Grief Works
Mobile app – iOS
UI, Visual design
Grief works is one of the mobile apps by PsyT that has impacted many people’s lives after losing the loved one (over 700 positive reviews on the App Store and Play Store).
We have been improving the app experience and adding new features since its launch in mid-2021. I also proposed visual improvements, such as redesigning the visual hierarchy, giving semantics to color and typography for clarity and consistency, fixing some of the contrast issues in some texts over images, and lastly, I enhanced the overall aesthetic and usability.
Home screen
A dynamic daily start, contrasts, and glass card
Background images play a huge aspect in Grief Works. They help set the mood for our users. We took many considerations for curating images. On the home screen, the photos should be nature scenes with a calming, warm, and vast feeling. The complexity of finding the right image increased as I added constraints to ensure any photo won't be distracting with the content above it.
In the initial version, the home screen would become stale after daily use as users see the same background daily. I proposed to give a little dynamic to the everyday launch app experience. Users will see different background images on their home screen every day. In addition, various quotes shown right before the home screen may lighten up and inspire our users going through their day.
The other thing is to balance the contrast between the bright background and the text readability, including using glass cards and the right amount of opacity.
Course
Information architecture, visual hierarchy, and author and book display
The course is one of the core features of the product. People upgrade their accounts to access all the course sessions from Julia Samuel. The initial version was trying to put all the information into one screen, and Julia Samuel’s image wasn’t appealing and professional.
So I proposed to separate the information into three tabs, redesign the top part so that the visual is more attractive, and improve some usability heuristics.
TOOLS
Tools display and background patterns
Like the course, the toolkit is also the core feature of Grief Works. Tools are a set of practices people can use whenever they need support in different circumstances. I improved the tool card design and how people would find tools with filtering.
In addition, to make a series of practice screens more interesting, I drew some background patterns to give more dynamic nuances.
JOURNAL
Calendar toggle, journal list and screen
The app will keep all the records of what users have inputted in morning/evening reflection, course/tool sessions, and free-writing journaling in the journal tab. Users can browse their records based on dates through a calendar view.
As the calendar on the initial version took up a lot of space, I redesigned it so that more compact and efficient, only showing a weekly view and still can be unfolded to the monthly view. Other than that, I enhanced the overall visual design of the journal.
Selected screens
Lydia Davidson
Product Analyst at PSYT
Others
What was the outcome?
Although the redesign didn’t happen completely in Grief Works app. The visual language improvements worked as our north star for designing the next course apps.
What were the challenges during the project?
Since I initiated this project by myself and it was not really on the roadmap – I had to spend time between other priorities and sometimes outside working hours. It was easy to forget and get carried away by other priorities. As I realized a major redesign wouldn't happen, I reframed this project as a 'compass' that guides the product team through designing any improvement that might occur in a particular journey, screens, and the next-course apps.
What lesson did I learn?
I learned to leave my ego at the door. As a designer, I have these ideal conditions for making pixel-perfect designs, well-structured design systems, and ensuring design quality in development. I found the answer to my question, "Should I compromise the standards?" – It’s good to keep your idealism, moreover, always live them to the fullest. But the way you approach and introduce the standard to the team should be more dynamic, more like influencing rather than controlling and wanting something to happen.