Prythm
Prythm is a digital wellness and habit tracking mobile application designed for individuals seeking a gentle, self-care-focused approach to building daily routines. It emphasizes peace, personal rhythm, and mental well-being.
The Challenge
- Problem: Existing habit trackers often feel overwhelming, judgmental, or push users towards burnout, lacking emotional intelligence.
- Situation: Users needed a calming, offline-first solution that prioritizes self-compassion over strict productivity metrics.
- Necessary: To create a unique app in the wellness tech space that genuinely supports mental health and sustainable habit formation.
The Goal
- Objectives: Design an intuitive, distraction-free app with a gentle user experience. Provide a secure, private (offline-first) environment. Foster consistent, positive self-care habits.
- Metrics: User retention for habit tracking (e.g., 7-day, 30-day), positive user reviews, perceived emotional support from the app.
- Impact: Enable users to build sustainable self-care routines without pressure, improving daily well-being.
Our Approach: The Double Diamond Journey
Our approach is guided by the Double Diamond framework, ensuring a thorough exploration of the problem and a focused delivery of solutions.
1st Diamond: Problem Discovery & Definition
Discover: Explore and Understand
We begin by deeply understanding the challenge through broad exploration.
Ideation & Conception: To define the core concept of a 'gentle' habit tracker.
Activities: Brainstorming 'calm' and 'supportive' app features, competitive analysis of wellness apps, initial user persona creation. | Role: Led concept generation, focusing on empathetic user experience.
Research & Discovery: To understand emotional triggers in habit formation and privacy concerns.
Activities: Interviews with individuals prone to burnout, analysis of psychological principles of habit, market research on offline apps. | Role: Conducted in-depth qualitative research to inform core app philosophy.
Define: Focus and Strategize
Insights from discovery are refined into clear objectives and a strategic direction.
Requirements Definition: To specify offline functionality, notification logic, and core habit tracking features.
Activities: Defined detailed user flows for task creation and habit completion, specified data privacy architecture, drafted feature list. | Role: Architected the user experience to be secure and non-intrusive.
2nd Diamond: Solution Design & Delivery
Design: Ideate and Create
We explore diverse creative solutions and build them out.
Title: Naming & Core Messaging
Purpose: To define the naming and core messaging that resonates with the user.
Content: The naming of Prythm drew inspiration from two concepts: 'prism,' which breaks light into its constituent colors, and 'rhythm,' representing habit formation. This blend reflects the app's core purpose: to help users gently 'decompose' and understand their various emotional patterns and internal rhythms, fostering a more mindful approach to self-care and consistent habit building.
Icon: Distinctive Visual Identity
Purpose: To create a distinctive and recognizable icon that embodies the product's essence.
Content: Initially, the icon design focused on habit formation, leading to a moon motif and later a checkmark for tasks. However, recognizing the app's core emphasis on emotional well-being, we explored icons derived from the app's mood colors. This also faced challenges with Apple's 'Liquid Glass' design requirements, leading to the current, distinctive hexagonal prism design.
Color: Harmonious Palette
Purpose: To establish a harmonious and impactful color palette that supports the user experience.
Content: Researching color psychology for wellness, developing primary and secondary color schemes (light, dark, warm beige), and ensuring accessibility.
UI/UX: Intuitive Interactions
Purpose: To design intuitive and engaging user interfaces and seamless user flows.
Content: Developing minimalist screen layouts, defining gentle interaction patterns, prototyping key user journeys (habit tracking, task management), and iterating based on early feedback for a calming experience.
Deliver: Refine and Launch
The chosen solutions are refined, launched, and continuously supported.
Testing & Refinement: To ensure app stability, usability, and emotional resonance.
Activities: Extensive beta testing with target users, performance testing, bug fixing, gathering qualitative feedback on 'feelings' during use. | Role: Managed testing cycles and iterated designs based on emotional and functional feedback.
Launch & Post-Launch: To release to App Store/Google Play and monitor initial user response.
Activities: App Store optimization (ASO), soft launch, initial user review monitoring, community engagement. | Role: Coordinated launch activities and established channels for ongoing user support.
The Solution
Prythm offers a clean, intuitive interface with unique features like mood-friendly themes and a calming calendar view. Its offline-first approach ensures complete user privacy, making it a safe haven for self-care.
The Result
- Outcomes: Achieved positive user reviews praising its calming effect and privacy features. Consistently high engagement rates for self-care routines compared to competitors.
- Solved Challenge: Successfully created a non-intrusive, supportive habit tracker that addresses the emotional fatigue associated with traditional productivity apps.
- Impact: Empowered users to consistently practice self-care, leading to reported improvements in daily well-being and reduced stress.
Feedback & Iteration
- Feedback Collected: User feedback was continuously collected through in-app surveys, and direct email communication, focusing on emotional response and feature suggestions.
- Insights Gained: Key insights revealed the strong preference for customizable reminders and the positive impact of the offline mode on user peace of mind.
- Iterative Improvements: Iterative improvements included expanding theme customization and fine-tuning habit completion based on user delight signals.
Learnings
- Key Insights: Deepened understanding of psychological triggers for sustainable habit formation and the critical importance of user privacy in wellness tech.
- Challenges Overcome: Successfully navigated the complexities of offline-first data synchronization and ensuring a smooth, non-disruptive user experience.
- Next Steps: Explore integrating more subtle, AI-driven personalized insights (without compromising privacy) to further enhance the self-care journey.
"Prythm is a game-changer for my mental well-being. It's gentle, private, and truly helps me prioritize self-care without the usual pressure of habit trackers."
— Satisfied User