Flow + Pattern = Zen: An Insight Timer Analysis
2 weeks into the New Year, and I’m finally staying true to last year’s resolution: to meditate every day.
They (… idk, the internet? books? voices in my head?) say to start all new endeavors slowly, so I’ve been setting the bar low for a grand total of three minutes daily.
Every day, I open up the Insight Timer app, and it goes a little something like this:
Timer Settings
Part of the reason this app is so easy to use is thanks to the familiar design patterns.
The first screen displays options as buttons with icons & labels, plus you’ll find a typical navigation bar at the bottom of the screen. The timer screen features recognizable setting design patterns with a list of categories that open up into options. This is indicated by the arrow on the right. Selecting the duration category brings you to a classic dial design pattern, where you can set the time you want to meditate.
This task flow is so seemless, I usually go through those motions and nothing else! I had honestly forgotten about its other features until prompted by Designlab to identify design patterns in a product I frequently use for a project. So, I explored the app a little further to see what else I could find!
Search
When you enter the Search screen, you are prompted by a grid of different meditation categories. But if you have a key word, phrase, or contributor you are looking for, you can type it into the search bar at the top.
It’s also common to see tabs at the top of the screen to change the location of the search. For example, if you’re looking for a sleep meditation, you probably want to stick to Top for popular meditations or Audio for something to soothe you to sleep.
I don’t know anybody named Sleep, so that may be a wasted search in the People category. But these days I pretty much talk to myself and my dog, so don’t take my word for it.
In the audio tab, you can apply further filters such as Length. Every time you apply a filter, the resulting options are presented in a list, where each result displays key tags such as Title, Contributor/Author, Category, and Duration.
Library & Featured Content
If you find something from your search that you truly enjoy, you can save it to your Library and easily revisit it whenever you like. This is a frequently used design pattern to help users personalize a product. At the bottom of the library page, Insight Timer reminds users of their recently played meditations in cards.
When the user returns home, Insight Timer has a scrolling newsfeed of featured meditations. Follows the known pattern of a large photo captioned with information, such as title and contributor, accompanied by a small profile picture of the contributor.
Maybe by the time you’re reading this, I’ll be up to 5 minutes a day. *gasp!* We’ll see. Either way, Happy New Year everyone!
