Trip
Team involved
Ana Menacho
Team Lead & Front-end Developer
Andrés Calero
Team Lead & React Native Developer
Antonio Benítez
Team Lead & Back-end Developer
Emilio Sánchez
Cofounder
Javier Pereira
Product Designer
Lucía Guillén
Lead Product Designer
Luisa Jara
Product & Motion Designer
Manolo Ortega
CDO
Marta Becerra
VP Product
RECOGNITIONS
Indigo Awards Gold Winner
Mobile App & Mobile Design of the Year 2021
4.8/5 rating on the Apple Store
App of the day on downloadastro.com
Featured on Wired
Summary
A colorful and dreamy landscape appears on the screen. A soothing, minimalist home screen with a quote from a writer, this time it’s Proust's turn: "The only true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new territories, but in looking with new eyes." By pressing the + button, the camera moves in a POV shot towards the clouds, inviting you to begin by connecting with your breath.
We are now heading into Trip, a self-guided journey that blends modern neuroscience with the wisdom of psychology to help you make the most of your consciousness-expanding experiences. Intention setting, mood tracking, personalized music, and mindfulness content are some of its main features.
Can an app act as a healing guru?
The responsible for Field Trip Health, a company dedicated to medical psychedelic-enhanced therapies, were looking for a new approach to help people seeking altered states for healing and personal growth. They thought a free digital product would be a great tool to achieve their goals, and that vision brought them to Z1.
Although we are an international studio, our HQ is in Spain, a country where psychedelic treatment is not yet in use. However, we did what we always do: put our five senses to understand our partners. We quickly discovered Trip was not only an exciting project but also a needed one. Undoubtedly, the demand for health and wellness digital products has increased these years. Users expect technology to help them, and smartphones are no exception.
"With Trip we discovered a new method to address the growing problems of mental health in our society, and a tool to support people globally. It was mind blowing."
Héctor Giner
Z1’s CEO
After the first conversations with Kori Harrison, Field Trip's Head of Product, and Amardeep Manhas, their CTO, our team was immediately hooked. Their passion for this innovative and timely project was contagious!
A subtle yet meaningful experience
Trip was conceived for people to lean on before, during, and after expanding the mind, whether that be through breath work, meditation, sound bathing, or psychedelic trips. The intent is to offer guidance at the palm of their hands, a harm reduction tool for those who today are seeking altered states without the support of a therapist and outside of a clinical setting.
“We wanted to create a more subtle experience that would support users on any form of consciousness expansion, and invite them to choose what a trip means to them.”
Lucía Guillén
Z1’s Lead Product Designer
The idea for the app was on Field Trip’s technology roadmap from day one, even before opening their physical clinics. They saw that a digital product like Trip was an opportunity to help those who don’t have the resources or the time to participate in their therapy programs. Their team truly appreciated Z1's contributions in shaping the basic idea from the design point of view.
“It's empowering how much you can learn about yourself simply by being alone with nothing to do. This time can be a gift for those who have the time and space to look internally,”
Kori Harrison
Field Trip's Head of Product
Design and Software hand by hand
One of the biggest challenges we faced was translating a complex protocol into a user experience that was seamless and smooth, like a relaxing trip, which we achieved using React Native for the frontend and Django for the backend.
When starting a Trip, the user moves through a dreamy landscape, letting him/herself be carried through calming animations created on Illustrator and brought to life thanks to After Effects and Lottie.
Everything is taken care of in detail. The music users listen to is custom-composed by the cutting-edge AI company focused on music for mental health, Lucid. After the trip, support continues through guided journaling and mood tracking. After a few months of intense and passionate work, we can say it wasn’t exactly easy, but we think we nailed an elegant experience that users love.
As little intrusion as possible
While building the product, the goal was to be mindful of all visuals and messaging to avoid indicating any illegal behaviors. Illustrations and animations played a key role. We wanted to achieve a certain ease, a lightness, and a pleasant visual language from the onboarding to the end. We incorporated temperatures and different lights into the color palette. The whole theme had to revolve around landscapes on which the users glided with a sense of advance towards the horizon.
One of the biggest challenges was Trip's huge amount of illustrations and animations. Trip integrates practically everything a mobile app offers nowadays: sound, audio recording, journaling, analytics, notifications... and our engineers ensured that everything ran perfectly. We got a clean and understandable code and optimized its performance.
Features focused on healing
Trip’s idea and vision came before the pandemic, but it’s tough to overlook that 2020 has led to unexpected and pervasive feelings of isolation, anxiety, and stress for millions of people. That is why, in this new reality where external stimulation like social gatherings and travel has significantly lessened, it is important that we lean on new behaviors and habits that nourish our well-being at home.
Although the market is increasingly full of products related to meditation, Trip is unique in its kind. It combines modern protocols with ancient practices that have been tested over centuries to create an experience that guides users toward deep reflection and lasting growth.
Set an intention before the trip, listen to AI-generated music, access a voice recorder while exploring, track progress over time, and read educational content based on scientific research and shamanic wisdom. These are some of the features that are getting Trip users excited. The proof, as Kori says, is in the users’ feedback, which is all about appreciation and gratitude, something that will make this Trip go further and further.
“It was about scaling what we’ve learned from our clinics to the world, to the millions today who are seeking altered states for healing and growth. We hope for these individuals, Trip becomes a go-to companion and guiding hand in making the most of their journeys. Z1’s support and input has been paramount."
Amardeep Manhas
Field Trip’s CTO
Wonderful variety for all user levels
I use this app every night, in conjunction with going to the Houston Field Trip clinic. After 35 years of trying absolutely everything else for severe Treatment-Resistant Depression, I feel like I’m in a hopeful place. These tools don’t take away the lows but do help me have hope for surviving and managing them.
A huge THANK YOU to all of you who use your knowledge and skills to compile and offer these literally lifesaving tools and treatments!
Everything you need
I’m amazed that this app is so well done. It provides everything that you need to turn your trips into meaningful, beneficial experiences. It’s also surprising that no other app does anything like this, nearly as well in my opinion. This definitely revolutionized my approach to these undertakings.
If there’s one thing that I’d want to see added, it’d be a way to delete trips (in case you did one just to try it out).
Game changer
This app is incredible. I stumbled upon it a couple months ago. The first time I tried it, I used it as a grounding companion, some place to check in as I was solo tripping. It didn’t take long to discover it’s potential. Since then I use it to journey. I look forward to carving out time to deep dive and it’s become very therapeutic for myself and an invaluable resource. Love it! Keep up the good work!