Building a non-addictive, intentional living app

Framing a hard problem

Zemlia set out to challenge the dominant social media model: addictive by design, driven by ads, and disconnected from real-world wellbeing. The challenge wasn’t just building features—it was designing a different incentive structure altogether.

When I joined, the founding team had been exploring the idea for nearly two years. There was strong conviction, but no clear product shape.

My first decision was to introduce a design sprint as a way to create focus, alignment, and learning without committing engineering resources too early.

From vision to concept

I facilitated a series of workshops to help the team move from big ideas to concrete decisions. We started with alignment: defining long-term goals, mapping the problem space, and learning from internal subject-matter experts.

Using “How Might We” exercises, sprint questions, and structured divergence, we translated abstract values—intentional living, sustainability, wellbeing—into product opportunities we could actually test.

Testing before building

We created a low-fidelity, black-and-white prototype focused on flow rather than polish and tested it with nine users in one day. These sessions surfaced key insights:

• Users wanted clearer value earlier in onboarding

• Too many goal options felt overwhelming

• Visualizations needed to be simpler and more intuitive

• Users preferred landing on a home screen before diving into goal-setting

These findings directly shaped the next iteration of the designs.

Bringing the experience to life

Working alongside another designer, I helped evolve the wireframes into high-fidelity onboarding screens. The visual direction aimed to feel grounded and human (imperfect, geometric, organic, and calm) reinforcing Zemlia’s anti-addictive ethos.

While the final visual style leaned more toward the founder’s preferences than my personal aesthetic, my focus remained on clarity, pacing, and reducing cognitive load for first-time users.