UX Research: Mental Health Apps Benchmark for OMNIA

Before starting the design of OMNIAI was clear that I needed to understand the current market in mental welfare apps. My goal was not to replicate what already exists, but to detect the gaps, understand what works, what does not, and above all, what users really need.

This Benchmark allowed me explore in depth the user experiences offering platforms such as Headspace, Fabulous, Wysa and Youper, and collect key learning to build your own approach. OMNIA does not want to be another app of meditation or a robotic coach: it is born as an emotional, realistic and empathic space.

Objectives of competitive UX analysis

In this first analysis, I sought to mark a clear basis for the development of OMNIA. Beyond observing, I was interested in identifying trends, patterns of behaviour and, above all, identifying what can be improved.

These were the key objectives that guided my research:

• Detect common patterns in onboarding, navigation, tone and motivation in mental health apps.
• Identify friction and opportunities: saturated screens, lack of customization, overfunctions blocked.
• Understand what users really value: accessibility, sense of advancement, emotional connection, clarity.
• Avoid common errors as cold approaches, excessive automation or lack of authenticity in interaction.

Detailed analysis by thematic blocks

To understand the current digital context of emotional well-being, I performed a deep comparative analysis of four key apps: Headspace, Fabulous, Wysa and Youper. This benchmark not only allowed me to explore how other platforms address the user experience in mental health, but also identify real opportunities to build OMNIA with a different and significant proposal.

The analysis is structured in nine thematic blockseach focused on a specific aspect of the UX design. This division allowed me to assess in an orderly and comparative way the elements most relevant to the design of the MVP, and to draw lessons that I am already applying in the conception of OMNIA.

Then develop each of these blocks. In each section I explain what I've analyzed, what patterns I've detected and, above all, what key decisions or ideas I take to design a different, emotionally closer and accessible experience.

Purpose and Main Approach

In this case I focused on seeing what the main objective of each app, emotional approach (if cold, empathic, motivational...) and its differential value. Understanding how each proposal is positioned is essential to define how I want OMNIA to be perceived. The purpose acts as cross-axiswhich directly impacts on the tone, content and emotional relationship with the user.

App	Main objective	Emotional approach	Differential value
Headspace	Provide tools for meditation, breathing and relaxation.	Stop	Immediate and immersive experience with visual guide (the «Sun»).
Fabulous	Create healthy habits through behavioral science and accompaniment.	Very high	Custom diagnosis and introspective narrative with symbolic contract.
Wysa	Provide psychological support through IA with emphasis on self-care.	Stop	Embatic chat with guide penguin and SOS button for emotional crisis.
Youper	Digital emotional accompaniment with guided plans and follow up.	Medium	Progressive diagnosis according to emotional routine and lifestyle.

I have seen that the most valued apps are those with a strong and coherent emotional approach. OMNIA must build a clear positioning from the start: is not a clinical app or a motivational coachbut a emotionally safe and realistic space for self-care. So, the UX Writing It will play a key role, to convey from the first contact the warmth, closeness and humanity we want to offer.

UX General

I analyzed the onboarding, the initial guided flow, the supply clarity and first actions after the search. I mean, what happens in those first crucial minutes. These are decisive times to build confidence or lose the user.

App	Onboarding	Initial guided flow	Clarity in the offer	First key actions
Headspace	Simple and emotional: personal objectives and free test.	Yes	Very clear: 14 days free, then paid.	Breathing exercise with animation.
Fabulous	Extensive, test type with subsequent diagnosis.	Yes	Clear offer after onboarding.	Acceptance of basic daily challenges.
Wysa	Brief, you select topics to work and support mode.	Yes	Premium offer appears after selection.	Initial chat with IA + thematic packs.
Youper	Selection of goals + emotional test with extensive navigation.	Yes	Test offer + premium visible.	Check- in emotional guided.

The experience must be fast, simple and emotionally connected. OMNIA will avoid extensive forms or complex decisions in the first contact. I propose a guided and personalized onboardingwith a significant first action that invites you to stay, without requiring commitment or immediate payment.

