01
Open to today
Home answers one question: what do I need to do today? Only the commitments due today appear, worked out from each task's repeat rule.
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Case Study · Mobile App · Concept to Build
Jiggy: small steps, taken daily.
A gamified growth tracker for Android. Jiggy takes the points, streaks and badges that keep people coming back to Duolingo and points them at the commitments that actually run your life: building, work, faith, school and personal growth.
Jiggy in 15 secondsSign in · check in · plan · see it add up · earn the badges
01 · The Problem
Thirteen commitments. One spreadsheet.
I was running 13 commitments at the same time across app building, operations work, platform activity, content, personal growth, faith and school. Some happened every day. Others only on Wednesdays, or only on Sundays.
They lived in a Word document and a spreadsheet. Both worked as records, but neither gave me a reason to come back:
A file you have to remember…
…is a file you forget. Nothing pulled me back each day, and nothing showed what was actually due today.
…and one missed day feels like failure.
No points, no streak, no visible progress. Miss a day and the whole month feels lost, so motivation drops.
Design goal: give real-life commitments the same daily pull that Duolingo gives a language lesson, without punishing people for having a real life.Core promise · Small steps, taken daily
02 · The Solution
Open the app. See today. Tap it done.
02
Tap to check in
One tap completes a commitment. Points are added, the streak ticks up, and when the list is clear Jiggy says so: "You showed up."
03
Watch it add up
The dashboard shows points, streak and days active, plus a progress bar for every category so you can see each area of life on its own.
03 · The System
Built the way people plan a month.
Instead of a flat to-do list, every commitment sits in three levels. This is what lets the dashboard say "40% through App Building this month" separately from the overall score.
Level 1 · Project
The container
A month or season with a start and end date. Everything below belongs to a project.
SeptemberOctober
Level 2 · Category
The grouping
Colour-coded areas of life, each with its own progress bar.
App BuildingFaithSchoolBusiness
Level 3 · Task
The habit
A name, a points value, a repeat rule and a completion log for every day it applies.
Build for 45 minutes · daily · +20Read and reflect · daily · +15Optimise landing page · Mon, Thu · +25
04 · Key Features
Every mechanic earns its place.
Today
A single daily check-in
Home opens straight on today's commitments as tappable checkboxes. No history, no scrolling. On a free day it simply says "A lighter day."
Repeat
Calendar-style repeat rules
Daily, or weekly on any set of days (Mondays and Thursdays, say), with a start date and an optional end date.
Earn
Weighted points
Each task carries its own points value, so a 45-minute build session counts for more than a quick review.
Streak
A visible daily streak
Consecutive days with at least one check-in, shown front and centre in the momentum card on Home.
Progress
Category progress bars
"App Building: 12 of 30 days" as a bar, not just a number, so each area of life has its own score.
Reward
A 12-badge shelf
Milestones such as First commitment, Category finisher, 7-day streak and 100 points in a week unlock automatically.
Forgive
Two grace days a month
Adapted from Duolingo's streak freeze. A missed day does not erase the work you have already done.
Remind
An evening reminder
The first check-in switches on a gentle evening nudge, so the reminder only arrives once the habit has started.
Own it
Profile and sign-in
Sign in with an email code, set a display picture and username, and see total points, streak and days active in one place.
05 · Design Approach
Encouraging, never guilt-tripping.
Jiggy tracks real life, not a single app habit, so the interface had to motivate without shaming. Every decision followed four principles.
- Today first, everything else secondFour tabs (Home, Progress, Plan, Profile) keep planning and stats away from the check-in, so Home stays a one-glance screen.
- Progress you can seeEvery number is paired with a bar, a ring or a colour, so the state of the month reads at a glance.
- Warm, calm colourA soft paper background, a deep navy momentum card and a coral accent keep the app encouraging rather than clinical.
- A supportive voiceThe micro-copy cheers people on without nagging, and a missed day is framed as rest, not failure.
One check-in at a time.You showed up.Keep the promise to yourself.A lighter day.
Paper #F8F3EF
Navy #1C1D3B
Coral #FF6B57
Sun #F6D26A
Indigo #5B60E6
Green #2A9B7D
Violet #A274E8
06 · Build Process
From a two-page concept note to an app on my phone.
- Discovery
Problem framed from my own routine
Mapped 13 real commitments and their rhythms (daily, weekly on Wednesday, weekly on Sunday) and named the gap: a record is not a reason to return.
- Concept note
Structure and mechanics on paper
Wrote the concept: the Project → Category → Task model, Google Calendar-style repeat rules, weighted points, streaks, category bars, auto-unlocking badges and grace days.
- Build v1
The core loop
Built the daily check-in, the Plan tab for creating projects, categories and tasks, and the Progress dashboard with category bars.
- Iteration
Profile, badges and safer edits
Added optional profile photos and username editing, expanded the badge shelf, and confirmed cascade deletes so removing a project or category never leaves orphaned tasks.
- Field test
Tested on Android
Ran Jiggy on my own phone, checking in, editing tasks and watching streaks and badges respond in real use.
- Launch assets
Brand, mockups and showreel
Designed the staircase mark, produced Android mockups and a 15-second walkthrough, and wrote this case study.
07 · Screens
Inside the app.
08 · Under the Hood
Architecture & technical decisions.
Architecture
- React Native / Expo app with four tabs: Home, Progress, Plan and Profile
- Three-level data model: Project → Category → Task, each task with its own completion log
- Repeat-rule engine (daily, or chosen weekdays with start and end dates) that works out what is due today
- Streak calculation that counts days with at least one check-in and applies two grace days per calendar month
- Badge rules evaluated automatically from activity, never ticked by hand
Product decisions
- Home shows only today's applicable tasks, never a long historical list
- Points are weighted per task so harder commitments count for more
- Category progress is measured in days with a check-in this month
- Cascade deletes with confirmation keep projects, categories and tasks consistent
- The evening reminder switches on only after the first check-in
The Mark
jiggy.
A rising staircase with a coral dot just ahead of the last step. Each step is a day you showed up; the dot is the next goal, always one step away.
09 · Outcome
Concept note to working product.
4 tabs
Home, Progress, Plan and Profile, all built around one daily check-in
3 levels
Project, Category and Task, mirroring how people actually plan a month
12 badges
Milestones that unlock automatically as the streak and points grow
Jiggy shows how I work: I start from a real problem, borrow what is already proven, adapt it to the people who will use it, and build until it works in daily life. It is the same instinct I bring to executive systems and event operations: turn scattered commitments into a structure people actually follow.