Changes to the homepage

So previously the homepage to Mindcloud looked like a start page, which confused a lot of people.  It was suggested that this should be a landing or loading page, rather than classed as "Home" in the app.

The next page in to the app was what is now the Home page.  Before, it looked like this:

Fig 1

Instead of the three counter layout I had used for every other page, I wanted to have a little illustration which summed up mindfulness.  I used the character I already had in the meditation pose and added a brain in a thinking bubble.  Not exactly breaking out the box, but I thought it was important for the introduction page to include the essential "idea" of mindfulness.  The buttons linked to the illustration in the same way that all of the text does on each screen of the app.  In hindsight, I don't know what the difference between "Learn More" and "How Can It Help Me?" was supposed to be! One lead to more information about mindfulness itself, and classes, and the other lead to pages about the brain and the effects mindfulness has on it.  Information like body benefits and classes were buried among these somewhere, and looking back it was really not the best way to present some of the important information! 

Simone was worried that the options from the homepage didn't give the users enough starting points to explore the app.  How would they get to the exercises?  How would they navigate to the subsections of the subsections from only 2 starting points?  She encouraged me to put "Exercises" on the homepage, so users who would become familiar with the app could access them quickly instead of having to go through a load of pages first.  I also thought that a "Find a class" page would be important for people who wanted to be taught mindfulness properly - there is a trend for this in the market so it is reasonable to expect that a portion of users might find this helpful.  

Fig 2

I added separate sections for mindfulness and brain, and mindfulness and body, so that they weren't lumped in together and users could digest the topics in separate places in the app.  The little bubble at the top is where the previous "Learn More" section has gone, and leads to more general information about mindfulness itself (see Figures 3, 4, 5).   I didn't feel that it fit into the main section of buttons, so put it up in the top corner instead.

Fig 3

Fig 4

Fig 5

It is hoped that this new homepage will make the start of navigation easier as it gives the user more options upon opening the app, and leads to less confusion and searching.  Making information easier to find is a factor of interaction design that facilitates flow, which is something I hope to foster as much as I can.