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Gentler Streak

fitness that knows when to rest

Mobile AppIA & card sortingAccessibilityWatch appPrototypeIllustration
Brand
Gentler Stories, Kranj (Slovenia)
Discipline
Mobile app · iPhone & Apple Watch
Our role
IA, research, prototype, accessibility, watch UI
Timeline (concept)
Six-week design sprint

01 · Discover · The brief

A fitness app that says “rest” out loud.

Gentler Streak is an activity and health tracker for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, made by Gentler Stories, a small studio in Kranj, Slovenia, co-founded by Katarina Lotrič (CEO), Andrej Mihelič (UI/UX), Jasna Krmelj (CTO) and Luka Orešnik. Instead of fixed goals, it suggests how much to move each day based on readiness. Its orange, heart-shaped mascot, Yorhart, was created with illustrator Sören Selleslagh to stand for “what your heart would be telling you.” The line it lives by: “Move consistently, not constantly.”

Fall 2021
Gentler Streak launches (Apple, Behind the Design)
2022
App Store Awards: Apple Watch App of the Year
ADA ’24
Apple Design Award winner, Social Impact
8 people
The Gentler Stories team, per Apple and Apptisan
140+
Activity types, in 10 languages
No VC
Bootstrapped, per Apptisan

Design problems we chose

  1. 01

    Readiness without anxiety

    Sleep, heart-rate variability and training load have to become one gentle sentence and one picture, not a score to worry about.

  2. 02

    Celebrate rest

    Streak mechanics usually reward volume. Here a rest day has to feel like part of the streak, because it is part of training.

  3. 03

    Systemic colour

    Each feature has its own colour, which a third-party teardown says can dilute recognition. We need a palette system anchored on the orange heart.

Our goal

One glance, on the phone or the wrist, that says how much to move today, and makes a rest day feel like a win.

How we’d build it: eight phases in six weeks

This page follows the same path we’d take with the Gentler Stories team, from research to launch. Pick a phase to see what happens, what you get and how much of your time it takes.

Phase 1 of 8 · Week 1

Discover

Desk research, App Store review mining, a teardown of the current app and the fitness category.

What you get

  • Research brief
  • Assumptions to test
  • Sourced fact sheet

Your time: One 60-min kickoff

See it on this page ↓

02 · Define · Personas

Three people who were told to push harder.

Built from the audience Gentler Streak speaks to: Apple Watch owners put off by “push harder” fitness culture, including people returning from injury, burnout or illness, and people who track their cycle.

Personas are NUUKE research assumptions built from the brand’s public audience, not real customers.

03 · Define · Journey map

The day the streak would usually break.

Restarting Ben’s first two weeks. Tap each moment to see what he’s doing, how he feels and the design opportunity we found.

DelightFrustration😐😕😣🙂🙂😄

Stage 1 · Download

Doing

Installs it after his doctor says “move a bit more”.

Feeling

😐 Hopeful, a little embarrassed.

Opportunity

Onboarding asks how he feels, not what his goal is. No target to fail on day one.

04 · Structure · Card sort

Where would you look for it?

Before drawing screens, we ask people how they group things. Sort thirteen real Gentler Streak features into four tabs, then compare your sort with the information architecture we propose.

Sort Gentler Streak’s features into four tabs.

Drag each card into the tab where you’d look for it. On a phone, tap a card, then tap a tab. With a keyboard, pick a card up with Enter, press 1–4 to place it, or 0 to put it back.

0 / 13 sorted

Unsorted · 13 left

Today 1How am I, and what should I do?
    Workouts 2What did I do, and how hard was it?
      Trends 3How am I doing over weeks and months?
        You 4Data, permissions and preferences.

          05 · Structure · User flow

          Eleven screens around one morning question.

          Onboarding happens once. The daily loop is How do you feel? → Today → a suggestion, or rest. Tap any screen to open it in the prototype below.

          tap suggestionrest insteadWelcomeHealth permissionsHow do you feel?Today (home)Go GentlerRest dayActivity PathHeart noteWorkout detailWeekly trendSettings

          Tap any screen to open it in the prototype ↓

          06 · Design · 3D wireframe

          The Today screen, taken apart.

