporate the premium page into the profile login section of the redesigned app with the “Try Premium” button positioned in a spot that’s intuitive for a call to action.
Next Steps
After our 2 week sprint, our goal of delivering a more streamlined, straightforward, and personable path for Jour’s users was complete. We were able to show the Founders of Jour that a simple but effective navigation path goes a long way, as it not only makes for good user experience but also helps in satisfying the business needs of increasing user retention.
If given more time I would have loved to work with the Jour Team to incorporate some of the ideas that we were not able to implement such as:
Have quantitative and qualitative metrics of visual long patterns of mood.
Progression tracking of journal consistency.
Bridging the use of current standard emoji’s along with Jour brand emoji’s with effective therapeutic intention.
Takeaways
After working on this project I found out that the Founders of Jour actually implemented some of the ideas onto their mobile site and received positive reviews related to the changes. It was nice to see the Jour app grow and flourish knowing I had a hand in such growth.
User Reviews
“Good for simple journaling prompts…Jour has been taking feedback into account and I respect them for doing so. I am personally just a user who writes a little every day to do a daily check in with myself and step back as the workday starts. It’s good as an outlet, as well as kind of reminding myself what my larger ambitions are when I am caught up with the current moment. Jour is simple in that regard where it is better than a blank page, but not as intense as a worksheet or gamified progression system. It doesn’t put a whole lot of pressure on missing a day which is nice for when I want a break on weekends…” —5.0 out of 5 star user
“Old review: One of my favorite things about this app was it’s simplicity and I loved it took me away from my busy day for a moment. I always wanted more moods, because we as people as more complex than their selection. However, instead of updating with an expansion on the current moods, they replace it with emojis. Already the app was crashing so I wasn’t able to see it since I updated it, and I had to delete and reinstall it… Edit: I love developers who listen to their users. Thank you so much for the update and the fix. I genuinely love this app and I’m glad to have it back in my routine….” —5.0 out of 5 star user