Penny Jar

Penny Jar is a habit-tracking app on iOS that I am developing. to help people reach their goals incrementally.

MY ROLE

I designed Penny Jar and I did a lot of the iOS development as well.

DURATION

4 months (including development time)

SKILLS

Research, UX, UI, Prototyping, iOS Development

PROJECT SUMMARY

I'd used a couple of habit-tracking apps in the past, and I was eager to create my own app that would combine simple UX with a playful and encouraging tone. I also wanted the opportunity to work on coding in Swift, as well as creating my own icon set.

INITIAL THOUGHTS AND EXPLORATIONS

I tried out a handful or habit-tracking apps to survey the market. A number were data-heavy, while others had a more spartan approach. I wanted to emphasize simplicity while also guiding users in creating realistic goals and encouraging them to stick with their goals. With that objective in mind, I came up with some questions to put myself in the user's shoes:

What would make users excited to track their goals?
How much information about habit progress do users want?
What research about forming habits can we utilize in the app to make users successful?
At what points in the forming of a habit does a user need positive reinforcement?
What is the specific value a user finds in tracking their habit in an app?

Main Screen Explorations

DESIGN

When a user adds a new habit, the app gives them guidance. I read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg to learn how to successfully create a new habit and applied those rules to this flow.

The habit dashboard is deliberately simple. Milestones and celebration allow the user to track their habits beyond numbers and statistics and adds an element of emotion.

ILLUSTRATIONS

I compiled a list of the most common habits people try to form and I developed icons that would be playful, colorful, and intuitive.