#UX Writing #Productcritique
This is I have a keen interest in exploring and practising meditations and therefore I would like to talk about Aumhum, the app that not only introduced me to meditations masters but also helped me form a habit of meditating daily.
In spite of my keenness in exploring meditations, I found the entire space of meditation apps to be either content-heavy or lacking the necessary depth and handholding. I tried meditation apps such as Calm, Headspace and many more. What I found was that these first-generation meditation apps were either getting really boring and repetitive or I could graduate out of them really soon. There was no hand-holding and no inspiration to make it part of daily life. This is when I discovered Aumhum. Here I was offered simple meditations plans driven by meditation mentors. I started with some easy wins and then the app started to offer chat-sessions with the teachers. There was a hand-holding built into the app.
As a UX designer, I am a product thinker. In spite of loving the space of meditations, I always had my product hat to evaluate the apps. I found Aumhum to be really empathetic to the user with its minimalist design approach, relatable colour scheme and also the default choices. An uninitiated user that I was, I had to make hardly any choices but was still offered content and plan catering to my persona. I was completely won over after repeated aha-moments that I had with subsequent usage. Also, the app intelligently sends me just the right number of notifications. I have found other apps to be inundating us with so many unnecessary call-to-action notifications.
Talking of the onboarding experience, there are quite a number of selections to be made, but then at every step, the app already knows what one would select and pre-select those options. The ability to not make decisions at every st
ep, but knowing that the app is like a buddy doing that for you, is a privilege that I have with Aumhum.
Aumhum has come really handy for me in the times of COVID-19. While I am aware of what is going on outside, from inside, I am keeping myself fit and healthy using Aumhum in these tough times. I have direct access to meditation masters who are monitoring my daily progress. I must say that I have become a better manager of my time and priorities thanks to meditations, which became a habit due to the human-touch that Aumhum provides.
A year before I discovered Aumhum, twice I planned a visit to meditation retreats. I could not go as the retreat required to travel and stay for an e
xtended period in an ashram which was not possible for me at that time. Also, retreat required a significant budget. With Aumhum, I could connect to different meditation masters who make my every day a retreat, right here in my daily life. I have been a user for 6 months now. The app was a fledgeling limited-functionality app when I started using it for the first time. Now it has become way more refined. I think the vision of its creators is in the right direction.
Meditations are not new and have existed for thousands of years, meditation apps are new. Previously, only the motivated monks or seekers found a master or a guru to learn the same. Now, when the work has become so sedentary and mind-driven, meditations and self-care have become a daily need for everyone. I am really thankful to Aumhum for being the bridge to meditation masters, meditation practices and the change I could bring to my long-form habits.
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