Tickle is a mood-first wellness app built around one goal—make emotional regulation feel playful, not preachy. I led the MVP design, turning a lighthearted concept into a functional product that drives daily habit without forcing effort.
The Challenge
Most wellness apps are repetitive, preachy, or too effort-driven.
Tickle needed to be:
Low-lift but emotionally rewarding
Engaging without streak pressure
Smart, but disguised as fun
The product had to be intentionally unserious, but still deeply thoughtful.
Research & Insights
We studied apps like Finch, Neko Atsume, and Duolingo to find that users stay longer when the UX is emotionally intelligent, not rigid.
People don’t want to “track emotions,” they want to feel seen. So the input system became visual and intuitive—no text logs, just mood → pet reaction → tiny dopamine hit.
Strategy
We narrowed in on 3 pillars:
Mood-first entry → Visual emotion selection
AI pet response → Dynamic reactions + surprise activity
Passive progress → Pet evolves as you show up
The goal: habit-forming UX without ever saying the word “habit.”
Product Flow
User taps mood
Pet responds with a meme, song, hug, or video
That logs the emotion passively
Over time, pet evolves to reflect growth
No push notifications. No journaling. Just light, meaningful interactions.
Design
The UI leaned into soft pastels, animated microinteractions, and expressive pet motion.
Everything was designed to feel like a toy, not a tracker.
Mood inputs were big, visual, tap-worthy making it frictionless to show up.