Information Architecture and Navigation Bar Content

Here I observed how the apps are organized at the structure level: what main sections they have and what functions they include in each. The objective was to identify whether the navigation is clear, intuitive and coherent.

App	Main sections	Highlights by section
Headspace	Today / Explore / Profile	Daily challenges, thematic search engine, personal progress.
Fabulous	Home / Travel / Progress / Discover	Routins, tracking, challenges, habit testing.
Wysa	Home / Therapist / Self-care / Journal	Chat IA, SOS, thematic packs, emotional diary.
Youper	Check-in / Insights / Me	Emotional chat, personal evolution, profile and configuration.

The most effective structures are simple and focused on the emotional progress of the user. For OMNIA, I want to avoid a cold functional approach. I'll bet on an intuitive architecture, based on emotional states or needsconcrete (feel better, calm down, connect...), not just in generic categories.

Visual Design and Emotional Tone (UX Writing)

I studied graphic style, color palette, use of illustrations or images, language tone and microinteractions. I mean, how the visual and emotional atmosphere is built.

App	Visual style	Textual tone	Microinteractions / Visual guides
Headspace	Soft illustrations, warm palette.	Easy, motivator.	«Sun» lively accompanies the flow.
Fabulous	Mystic aesthetic, lilac colors and symbols.	Reflective, emotional coaching.	Animated character with visible progression.
Wysa	Minimalist with penguin animated guide.	Empathic and direct.	Simple interactions within the chat.
Youper	Generic, stock images.	Professional and positive.	Very little interaction or visual dynamism.

Apps with more emotionally connected design (like Headspace or Wysa) achieve a closer to the user. OMNIA must have a warm, organic and non-artificial aesthetics, with an empathic, clear and realistic tone of voice. Here we cross design and UX writing as pillars of the experience.

Interaction and microinteractions of the apps

I evaluated how they motivate the user to continue using the app: if they use gamification, reminders, visual progress or emotional reinforcements.

App	Motivational elements	Gamification present?	Emotional or visual reinforcement highlighted
Headspace	Reminds, custom suggestions.	No.	Progress animated, character guide.
Fabulous	Daily challenges, symbolic contract, visual travel.	Yes	Progress visualized as personal travel.
Wysa	Guided packages, IA tracking, SOS.	Partial	Adaptive guided conversation.
Youper	Suggested round (3 days per week), progress data.	No.	Textual recommendations after check-in.

I don't want OMNIA to use a motivation based on empty points or achievements. The key will be to offer a feeling of emotional advancementwith small personal achievements, validation and accompanying messages respectful. Interaction must feel free, not forced.

Customization and Adaptation of Apps

I analyzed whether there is an initial diagnosis, how the content is adapted to each user and whether the app evolves according to its responses or behavior.

App	Initial diagnosis	Content customization	Adaptation by use / responses
Headspace	Brief and thematic	According to selected targets	Proposal for corresponding exercises
Fabulous	Very detailed	Challenges and profile-adapted travel	Progressive visualization of stages
Wysa	Free emotional issues	Packs and IA conversation	Conversational adaptation according to selection
Youper	Extensive emotional test	Suggested plan according to personal availability	Check-in adjustment and recommendations

OMNIA must adapt not only the content, but the tone, rhythm and depth of the experience. This involves designing a flexible navigation, which respect the emotional moments of the userand do not force him to move forward if he is not prepared. Personalization must feel real, not decorative.

Key functions of mental health apps

I identified which functions each app offers (emotional check-in, daily, meditation...) and which are available without subscription.

App	Main functions	Free or Premium
Headspace	Meditations, exercises, sleep guides.	Limited without subscription.
Fabulous	Routines, tests, guided trips.	Majority under subscription.
Wysa	Chat IA, SOS, guided packs, emotional diary.	Many premium functions.
Youper	Check-in, insights, guided emotional plan.	Restricted access without subscription.

The emotional can't be blocked. OMNIA will offer from the very first moment functions with real value, without putting barriers. I want any user, even in the free version, may feel accompanied and understood. If you feel that you must make a payment first or that you have to take the premium directly, you can make us lose many users.

