Case Studies

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Case Studies

UI Showcase

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Case Studies

UI Showcase

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Everlight: Focus Journey

Everlight reimagines productivity as a rewarding journey of focus, growth, and discovery. By combining guided focus sessions with gamification, personalisation, and an evolving virtual world, the experience helps users build healthier habits and stay motivated through visible progress. Every focused moment contributes to a world that grows alongside them, transforming everyday tasks into meaningful achievements and making productivity feel less like a chore and more like a journey worth returning to.

Platform

Platform

Mobile App - iOS

Industry

Industry

Productivity & Wellness

My Role

My Role

Lead Product Designer

Core Features

Core Features

Focus Sessions, Gamification &
World-Building

Challenge

Traditional productivity apps often lack the motivation needed to build lasting habits. The challenge was to create a rewarding, engaging experience that helps users overcome distractions, track progress, and stay consistent through meaningful rewards and personal growth.

Opportunity

Most focus apps feel like pressure: a timer, a streak and little else. This created an opportunity for Everlight to make focus feel rewarding, using collectable light and moonlight and a companion character, Nori, to turn everyday focus sessions into a calm, motivating habit.

Research

My research was guided by a few core questions:


Understand why people drop off. What makes focus and productivity apps feel rewarding at first, then easy to abandon?


Identify what keeps people motivated. Which kinds of feedback and rewards build a lasting habit, and which create pressure or guilt?


Explore the role of time of day. How do energy, focus, and mood change from morning to night, and how could the experience adapt to that?


Find the gaps in existing tools. Where do current timer and habit apps fall short, and where is there room for a calmer, more personal approach?


Define the emotional tone. How can an app feel supportive and companion-like rather than demanding?

These goals shaped the direction of Everlight, from the day and night light collection to Nori and the low-pressure tone of the interface.

My research was guided by a few core questions:

Understand why people drop off. What makes focus and productivity apps feel rewarding at first, then easy to abandon?

Identify what keeps people motivated. Which kinds of feedback and rewards build a lasting habit, and which create pressure or guilt?

Explore the role of time of day. How do energy, focus, and mood change from morning to night, and how could the experience adapt to that?

Find the gaps in existing tools. Where do current timer and habit apps fall short, and where is there room for a calmer, more personal approach?

Define the emotional tone. How can an app feel supportive and companion-like rather than demanding?

These goals shaped the direction of Everlight, from the day and night light collection to Nori and the low-pressure tone of the interface.

Competitors Research

Competitors Research

Application Map

Application Map

To create a solid information architecture, I mapped the full Meyoca ecosystem and its core user journeys before designing any screens. The map helped me define navigation, prioritise the most important interactions, and ensure users could move naturally between productivity tools, exploration, rewards, and personalisation. It also gave the team a shared blueprint for scalability, so new features and content could be added without disrupting the experience.

User Interview

To better understand the challenges users face when staying focused and maintaining productive routines, I conducted user interviews during the discovery phase. The objective was to explore existing productivity habits, identify pain points with current tools, and understand what motivates users to remain consistent over time.

I prepared an interview guide containing open-ended questions that encouraged participants to discuss their daily workflows, productivity struggles, experiences with focus applications, and the features they found most valuable. The insights gathered helped validate assumptions, uncover behavioural patterns, and shape Everlight's product direction.

A total of 8 participants with varying productivity habits and experience using focus or task management applications participated in the research.


Assumptions Validated


・Users struggle to maintain consistent focus and productivity habits.

Validated. 8/8 participants reported regularly becoming distracted or losing motivation during work or study sessions.

・Traditional productivity apps often feel repetitive or uninspiring.

Validated. 7/8 participants described existing productivity tools as functional but lacking long-term motivation.

・Visual progression and meaningful rewards encourage habit formation.

Validated. 8/8 participants said they felt more motivated when they could clearly see progress or unlock achievements.

・Personalisation increases engagement.

Validated. 6/8 participants preferred applications that could be customised or reflected their personality.

・Users prefer a simple experience over feature-heavy interfaces.

Validated. 7/8 participants said they would rather use fewer, well-designed features than a complex interface with too many options.

To better understand the challenges users face when staying focused and maintaining productive routines, I conducted user interviews during the discovery phase. The objective was to explore existing productivity habits, identify pain points with current tools, and understand what motivates users to remain consistent over time.

I prepared an interview guide containing open-ended questions that encouraged participants to discuss their daily workflows, productivity struggles, experiences with focus applications, and the features they found most valuable. The insights gathered helped validate assumptions, uncover behavioural patterns, and shape Everlight's product direction.

A total of 8 participants with varying productivity habits and experience using focus or task management applications participated in the research.


Assumptions Validated


・Users struggle to maintain consistent focus and productivity habits.

Validated. 8/8 participants reported regularly becoming distracted or losing motivation during work or study sessions.

・Traditional productivity apps often feel repetitive or uninspiring.

Validated. 7/8 participants described existing productivity tools as functional but lacking long-term motivation.

・Visual progression and meaningful rewards encourage habit formation.

Validated. 8/8 participants said they felt more motivated when they could clearly see progress or unlock achievements.

・Personalisation increases engagement.

Validated. 6/8 participants preferred applications that could be customised or reflected their personality.

・Users prefer a simple experience over feature-heavy interfaces.

Validated. 7/8 participants said they would rather use fewer, well-designed features than a complex interface with too many options.

Visual Design

Everlight’s visual language is built around one idea: productivity should feel like tending a light, not chasing a deadline. The interface moves between two moods, a warm, bright day palette for collecting light and a deep, quiet night palette for moonlight, so the time of day is felt before it is read. Day uses soft ambers and creams, while night uses deep indigos with a cool silver glow.

Because the app is used in focus sessions, I kept the interface calm and uncluttered. Generous spacing, a restrained colour palette, and one clear focal point per screen (usually the timer) keep attention on the task. Typography was chosen for legibility at a glance and a friendly tone. Colour and glow carry meaning too: the light you collect builds visually as you progress, so a completed session feels like a small reward rather than a checkmark.

Nori, the companion character, adds warmth and personality without competing for attention. Nori reacts subtly to your focus, resting during breaks and glowing as you collect light. Motion is slow and gentle, with soft transitions and easing that reinforce calm rather than urgency.

Key Takeaways

Everlight shows how I balance function with emotional engagement: I led it from vision and user journeys to the design system, visual identity and Nori, the companion that gives it personality, with research and testing guiding every decision. The result helps users stay productive while making each focus session feel more rewarding.

Open to new projects

Let’s build something people love.

From first exploration to a product people love, I partner with founders and
teams to design digital experiences that make a difference.

Start a project

Open to new projects

Let’s build something people love.

From first exploration to a product people love, I partner with founders and
teams to design digital experiences that make a difference.

Start a project

Open to new projects

Let’s build something people love.

From first exploration to a product people love, I partner with founders and
teams to design digital experiences that make a difference.

Start a project