SOUNDSCAPE
Improving focus and retention through adaptive habit-building UX.
In a world full of distractions, staying focused is genuinely hard, especially for students and focus-driven workers trying to study or do deep work in noisy, unpredictable environments. Generic white-noise apps and noise-canceling tools don't adapt to the individual: there's no personalization, no habit loop, and no way to tell whether the approach is actually working. Soundscape's founders had a broad vision for an all-in-one focus app that leaned on people's existing music subscriptions. The challenge was twofold: narrow that broad vision into something a real early-adopter would choose, and design an experience that felt genuinely tailored rather than like one more sound generator, all on a lean timeline with a small team.
Role
Product Designer
Industry
HealthTech · Productivity
PLATFORM
iOS & Android
Year
2024
The problem
Students and focus-driven workers struggle to concentrate in noisy, unpredictable environments. Generic noise-canceling solutions and focus apps don't adapt to individual needs.
There's no personalization, no habit-building loop, and no way to track whether the approach is actually working.
The challenge was designing an app that felt genuinely tailored, not just another white-noise generator.
What was done
Aligning on what to build
As a product trio with the founders, we ran a structured prioritization to narrow a broad "focus app for everyone" vision into a ranked set of pillars, with Simplicity and distraction-free, sound-enhanced focus sessions rising to the top.
Grounding the design in research
The personalization approach wasn't a guess. I anchored it in evidence, studies on how the right audio improves focus and study outcomes and how timeboxing promotes flow, and turned that into the onboarding that asks about energy level, tempo, and session length.
Brand and visual foundation
Before product screens, I built the brand system: the Soundscape wordmark and symbol, the Outfit type scale, the black, white, orange, and coral palette with its gradient treatment, and usage rules. This doubled as the foundation for the component system.
Core flows and edge-case logic, iterated
I mapped the harder flows end to end, Deep Focus (app-blocking via Allowed Lists and Screen Time) and Recover Streak, including the unhappy paths and monetization branches, then versioned them as the logic firmed up.
The core experience
From the validated flows I designed the polished UI: the session setup, the soundscape selector and sound-mixing, the Blocked Apps and app-picker screens, and the Spotify and Apple Music connection, all in a calm, cozy dark theme with motion that helped it stand out in the store.
Habit-building and reward layer
To turn one-off use into a routine, I designed daily and weekly goals, streaks, and the streak-recovery system, built to motivate consistency without nagging.
Design system and handoff
I built and maintained the design system off the brand foundation, so a small team could iterate quickly and stay visually consistent as the app grew.
The result
Soundscape launched to over 1,000 active users in its first week and reached a 4.9-star rating on the App Store.
The platform houses 30+ soundscapes and connects to music catalogues with over 10 billion streams on Spotify and Apple Music.
High NPS scores and beta tester feedback confirmed that the habit-tracking and reward systems meaningfully improved user retention and long-term engagement.
Other work
SOUNDSCAPE
Improving focus and retention through adaptive habit-building UX.
In a world full of distractions, staying focused is genuinely hard, especially for students and focus-driven workers trying to study or do deep work in noisy, unpredictable environments. Generic white-noise apps and noise-canceling tools don't adapt to the individual: there's no personalization, no habit loop, and no way to tell whether the approach is actually working. Soundscape's founders had a broad vision for an all-in-one focus app that leaned on people's existing music subscriptions. The challenge was twofold: narrow that broad vision into something a real early-adopter would choose, and design an experience that felt genuinely tailored rather than like one more sound generator, all on a lean timeline with a small team.
Role
Product Designer
Industry
HealthTech · Productivity
PLATFORM
iOS & Android
Year
2024
The problem
Students and focus-driven workers struggle to concentrate in noisy, unpredictable environments. Generic noise-canceling solutions and focus apps don't adapt to individual needs.
There's no personalization, no habit-building loop, and no way to track whether the approach is actually working.
The challenge was designing an app that felt genuinely tailored, not just another white-noise generator.
What was done
Aligning on what to build
As a product trio with the founders, we ran a structured prioritization to narrow a broad "focus app for everyone" vision into a ranked set of pillars, with Simplicity and distraction-free, sound-enhanced focus sessions rising to the top.
Grounding the design in research
The personalization approach wasn't a guess. I anchored it in evidence, studies on how the right audio improves focus and study outcomes and how timeboxing promotes flow, and turned that into the onboarding that asks about energy level, tempo, and session length.
Brand and visual foundation
Before product screens, I built the brand system: the Soundscape wordmark and symbol, the Outfit type scale, the black, white, orange, and coral palette with its gradient treatment, and usage rules. This doubled as the foundation for the component system.
Core flows and edge-case logic, iterated
I mapped the harder flows end to end, Deep Focus (app-blocking via Allowed Lists and Screen Time) and Recover Streak, including the unhappy paths and monetization branches, then versioned them as the logic firmed up.
The core experience
From the validated flows I designed the polished UI: the session setup, the soundscape selector and sound-mixing, the Blocked Apps and app-picker screens, and the Spotify and Apple Music connection, all in a calm, cozy dark theme with motion that helped it stand out in the store.
Habit-building and reward layer
To turn one-off use into a routine, I designed daily and weekly goals, streaks, and the streak-recovery system, built to motivate consistency without nagging.
Design system and handoff
I built and maintained the design system off the brand foundation, so a small team could iterate quickly and stay visually consistent as the app grew.
The result
Soundscape launched to over 1,000 active users in its first week and reached a 4.9-star rating on the App Store.
The platform houses 30+ soundscapes and connects to music catalogues with over 10 billion streams on Spotify and Apple Music.
High NPS scores and beta tester feedback confirmed that the habit-tracking and reward systems meaningfully improved user retention and long-term engagement.