We must think that the user who comes to this type of application has a need that in many cases is of «urgency» and he himself, if he considers it, will go to the premium service when he believes that «He's short.» free service.

Limitations or Points to Improve the Analyzed Applications

I detected common errors in design, content or usability: from visual saturation to repetitive tone or forced interaction.

App	Main critical observation	Additional details
Headspace	A lot of content after payment wall.	Interface something childish for more serious profiles.
Fabulous	Continuous promotion of the premium plan.	It may feel visually overloaded.
Wysa	Lack of language selector, mix English / Spanish texts.	Limited access to key functions.
Youper	Excess screens with repetitive phrases.	Little real interaction, generic images subtract authenticity.

These mistakes help me define what I don't want. OMNIA should avoid visual overload, repeated discourses and excess empty screens. Each interaction must have emotional sense, without noise or distractions.

Technical aspects of application analysis

I reviewed performance, accessibility (contrast, typography) and technical stability. Although less visible, these are aspects that condition the whole experience.

App	Load and fluidity	Accessibility	General stability
Headspace	Very fluid.	Good contrast, clear typography.	No errors detected.
Fabulous	Correct.	It can get better.	Stable.
Wysa	No language options.	No language options. You should select specific sections that had «Spanish version».	Stable.
Youper	Quick, though repetitive. Content is repeated too much.	Limited accessibility.	No visible faults. Although it's not nice.

Accessibility is a key value. OMNIA will take care of the visual contrast, fluent reading, clean navigation and technical stability from your MVP. The emotional experience cannot be broken by functional errors.

First steps in the visual identity of OMNIA

During the competitive analysis phase, I worked in parallel the first visual foundations of OMNIA. It was not just about having an attractive logo, but about starting to build an emotional identity consistent with the project values: calm, accompaniment, authenticity and personal growth.

Emotional chromatic palette for OMNIA

The choice of colors was not arbitrary. I was decanted by a degraded between # 9275FF (a soft lilac with spiritual nuance) and #320029 (a deep purple with emotional charge). This combination seeks to reflect two key aspects of mental well-being:

• The lila represents the mental calm, the connection with self and contemporary spirituality without religious connotations.
• The dark purple brings depth, recovery and emotional containmentwithout falling into coldness.

Together, these tonalities build a visual narrative that invites the user to enter a space safe, intimate and warm, away from clinical or neutral aesthetics.

Merge One typography for a mental health logo

For the headlines I selected Merge One, a dry stick typography with geometric structure, but with kind curves. His style transmits trust, balance and softnesswithout losing legibility or presence.

Its uniform and rounded shape reinforces the idea of OMNIA as an accessible and emotionally neutral environment, but at the same time with a clear identity.

The «O» of OMNIA as a symbol

One of the most important details in this design was working the lyrics "O" as a graphic symbol and extract from it the independent icon of the brand. Inside this «O» an organic element that can be read as much as a leaf like a flower in outbreak.

This ambiguity is intended: it represents the personal growth, process of bloom and cyclic nature of well-being.

• The lower curved route suggests root and connection to the earth.
• The three leaves, in balance, symbolize mind, body and emotions.
• The circle that contains them works as symbolic containerA safe space.

This icon has sufficient visual and emotional strength to represent OMNIA even without the full name, and will be the core of the app in its mobile version.

Real UX analysis lessons for OMNIA

This comparative analysis has allowed me to have a very clear view of the current ecosystem of mental health apps: what patterns are repeated, what strategies work, and above all, which actual needs are not yet being met.

From the point of view of the user experience, I have been able to detect that the most effective platforms are those that get balance emotional guide with freedom of usethey do not saturate or demand, but they do accompany them consistently. It is also clear that there are a saturation of visually attractive but emotionally flat proposalswhere the tone is generic and the interaction with the user becomes forced or artificial.

In short, this work has been the basis for designing an app that does not merely replicate formulas, but proposes a real alternative: more human, more accessible and more honest.