Shelly · Your streak broke

Your streak broke. So now you feel like shit. Shelly is a routine-building app that refuses to work that way.

The client, the Daily Health Conference, is a non-profit promoting wellness since 1983. The expertise is real; the technology lagged, and memberships dropped with it. They needed a modern offer that keeps their community, in a crowded health-tech space, strictly inside GDPR.

The 'no time' barrier

The streak punishes real life

City life leaves no room for rigid wellness plans. Research with 16 participants showed the conflict:

15 of 16want more physical activity

10 of 16cite mental health or stress as their top concern

4 of 16cite work as the main barrier to routine

Existing apps punish the slip: miss a streak and the app judges you, so people leave. And a majority prioritise mental wellbeing over physical metrics. The answer became a tortoise philosophy: slow, steady, flexible habits.

Affinity diagram organising the research findings into four pillars, physical activity and mental wellbeing among them — The research wall: sixteen participants, four pillars.

MARIA · busy urban professional, Barcelona

An agency job with irregular hours and the wish for a healthier routine. She does not need another plan to fail at; she needs a schedule that bends around hers.

01 · Flexibility

Adaptive scheduling

Maria’s schedule is irregular, so the schedule adapts to her, not the other way around.

Shelly screen asking the user how their day looks before proposing a routine — The app asks about your day before it asks anything of you.

02 · Positive reinforcement

Visualising progress

Broken streaks and red crosses became a gentle visual path. The mascot, Shelly, grows with you, even on slow days.

Progress screen with a visual path that grows with the user instead of red crosses for broken streaks — A path that grows, never a streak that breaks.

03 · Support

Contextual nudges

Micro-coaching that adapts to the user’s state. Stressed? Shelly suggests a breathing exercise. Energetic? Shelly suggests a run.

Notification screen where the app detects stress and suggests a breathing exercise — Coaching that reads the room.

The craft layer

Optimism and calm

A visual identity of nature-inspired greens and warm yellows. Typography and rounded UI tuned to lower cognitive load and take the anxiety out.

Shelly typography guide alongside the turtle mascot giving a peace sign — The identity decision that matters: rounded type and a mascot that never scolds.

Shelly app screens in light and dark mode, sharing the same calm visual language — The same calm in light and dark mode.

Honestly, though

Impact and reflections

In usability testing, every participant completed the core flow and all responded positively. The market is a harder judge, but the bet those sessions validated is the one the whole product stands on: an app that forgives the miss keeps people moving.

Finally an app that feels like a friend.

The line above came from a participant in the final round of usability tests.