Aduri product launch

At the end of 2020, the fantastic team at Aduri reached out with a fun challenge: how might we create a companion app experience to help their users develop their mindful meditation practice with their customized Aduri cushion. In less than 3 months, I was able to help refine their product strategy and design a beta experience. This helped the team gather feedback before a debut launch as well as help the team explore more business development opportunities.

tl;dr: As the lone lead product designer, I created all the flows and screens. I worked with a 3rd party illustrator to create the illustrations used within the product.

In order to comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have not included any proprietary information or precise research data in this case study. 

The process

Ideation

Research: I conducted market research to help shape our feature set. Thankfully, the team had already began collecting user needs before I signed on so I was able to rely on well established product research.

Exploration: I deep dove into existing meditation products as well as other connected fitness products to gain a deeper understanding of the space.

Iteration

Design: I wireframed critical flows to gain feedback before improving fidelity. Afterward, I created the site map and filled in all necessary screens to launch.

Feedback: I collected feedback from multiple cross functional team members as well as outside users.

Implementation

Closed beta launch: The team ran a closed beta period to gather real user feedback over a couple of weeks which helped us identify multiple improvement opportunities.

Establish feature roadmap: I worked with the team to figure out a long term feature roadmap.

The Challenge

Meditation is easier said than done

85% of users quit their meditation practice within days of starting. While the benefits of meditation are widely known, the path that many take to get there is riddled with apps and products that make it feel more like work. The Aduri team created a revolutionary cushion and connected experience that dramatically lowered the stakes when it comes to meditation. What they didn’t yet was a digital companion experience. After conferring with the product team, the top level goal was:

Create a baseline beta experience to test with a select group before going live

Wireframing and initial design

I created and iterated on the initial wireframes which were tested relentlessly to determine which aspects held water and which would find themselves on the cutting room floor.  

The final design

The takeaways 

In under 3 months, I was able to research, wireframe, and ultimately deliver high fidelity designs to the full stack engineer who built this. We collaborated virtually to build this product iteratively. From login and signup flows, to live meditation screens, to error and edge cases, I designed over 130 screens to cover the beta experience and all its covered scenarios.

The product went into a closed beta from June to July 2021 with two dozen participants. The overwhelming majority of feedback was immensely positive, with a few small UI tweaks that I cleaned up post closed beta.

After a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign and features in leading media outlets (Cheddar TV, iHeartRadio, Architecture Digest), Aduri has sold over $32,000 in pre-orders (300 units) so far and has over $150K of orders in the pipeline.