          Each screen is built in five layers, from grid to motion. Scroll and the exploded view assembles into the final UI; drag to look around it.

          Scroll to assemble · drag to orbit

          1. L1

            Layout grid

            4 columns, 20pt margins, an 8pt rhythm and safe areas. Every card spans the full grid so it scales with Dynamic Type.

          2. L2

            Wireframe

            One question per card, in reading order: how am I, where am I on my path, what should I do, what did I do.

          3. L3

            Content & data

            Plain-language copy first. “You’re steady” beats a score; the path shows ten days, with today ringed.

          4. L4

            Colour & type

            Warm cream base, Yorhart-orange for “today”, leaf green for the path. Heavy geometric numbers, sentence-case body.

          5. L5

            Motion & feedback

            The readiness orb breathes at a calm 5.5 s, today’s dot pulses once, and the band draws in left to right. All of it stops with Reduce Motion.

          07 · Prototype & test

          A morning, a walk and a rest day. Tap through it.

          This is the prototype we’d put in front of five people per round. Follow the tasks on the left, and switch between Sketch, Wireframe and Hi-fi to see how each screen evolved.

          Interactive prototype

          Gentler Streak · daily loop

          Seven tasks, eleven screens. The heart’s voice appears as plain copy; we don’t redraw the brand’s mascot.

          Final UI, fully tappable.

          Your journey 0/7

          Gentler Streak · concept

          Move consistently, not constantly.

          Every morning we’ll suggest how much to move, based on how you slept, how you’ve trained and how you feel.

          Step 1 of 2

          Here’s why each kind of data helps.

          You choose. Everything stays in Apple Health on your phone.

          Workouts & heart rateSo we know how hard each session really was.
          SleepA short night gently lowers today’s suggestion.
          Resting heart rate & HRVEarly signs that your body wants rest.
          Cycle tracking (optional)Adjusts guidance to the phase you’re in.

          Morning check-in · 7:12

          How do you feel this morning?

          There’s no wrong answer. It tunes today’s suggestion alongside your sleep and heart data.

          Tuesday · 6 Oct

          Today

          12-day streak
          ReadinessYou’re steady.Short sleep and a big Sunday, so keep it easy.

          Go Gentler · for today

          A 20-min walk is perfect today.

          It keeps you inside your path without adding load after Sunday’s long run.

          Activity Path

          27 of 30 days inside your path.

          inside▲ above▼ below

          What is the path?

          The green band is the range of activity that suits you right now, based on your recent weeks. Above it, you’re piling on load. Below it, you’re easing off. Both are fine for a day or two.

          Sample data

          The days shown are illustrative, made for this concept.

          Yesterday · 17:40

          Easy walk · 32 min

          Avg heart rate104
          Distance2.6 km

          Time in heart-rate zones

          Zone 17 min
          Zone 222 min
          Zone 33 min
          Zone 40 min
          Effect on your pathKept you inside. A good, easy day.

          Rest day

          Rest counts.

          Your heart says: today, the best training is recovery. Your streak stays alive.

          12 → 13-day streak

          Trends · this week

          Consistent, not constant.

          MTWTFSS

          5 active days, 2 rest days. Every one of them counted toward your streak.

          Inside your path6 / 7
          Streak12 days

          Progress, not comparison

          No leaderboards. Just you, this week and last week.

          Your heart says

          “You don’t have to earn today.”

          Short sleep happens. A slow walk will feel good, and if it doesn’t, stopping is allowed too. I’ll still be here tomorrow.

          Plain-language copy in the brand’s supportive voice. In the app, this is where its heart character would speak.

          You

          Settings

          Gentle nudges

          Morning check-in7:00 · one nudge, no streak warnings
          Rest-day reminderWhen your path suggests recovery
          Weekly recapSunday evening

          Guidance

          Cycle-aware guidanceAdapts suggestions by phase
          Units & languageMetric · English›

          …

          08 · Watch · Watch-first

          Designed for the wrist first, the phone second.

