The journey began with extensive user research. A year-long study revealed three key aspects of the recovery path:

1. Clarity: Understanding one’s addiction and triggers
2. Commitment: Building a resolve to change behavior
3. Connection: Fostering support through community engagement

Armed with this knowledge, the team set out to create an app that would support users through each of these crucial stages.

Benchmarking: I analyzed successful apps like Duolingo, Headspace, and Calm to identify patterns in habit formation and user engagement. This analysis highlighted features such as progress bars, streaks, journaling, and daily check-ins.

Using an impact vs. feasibility matrix, I organized potential features. This helped the team focus on high-impact options that aligned with our recovery pillars.

Early Concepts:
I developed initial mockups featuring a redesigned progress bar, “Take The Pledge,” “Power Ups,” and improved suggested readings.

Collaboration:
Working with a fellow designer, we merged two concepts—“Check Ins” and “Self-Reflection”—to create the innovative “Daily Pledge” (later refined as “Commit and Reflect”).

User Testing:
We validated our prototypes with 10 advanced recovery users, confirming the importance of emotional check-ins. Feedback led to iterations that refined our approach and simplified user flows.

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My goal was to create a homepage that made users feel:

• In control
• Hopeful
• Not alone

To achieve this, I proposed several new features:

1. A redesigned progress bar
2. A "Take The Pledge" feature
3. "Power Ups" for daily activities
4. Redesigned suggested readings

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Through close collaboration with another designer, we merged two concepts - the "Check Ins" and a "Self-Reflection" - into a single, powerful feature. This became the cornerstone of our new design. And so we bagan to pursue alignment with the different teams.

One of our biggest hurdles was aligning the visions of marketing, product, and research teams. Through collaboration and a deep understanding of the company strategy, we established that retaining new users was the primary goal, benefiting both users and the company. Gaining this alignment allowed us to move forward to test several feature ideas.

Validating Our Ideas: User Research

We conducted interviews with 10 advanced recovery users, presenting prototypes of our two main concepts: Power Ups and Daily Pledges. Key findings included:

• The importance of community and connection
• Positive reception to the emotions check-in flow
• The need to refine and re-test the Power Ups feature
• Strong validation for the Pledges concept

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At the end of the interviews, it was abundantly clear that the concept for Pledges was the strongest candidate for development.

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Having defined the feature and the common goal. We set out to work with addiction experts that helped us refined our language and approach. We simplified commitment reasons to reduce decision paralysis and prevent from misuse, and lastly rename the feature and change copy to avoid the use of heavy-meaning words like Pledge, and so "Commit and Reflect" was born.

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After multiple iterations and rounds of usability testing, we launched the "Commit and Reflect" feature. This daily commitment and self-reflection tool was designed to:

1. Foster a sense of community
2. Encourage daily reflection
3. Build clarity around emotions
4. Strengthen users' resolve to abstain from pornography

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Building on the success of "Commit and Reflect," we're now working on the next iteration, which will include:

- A calendar view of streaks
- An improved "Feelings" questionnaire
- Dynamic messaging to reduce monotony
- Various bug fixes

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