product analyzed

Little Bamboo

Little Bamboo

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Overall rating:
4/5
Technology:

Categories assigned to this product within the main category Technology.

Needs:

Categories assigned to this product within the main category Needs.

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Below is the video of the review.

What does it consist of:

Petit BamBou is a meditation app. According to its own developers, you only need to spend 10 minutes a day to learn to meditate and develop the habit of meditation in a simple way. This app can help people, and especially older people who use it, to reduce stress, calm anxiety or sleep better.

Forms of acquisition:

Most of the application is free to use and is available at the following links in the Google Play and App Store stores:

Download link to Google Play

       Download link to Appstore

In addition, this application has an Alexa skill that will allow users to start the application just by saying the following phrases:

  • Alexa, open Petit BamBou.
  • Alexa, ask Petit BamBou to give me the meditation for the day.

To access all the content provided by the app, it is necessary to pay a subscription of € 5,99 / month or another of € 29.99 / 6 months.

Subscription to Petit BamBou

Support

To contact the developers there are several possibilities:

 

Technical assessment:

May 2020

Petit Bambou is an application created specifically for people who want to meditate, whether they are beginners or not, using a simple method through audios of between 10 and 20 minutes on different topics such as stress, anxiety, etc. In addition, this app has a series of videos that explain what the keys to meditation are.

Features

The application has 4 main features or functions: Meditation, Programs, Sounds and Me. All of them are accessible from a small horizontal menu at the bottom of the screen.

Features Menu

- Meditation. This function is the one that is displayed when starting the application. It consists of 3 sections: Free, Guided and 3 minutes. These sections can be accessed from a menu at the top of the screen.

  • Within this section, a meditation session can be configured to suit the user, being able to choose the duration, a relaxing sound from those provided by the app and start, intermediate and end warnings.
  • This section is intended to be the first to be used, as it serves as an introduction and first contact, especially for people who have never meditated before. This consists of a total of 8 videos of a duration that is between 10 and 15 minutes where, each of them deals with a different characteristic of meditation.
  • 3 minutes. This section is also called "Crisis of tranquility" and is intended to be used to return to a state of calm after the user has gone through a moment of stress.

Free meditation  Guided Meditation  3 minute meditation

– Programs. This section is divided into 9 categories: tools, sleep, progress, mind, body, self, work, daily, and health; of these 9 you can only fully access the tools section and the Discovery and Anxiety programs of the progression and mind categories respectively. These last two are guided meditation programs that consist of about 10 sessions of about 12 minutes. To access all the contents of the programs it is necessary to pay the subscription of the application. The category of tools provides us with 5 sections which will be defined below:

  • The stories. They consist of 19 videos inspired by popular wisdom and written by meditation experts.
  • Cardiac coherence. It allows you to learn to control your breathing to control stress and anxiety.
  • My moment. Allows the user to select the days and time to set an alarm to be reminded to meditate.
  • It allows the user to quickly access the meditation sessions that they have liked the most.
  • It allows the user to access the meditation sessions that they have decided to download.

Programs section  Programs section

Programs section  Programs section

– Sounds. Like the programs section, it is also divided into categories, in this case 6: new, nature, water, home, travel and sleep. The "Sounds" section provides the user with a total of 18 different relaxing sounds to accompany them in their meditation sessions.

Relaxing sounds  Relaxing sounds

- I. This section displays user information. This information is: the sessions you have completed, the minutes of meditation you have done, the number of consecutive sessions you have finished. In addition, from this function you can access the application options menu at the top right. In the settings you can manage subscriptions, view and modify the data of the account associated with the application, select preferences (receive emails to stay informed, select the quality of the videos, activate night mode, connect the app with Google Fit and change the language of the meditations and emails), and view information about the terms of use and privacy policies.

My information section  Configuration section

From all the functions that have been described, you can access the question section in the upper left. This section is divided into three sections: Frequently Asked Questions, Forum and Contact Us. Access to these sections can be done through a horizontal menu at the top of the screen.

Frequently asked questions section  Question forum section

Contact section  Contact section

Tests performed

In order to analyze and evaluate the application, a series of tests have been carried out to verify its operation. The tests have been carried out on a Samsung Galaxy J7 (Android 9 Pie) device with version 3.7.5 and an iPhone 6S (IOS 13.3.1) with version 2.0.3

Functionality tests

In order to use the application on both devices, it has been necessary to install it through the respective application stores of each operating system.

Once the application is installed, when it starts, it indicates that it is necessary to register with an email to start using it; You can use any email or log in with your Facebook account if you have one. After selecting the account that will be used, the application will ask for permissions to be able to send and display notifications on the phone, if this permission is accepted and later you want to change it, you can do it from the settings menu. From that moment on, you will be able to access all the free contents of the application. The paid contents of this are found in the programs section, and can be differentiated from the free ones in two ways, either because the icons of the paid contents are shaded or because when trying to access that content it indicates that a subscription.

There are several ways to start a meditation session, specifically there are four, each of them will be accompanied by an infographic that will show how to proceed.

The first is the simplest, you just have to start the application and a series of guided sessions will be shown, in one of them a playback icon will be displayed, once you press on the session will start.