          Gentler Streak was Apple Watch App of the Year in 2022, so the watch isn’t a port. Tap the complication, start a walk, end it, or choose rest. Press the Digital Crown to go home, and lower your wrist to see the Always-On state.

          TUE 6

          9:41

          Readiness 9:41

          Steady

          A 20-min walk is perfect today.

          Ideas 9:41

          Outdoor walk 9:41

          0:00.0

          98 bpm

          Zone 2 · easy. Right where today wants you.

          Summary 9:41

          Nice and easy.

          21 min · inside your path

          Streak: 13 days

          Rest counts.

          Your streak stays alive. Recovery is part of training.

          Watch face

          Taps from face to workout

          0target: 2 or fewer

          Start on the face. Tap the complication, then “Start walk”.

          Complication

          Jump to a screen

          • Two-second glance. The complication answers “what should I do today?” before the app opens.
          • One action per screen. The biggest button is always the gentle option.
          • Rest is a button, not a failure. “Rest instead” sits next to “Start walk”.
          • Always-On stays calm. Wrist down, the face dims to time and one line, no colour blocks.

          09 · Include · Accessibility pass

          Gentle has to mean readable, for everyone.

          Gentler Streak won its Apple Design Award for Social Impact. We hold the design to that: switch on each setting and watch the same screen hold up. The readouts are measured live from the screen.

          Dynamic Type

          Body text at 17pt, the iOS default.

          Measured on the screen right now

          Secondary text contrast
          …
          Button label contrast
          …
          Smallest tap target
          …
          Animations running
          …
          Meaning by colour alone
          None. Days above or below the path are ▲ and ▼, not just red or purple.

          Tuesday · 6 Oct

          Today

          Readiness

          You’re steady.

          Short sleep, so keep it easy.

          Activity Path · 10 days

          inside▲ above▼ below

          Your heart says: a gentle day still counts.

          10 · Ship · Design system

          One warm anchor. Feature colours as accents.

          Colour tokens · click to copy

          Type scale

          • Display / numbersYou’re steady.Montserrat 800 · 36/38 (stand-in for a heavy geometric sans)
          • TitleRest counts.Montserrat 800 · 26/30
          • BodyA 20-min walk is perfect today.Inter 400 · 16/24 · sentence case
          • LabelREADINESS · TUESDAYInter 600 · 12/16 · +0.12em

          Components

          Buttons

          Start walkRest instead

          Rest is a first-class action with the same size and weight as moving.

          Path markers

          InsideAboveBelow

          Shape carries the meaning; colour only reinforces it.

          Systemic colour

          Coral always means “today”. Each feature colour appears once per screen, as an accent, so the brand stays recognisable.

          Motion

          One breath is 5.5 s, sine in-out. Everything calm moves at this pace, and stops with Reduce Motion.

          Hex values are our working approximation from a third-party teardown of App Store screenshots (floow.design), not official Gentler Streak colours.

          11 · Ship · Measure

          How we’d know it worked.

          KPI 01

          Today, at a glance

          We expect: People can say what today’s suggestion is within five seconds of opening the app, or two seconds from the watch complication.

          How we’d measure: Moderated first-click and five-second tests; complication taps vs. app opens.

          KPI 02

          Rest feels like a win

          We expect: Testers describe the rest-day screen as encouraging, and people who take a suggested rest day come back the next day at least as often as those who skip it.

          How we’d measure: Interview coding across test rounds; next-day return rate by cohort after launch.

          KPI 03

          Findable features

          We expect: The four-tab IA lets people find key features first time in a tree test.

          How we’d measure: Tree test on the top eight tasks, then compared with the card-sort clusters.

          KPI 04

          Accessibility parity

          We expect: Task success with VoiceOver and the largest text sizes matches the default setup.

          How we’d measure: Sessions with assistive-technology users; audit at every release.

          These are the success measures we would agree with the client before launch. As a concept project, no results are claimed.

          Sources for brand facts

          In good company