Shorter rounds
Early versions stayed on screen longer. That made the gate feel frustrating, so each challenge was narrowed to an eight-to-fifteen-second window.
WK-01 · Self-initiated iOS app · Ready for testing
Wakeup!
A personal iOS alarm build that replaces snooze with one of ten short, randomized wake-up games, then moves directly into feedback and the first tasks of the day.
Evidence noteThis was sustained self-testing of a personal production build, not a formal user study.
- Role
- Solo product design + prototyping
- Games
- 10 randomized challenges
- Round
- 8–15 seconds
- Status
- Ready for testing
01 / Wake loop
Add enough friction to wake up, then get out of the way.
An alarm can be dismissed before someone has consciously decided to get up. Wakeup! replaces that reflexive gesture with a brief cognitive task, immediate feedback, and the morning’s first tasks.
- Alarm fires. AlarmKit presents a system alert through silent mode and Focus.
- A game starts. One of ten challenges is selected without repeating the previous cognitive channel.
- Feedback lands. The result, XP, and streak update immediately.
- The day begins. Morning tasks appear instead of another snooze decision.
02 / Iteration
Morning use changed the interaction.
More varied channels
The system expanded to ten games and stopped serving the same cognitive channel twice in a row.
03 / Reliability
The alarm has to work when I answer—and when I don’t.
The experience splits into an answered path and an ignored path. Five follow-up alarms are scheduled one minute apart, and stored AlarmKit metadata keeps the Lock Screen accurate even after iOS has stopped the app process.
Answered path
Alarm → game → result → tasks → completed cycle.
Ignored path
Alarm → follow-up chain → exhausted state → graceful stop.
04 / Product system
One system, six visual identities.
Each theme defines cards, shadows, corner radii, typography, headline casing, and clock style. Shared color and type tokens let the app and widgets adopt each identity without duplicating their interface logic.
05 / Outcome
What two months of weekday use changed.
Across more than two months of personal workday use, I did not return to sleep after finishing the game. That is one person’s self-test, not a general claim about effectiveness.
- Shorter rounds reduced resistance.
- Variety made repetition less predictable.
- Reliability became part of the interaction design.
- Shared tokens protected visual range.