Mindful moments for Teachers

Challenges & Goals

Teachers are among the busiest professionals, often juggling lesson plans, student needs, and administrative tasks. Yet, they also need regular mental breaks and an organized way to track their responsibilities. This showcases a web app specifically designed for teachers that balances quick access, visual ease, and minimal engagement, allowing teachers to recharge without feeling tethered to their screens.

Competition

Headspace:

  • Strengths: Brand recognition in mindfulness.

  • Weaknesses: Complexity and subscription management issues that detract from user experience.

  • Opportunity for Inbalance: By offering a more intuitive, streamlined user experience and easy subscription management, Inbalance can address the usability gaps in Headspace.

Empifany:

  • Strengths: Backed by professionals, credible, and encourages user engagement through daily logging.

  • Weaknesses: Lengthy session times in the freemium version, which doesn’t cater well to users with limited time.

  • Opportunity for Inbalance: Providing shorter, effective mental health sessions could attract users seeking quick, impactful support. Personalization through AI, especially for teachers, can further differentiate Inbalance as more user-focused.

Positioning advantage

General Competitive Edge for Inbalance:

  • Inbalance can position itself as an app offering robust mental health support with time-efficient, highly personalized tools for busy professionals like teachers. By combining these elements, it addresses specific audience needs better than Headspace or Empifany.

Personas and pain points

"I wonder why it's so hard to get a proper overview of my schedule."

- Initial frustration with the lack of a clear schedule overview.

- Time-consuming process of reading and learning about each app.

ELANA

“I wonder if there is a type of check-list i should look for or how to make a reflection, I don't know whats the best for me”

- Starting to doubt weather she is overthinking her work and to-do lists

CARLOTTA

Problem Statement

Teachers and kindergarten teachers often face significant stress due to the high demands of their profession. Managing mental health, coordinating schedules, and keeping track of holidays can be particularly challenging. To alleviate these pressures, there is a need for an integrated solution that provides tools for teachers to manage their daily stress

Approach

Through research and discussions with educators, I discovered that even small, thoughtful interventions could make a significant impact. For instance, something as simple as providing a clear, personalized daily schedule or suggesting a brief meditation break could help teachers feel more in control and less overwhelmed. This insight reshaped my approach: I realized that addressing mental health didn’t require grand, complicated tools—sometimes, it’s about simplifying and focusing on essentials.

Define: Synthesizing this information, I narrowed the problem to focus on providing small, actionable solutions that could have a significant impact, such as personalized daily planning and stress-relief prompts.

Discover: I immersed myself in the world of educators, gathering insights through interviews, surveys, and observational research. I identified key pain points—stress from managing time and a lack of quick, accessible mental health tools.

Deliver: I refined and developed a user-friendly app that helps teachers plan their day while incorporating stress-relief breaks, promoting mental well-being in manageable steps.

Develop: I explored various ideas and features, starting broad. I tested prototypes with users to find the simplest, most effective tools they could easily integrate into their routines. This iterative process revealed that the calendar feature, paired with stress-relief prompts, resonated most with users.

Usability Tests Results

During usability testing, I encountered significant criticism and a lack of understanding regarding the "reflect and achievement" feature. This feedback represented a challenging “kill your darlings” moment, leading me to streamline the app's features to focus on what was most essential.

Positive

Negative

Observation

Through usability testing, I identified distinct differences between the daily routines of elementary school teachers and kindergarten educators, helping refine my target audience. Although the app could serve both, I chose to focus primarily on elementary teachers’ needs for a more tailored experience.

  • Refinements Based on Feedback: To simplify usability, the “achievement” feature was removed, and the app now includes a single-click reflection option, allowing teachers to quickly log their mood each day.

  • Positive Insights: Teachers appreciated the intuitive mood tracking and calming color scheme, making daily use feel natural and supportive of well-being.

  • Challenges: Some users experienced navigation challenges, with occasional issues around button placement and responsiveness affecting ease of use.

These adjustments support a streamlined, accessible tool that fits easily into teachers' busy schedules, emphasizing mental well-being without overwhelming them.

Final Results

How I Solved the Problem

  • Daily Check-In: A simple, mandatory daily check-in provides quick access to an overview of the day, while recorded check-ins allow users to analyze their moods over time to monitor well-being.

  • Comprehensive Calendar Overview: A streamlined calendar integrates the teacher’s schedule with external calendars, showing a clear summary of the day. Break reminders prompt users to recharge, encouraging mindful use of breaks between classes.

  • Quick Break Options: Access to three mini-features—Read, Walk, or Meditate—allows teachers to take brief breaks tailored to their schedules. Options for 2, 5, or 10 minutes fit seamlessly into busy routines, offering accessible stress-relief tools.

Roles

UX/UI
Research
Concept

Tools

Figma / Figjam
Illustrator
Lyssna
Google Form

Method

Design Thinking Process