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KLAR is a self-care app that provides mindfulness and sleep contents. Here is a case study on the ideation to launch process.
2019 - 2020
As the sole Product Designer, I oversaw the product, brand, and content strategy. This was a new business initiative where I drove concept to launch in just three months. We were selected as Apple App Store’s “App of the Day” three times with 4.9/5.0 review ratings from users.
Product Design
Prototyping
Branding
Sketch
Protopie
Zeplin
In order to tackle the problem of mental health issues in Korea, we decided to target office workers in their 20~30s that experience daily stress and sleep deficiency.
Design a self-care mobile app specifically for young office workers, empowering them to take care of their mental health with ease and accessibility, even amidst their demanding lifestyles.
After interviewing several participants that fit our target group, we integrated our learnings into a single persona. Our persona is a young, hard-working millennial who struggles to achieve work-life balance.
"The boundaries between my work and life are blurred."
32
PM at a design agency
Career
Working overtime and late at night
Constant stress from work
Thoughts about work even at home
Difficulty sleeping and always tired
Wants some way to relax before bed
Personal development
Yoga, pilates, cooking
Apple, Balmuda, Whole Foods
Average
The user journey map shows that our persona spends most of her day working and has very little personal time. She often feels drained and burnt out. We would need a solution that is simple and convenient to fit into such a journey.
We decided to introduce the concept of mindfulness and self-care through a mobile app so that office workers can take care of their mental health in their everyday lives without the need to visit mental health institutions.
Alleviates stress, depression, anxiety
Improves insomnia and sleep quality
Strengthens emotional control and focus
Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and aware in the moment, without judgment. It is scientifically supported as a practice with numerous benefits. Research shows it can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression while improving focus, emotional regulation, and overall mental health.
We identified potential competitors and grouped them into categories to analyze patterns and trends. Through mapping and analysis, we observed that while mindfulness apps are widely popular internationally, the concept was relatively new in Korea, with only a few local competitors offering similar apps.
In particular, most local competitor apps leaned heavily into feminine, sentimental, and nature-inspired imagery. Recognizing this trend, we identified a gap in the market and focused on positioning the app as gender-neutral, modern, and scientific to stand out and appeal to a broader audience.
We collaborated with an external design agency to create a brand communication book. The logo, colors, typography, and imagery were defined, and the branding was transferred to create the foundations of KLAR's design system.
For Young Millenials
KLAR enables you to be more present in the moment.
Physical & Mental Health
KLAR empowers you to cultivate kindness and compassion.
Achieving Balance
KLARÂ helps you optimize your potential and actively pursue a balanced life.
I began by sketching wireframes to map out the user flow and key functionalities of the app. Initially, I proposed 4-5 menu tabs in the navigation bar, including Home, Meditation, Sleep, Social, and Profile. However, after discussing with cross-functional stakeholders and considering the focus on testing a Proof of Concept (POC), we streamlined the design to launch with three core tabs: Meditation, Sleep, and Profile.
Meditation in Korea is often seen as outdated and tied to Buddhism, making it less appealing to younger generations. The project aimed to rebrand mindfulness as modern and engaging, emphasizing its scientific backing and numerous benefits to introduce this relatively new concept to the Korean audience.
A major focus of the project was to brand the app to be modern and trendy for younger generations to use. We used vivid colors, patterns, illustrations, and imagery to appeal to young millennials.
We wanted to emphasize the efficacy of the app and that there was many scientific research behind mindfulness. We added a section introducing articles related to mindfulness.
Course cards use "Humaaans" illustrations by Pablo Stanley.
We simplified the user flow starting from the Onboarding to Course Contents, making sure the main call-to-action button was easy to notice. We also added ASMR background sounds to the meditation to make it more comfortable for new users.
The home screen is structured to highlight the contents in each section through the use of cards.
Courses have sessions with a short introductory guide. Users can choose the voice and duration.
Users can add ASMR background sounds while playing the meditation contents.
The global navigation has 3 tabs, which highlight the core features of the app - Meditation, Sleep, and Profile. The Meditation tab offers different mindfulness courses, whereas the Sleep tab features meditation for sleep and ASMR contents. The Profile tab displays a calendar track record of what kind of contents have been played.
In addition to the audio contents, we provided questionnaires to help users check their mental state, including stress, insomnia, depression, anxiety, anger, and ADHD.
We launched the app in just three months and achieved organic growth without any marketing. It was featured as Apple’s “App of the Day” three times. However, the most rewarding part was the heartfelt user reviews thanking us for creating the app.
Apple App Store
Health & Fitness
#9
App Store Reviews
160 Reviews
1st Week Retention
30.4%
120K Downloads
Sessions Completed
74.5K
6 months