Usage infographic

For the second, it is necessary to access the free meditation section of the meditation function, once there the duration, the warnings and the background sound that you want to sound will be configured and after finishing you can start the session.

Usage infographic

The third is the shortest of all since the three-minute section, also called the crisis of tranquility, of the meditation function will be used. In order to start this session, all you have to do is press the start button in this section.

Usage infographic

The fourth and last will allow us to program an hour of meditation for the days that are desired, for this we will have to access the Programs section and select the “My moment” tool.

Usage infographic

Usability testing

This section will measure the ease with which the user can use the application to achieve a specific goal, in this case it is that an elderly person can perform a meditation session because they feel stressed or need to calm their anxiety.

The application is very easy to use, it has a simple and friendly interface, it consists of a menu at the bottom with four buttons that are very simple to recognize, either by its icon or its description, so that the elderly who want to use the application will have no difficulty understanding how the app works.

All this makes it very easy for the user to start using the application. This ease of learning to use it is also transferred to the ease of remembering how to use it if the application is uninstalled at some point.

Regarding its effectiveness, it must be said that the app is extremely effective since, it is possible to reach the desired objective as soon as the application is started, also taking into account that, as previously said, it does not require a great effort to learn to use it it can be said that the product has a high efficiency in terms of achieving the objective.

Regarding portability, Petit Bambou works on any type of Smartphone, be it Android or iOS.

Taking into account the analysis of each of the previous criteria, it can be said that the product has a considerably good usability in terms of achieving the objective, taking into account the use that the elderly will give it.

Accessibility tests

In this section, different criteria will be applied to assess whether the application can be used regardless of the capabilities of the user.

Cognitive accessibility - As for the images and icons, almost all of them have a description that facilitates their understanding and, in addition, they have a reasonable size so that they can be correctly identified. The only icons that do not have a description are the Questions icon, identified by a speech bubble with a question mark, and the Settings icon, identified by a gear.

Accessibility for people with reduced vision - The app has a settings section where you can only change the theme, that is, you can change from a white background with black letters to a black background with white letters. The size of the letter cannot be changed so depending on the size of the screen of the device being used, it is possible that the words may be difficult to read, although it is possible to increase the size of the font in the settings. general of the device, causing that in turn to increase in the app. As for the meditation sessions, all of them are narrated. To complete this accessibility section, it has been decided to do some tests with the screen reader systems available on Android and IOS devices. These tests have focused on checking the correct labeling of the icons and buttons that Petit BamBou has. In all the devices in which the screen reader has been used, the buttons have been well labeled, both with Voice Assistant for Android and Voice Over for IOS.

Accessibility for people with hearing difficulties - People with hearing difficulties will have complications when using the application since both the meditation sessions and the videos contained in the stories tool are not subtitled.

Reliability tests

In this section we will study whether the application is working correctly and does not have critical faults that prevent it from working properly.

In the days that the application has been tested, it has not presented any notable or critical failure in its operation.

Privacy & Security

Regarding privacy and security, it is possible to access its terms and policies from the links provided by the Google Play and App Store download stores, although it is also possible to access them from within the application through the settings section.

Conclusion

In general terms, the application works properly, there has not been any failure that has impaired its operation. This app can contribute greatly to all people, and especially the elderly, reduce their levels of stress, anxiety and improve brain function.

One of the positive points of the app is that it is designed so that a person who has not practiced meditation can learn to do it through the first guided sessions provided by the application; Compared to its competitors in the market, this is one of the few that makes a small introduction to meditation for new users, so it makes this particular app one of the best if you want to start meditating, though it is also a viable product for the more experienced people. Another of the most positive points that it has is that it gives the possibility of downloading the sessions of the meditation programs to be able to use it without the need for an internet connection through mobile data.

Highlights

  • It can be used without an internet connection if the meditation sessions are downloaded.
  • The sessions that are provided free of charge teach you to meditate in a very satisfying way.

Improvement points

  • It would be interesting to subtitle the meditation sessions so that people with hearing difficulties could use the application.
  • It would be interesting if the font size could be modified from within the application.

 

Technical evaluation scores.

Design and manufacturing:
4/5
This section refers to the physical aspects and details of the manufacturing of the technological product
Technical benefits:
4/5
Description of the quality of the technical specifications of the technological solution
User experience:
4/5
This criterion is linked to the user's assessment when relating to the technical product or application.
Accessibility:
4/5
It is the degree to which people can use or access a product, technological solution or service, regardless of their technical, cognitive or physical abilities

Social valuation:

Social valuation scores.

Impact and utility:
This item has not been rated/5
Describes to what extent the functionalities of the product are useful and impact on improving the life of the user
Design and Ergonomics:
This item has not been rated/5
Assessment of how the design of the technological solution adapts to the person to achieve greater comfort and efficiency when using it
Usability and accessibility:
This item has not been rated/5
Possibility of the device to be used, understood and taken advantage of under equal conditions for anyone
Ease of acquisition:
This item has not been rated/5
It refers to the possibilities of accessing and acquiring a technological solution by the user.

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