TEAM MEMBERS: Marybeth Daigle, Jessica D’Amico, Lori Dyer, Amber Spencer
PROJECT OVERVIEW: We had three weeks to choose a cause, execute a high-fidelity clickable prototype, and code one to three responsive webpages through FE development.
PROBLEM: Users curious about alternative healing and personal wellness need a safe place to diagnose their health and explore a variety of healing spiritual practices without criticism or skepticism. Many don’t know where to begin or where to find trusted resources.
SOLUTION: Soulvana is an app that recognizes the imbalances in a user’s energy and translates that data into a visual interpretation of a user’s energetic map. Aura photography is a visual experiment and controversial. It has been around since the 70’s with the invention of the Kirlian Camera which detected electrical input by touching plates and then producing an image using color to interpret those readings. While phone cameras are limited and can’t currently detect electromagnetic waves, phones CAN provide a baseline of your health with biofeedback such as your heart rate, respiration, muscle activity and temperature. That data is already utilized by other health apps, and it’s not unrealistic that the data could be visually interpreted and represented in the form of an aura. Aura photography is also a popular spiritual trend.
With Soulvana, users receive a visual interpretation of the their aura and then are provided with a variety of personalized recommended treatments and practices that work to improve mental health, overall wellness, and spiritual healing. They can learn about and choose from a variety of suggestions which include guided meditations, positive affirmations, tarot readings, and crystal starter packs. Users do not have to have any previous experience with alternative healing to get started. Soulvana makes it very easy and provides expert guidance and recommendations created for both the curious novice and the advanced practitioner.
Visual Interpretation Aura Readings
Personalized Spiritual Practice Recommendations and Treatments
Guided Instruction Videos/Blogs/Podcasts
Beginner Boxes or Monthly Subscription Boxes
Path to Improve Mental Health, Overall Wellness, and Spiritual Healing
Safe Community to Explore Alternative Rituals
OUTCOMES: Users have the ability to explore a variety of spiritual practices in a judgement free space. With guidance from the Soulvana app, users gain education, community, enlightenment, a broader world view, and a deeper level of self awareness and understanding leading to overall wellbeing.
The beginning of this project began with the group pitching ideas. What could people really use right now? What frustrates users? What would benefit users? A few ideas ranged from mentorship, paying it forward, cultural preservation, to addiction recovery… and then…
A conversation about faith and spiritual practices sparked an idea. How might we design an app that encompassed a variety of beliefs by offering education and community with respect, open mindedness, and guidance?
We began our research with a survey and then interviews.
SURVEY QUESTIONS:
How spiritual would you consider yourself to be right now?
Which of the options below best describe you (choose as many as you wish)
3. Are you interested in becoming more spiritual or furthering your spiritual journey?
4. Why do you think people turn to spirituality? Choose as many options as you like.
5. Which of the following spiritual practices might you be interested in learning a bit more about?
6. What goals might you like to achieve with your spirituality? Select as many as you like.
7. How might you potentially like to learn more about spirituality? Select as many options as you like.
8. What might stop you from investigating your spirituality further? Select as many options as you like.
9. In the future, how would you like to be, spiritually?
SURVEY SAYS:
Of the 90 people who took our survey:
Spiritual Practices People Are Interested In
69.9% meditation
43.8% yoga
28.8 Crystals
21.9 Chakras
32.9 Tarot
Why Do People Turn to Spirituality
58% to improve mental health
32.2% have broader world view
27.6% Feel enlightenment
How WouldYou Like to Receive Information Over Spirituality
Over 69% read articles or books
31% read blogs
32% videos
32% in person
In the future, where would you like your status to be with your spirituality?
56% interested in expanding spirituality.
23.3% would like to strengthen current practice.
10.5% would like to be significantly more spiritual.
22.1% would like to learn more about other practices.
What prevents people from taking spiritual journey further?
27.8% said they did not have the money
48.1% said they did not have the time
26.6% said they did not know where to start
27.8% said they were self conscious
32.9% were suspicious
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Do you believe in God or a Higher Power? Tell me about your current beliefs. Have they changed over time?
Do you consider yourself spiritual? What is spirituality to you? What inspires you spiritually?
Are you satisfied with your current state of spirituality? Would you like to expand it?
Do you combine spiritual practices, inspirations, techniques currently? Example: Catholic mass and Buddhist meditation
Are you interested in knowing more about alternative spirituality, for example ancient spiritual wisdom, meditation, activating your psychic abilities, chakras, etc..? Anything specifically?
Do you feel overwhelmed by the books, methods, religions, practices, information out there?
Do you have friends you reach out to speak about spirituality? Do you wish you did?
What resources do you currently use to nurture your spirituality, peace of mind, intuition?
Would you like more resources to expand your consciousness, have more peace of mind, and find a better understanding of the greater reality we exist within?
Do you currently have a spiritual practice? A schedule? What time of day, where, etc?
Before designing anything, we needed to understand user motivations, so we started with our user interviews. We wanted to know what motivates our users and how we might be able to solve any frustrations they had. Our interviews included people devout to their faith who were curious about other spiritual practices but were concerned that they would be criticized for looking into unconventional practices to skeptics wary of religion. Some weren’t quite sure what they believed but were open to possibilities, and some liked the idea of blending spiritual practices with the understanding they didn’t have all of the answers.
We found golden nuggets of wisdom in these interviews and pulled them as our key takeaways. Spirituality and faith can be confronting for some, even illogical. The majority felt that spiritual practice increased their mental well-being, brought unity and belonging, and a deeper understanding of themselves.
