Meditation Journal

Creating a mindfulness journal app for young professionals: an end-to-end mobile experience.

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Timeframe

31 Days

Project Type

iOS Mobile App, Health & Wellness

Role

Sole Designer, Research, UI/UX Design, Branding, Prototyping, Testing

Overview

Context

As someone passionate about self-growth, I’ve always turned to meditation and journaling—but staying consistent was hard. On the days I needed mindfulness most, I often felt too overwhelmed to engage with it. That made me wonder: if I struggle to stay consistent, how many others do too? This inspired me to create a tool that helps people stay present, track emotions, and turn mindfulness into a rewarding habit rather than a chore.

Problem Statement

If I struggle to stay consistent with mindfulness, how many others do too?

Many young professionals struggle to maintain a consistent routine when meditation, journaling, and emotional reflection are scattered across apps or hidden behind paywalls. Without a single, accessible space to reflect and recharge, users lose motivation. Fragmented stats and limited emotional insight make progress feel disconnected, making it even harder to stick with the practice long-term.

Solution

To bridge this gap, I designed a mobile app that integrates meditation, mood tracking, and journaling into one cohesive, calming experience. Built for young professionals who care about self-care but juggle busy schedules, the app offers guided and self-guided meditations, quick mood logs, streaks, and space for voice notes or journal entries. The goal is to help users slow down, reconnect with themselves, and build a more mindful daily routine in a way that feels approachable, personal, and genuinely helpful.

User Interviews

Conversations that Guided Me

Number of Participants

8 Interviewees

Methodology

1:1 interviews conducted on Microsoft Teams

Demographics

Young professionals ages 21-30

Goal

Understand how real people relate to mindfulness—and what’s stopping them from sticking with it.

Key Data & Findings

88%

of the interviewees value mindfulness, mental wellness, and self-care.

Most users practice different techniques like exercising, skin care, and listening to music to relax.

88%

of participants unwind through physical activity or some use mindfulness techniques like yoga or journaling,

Physical exercise and journaling were the top commonalities amongst users when managing stress & anxiety.

88%

understand the benefits of engaging in either self directed or guided mediations and journaling.

While most of of the interviees do not consistently meditate, most understand the benefits and prefer both self directed & guided.

Key Pain Points & Challenges

88%

of the interviewees struggled with consistency when engaging in the practices.

Struggling with a consistent practice was majority of user's issues with meditation.

75%

stated that they don't regularly engage in meditation and journaling because they don't have enough time in their day.

The reason why it is hard to stay consistent for users is because they are busy with other aspects of their lives, like work and family.

50%

get frustrated with current apps on the market that gatekeep majority of their features with paywalls.

Other apps like Headspace and Calm make you pay for majority of the features.

Competitive Analysis

Whose Already Out There?

Headspace

Calm

How We Feel

Insight Timer

In researching existing apps, I noticed each serves a specific niche: Headspace focuses on meditation, Calm on sleep, How We Feel on emotion tracking, and Insight Timer on self-guided meditation and community. No single app combines guided and self-guided meditation, emotion tracking, and journaling in a cohesive way. While Insight Timer attempts this, user feedback shows it can feel cluttered. This revealed an opportunity to design a streamlined app that brings these key features together in a more organized, approachable experience.

See Full Competitive Matrix

Affinity Map

Organizing my Findings

100%

have a coping mechanism go-to when managing stress and anxiety.

100%

hope to achieve a clearer mind and sense of calmness.

88%

do not currently have a source or a way to track progress of their wellness journey.

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User Persona

An Educated, Introspective Individual

I crafted a persona from my research that represents the ideal user for the problem I’m addressing. The interviews revealed that this user deeply values their mental health but struggles to prioritize it due to a busy lifestyle. I also formulated a POV and HMW statement based on this persona.

Feature Set

Prioritizing Based on User Needs

I based my prioritization on the insights gathered from user interviews, competitive analysis, affinity map and user persona. I found that the user values both guided and self-guided meditation, as well as tracking their mental health. However, they struggle to maintain consistency—especially when key features are hidden behind paywalls. My goal was to prioritize features that support routine and save time, while including what matters most to the user and limiting paid barriers.

Must Haves

Journal integration
Smooth onboarding
Guided meditations
Meditation timer
Mood tracking
Daily reminders
Streaks
Profile creation
Privacy
Sleep tools

Paid Features

Voice notes
Affirmations recordings

Can Come Later

Intention setting
Wearable integration
Health app integration
Breath work exercises
Gamified achievements & awards
Physical journal sync

Sitemap

Structuring for User Priorities

By focusing on information architecture and prioritizing the features users care about most, I was able to determine what belonged on the homepage. This is an early idea showing how I envisioned the app’s layout and structure.

Screenshot 2025-04-20 at 7.48_edited.jpg

User Flows

Mapping the Experience

Onboarding

Since interviewees mentioned that lack of time is a major pain point, I designed an onboarding experience with just a few quick steps. The objective was to keep it simple while still creating a personalized experience that helps users get closer to their goals.

Starting a Meditation Session

Users can choose meditations based on attributes like situation, time of day, and duration. After each session, they’re given the option to journal about their experience and log their mood to encourage reflection.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Early Sketches of my Design

Touchpoints

"Today" tab

Acts like a homepage, and includes quick shortcuts such as starting a mediation and logging emotions.

"Meditation" tab

Here, you can browse meditations by category or search.

Browsing Meditations

Easy access list of the library of meditations.

Meditation Player

Start and stop the session, finish session & bookmark to save for later if needed.

Reflection

User can write to reflect and log how they feel after the session.

Reward System

Updates the user on their streak to motivate them to keep going.

Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

Switching to Digital

Touchpoints

Including easy 'Sign up with" options for a quick account creation.

Onboarding questions for a more personalized experience.

After account creation, a personalized homepage is the first screen the user sees.

Quickly find a meditation through search or categories.

Array layout of a variety of meditations when selecting a category.

View meditation description, option to save for later.

Meditation player to show length progress, able to skip ahead or rewind and 'like' the mediation.

Reflect on the meditation, ability to record voice notes and add pictures.

Log mood from a variety of emotions and save the session.

User Testing

Testing the Mid-Fidelity Flows

I aimed to test how well the mid-fidelity wireframes supported core tasks like onboarding and starting/finishing a meditation session.