01
Problem
Most habit trackers feel repetitive and disconnected from emotional progress.
Grove Case Study
Your habits grow your world.
A gamified habit tracking app where daily consistency grows a living garden.
Coming soon to App Store
Role: UI/UX Designer & DeveloperPlatform: iOS & Android
React NativeExpoTypeScriptRiveSkiaFigma
Executive Summary
Problem · Solution · Outcome
02
Solution
Grove transforms habit tracking into a calming visual experience where habits directly impact a living garden.
03
Outcome
A mobile-first product designed to encourage consistency through daily visual growth and rewarding interactions.
Project Brief
Context
Grove reimagines habit tracking through environmental storytelling and interactive progression systems. Instead of focusing on charts and productivity metrics, the app creates a peaceful experience where users maintain and grow a virtual garden through daily habits.
App walkthrough
Problem Statement
Why habit apps lose people
Three friction points Grove addresses.
Lack of Emotional Engagement
Traditional habit trackers often feel transactional and repetitive.
Progress Feels Invisible
Users struggle to feel rewarded by long-term consistency.
Productivity Burnout
Many self-improvement apps prioritize pressure over encouragement.
Gamification System Design
The core loop
Habit data maps directly to a living visual environment.
1
Complete Habit
User logs a daily habit — the action triggers the growth loop.
2
Plant Grows
The associated plant visually grows to reflect the completed habit.
3
Garden Evolves
Consistent completions evolve the full garden environment.
4
Daily Consistency
Maintaining the loop keeps the garden alive and thriving.
The core loop focuses on visually maintaining a peaceful, living environment rather than maximizing productivity metrics.
Real Impact
Real Impact
- Designed for short daily engagement loops
- Encourages consistency through visual progression
- Creates emotional connection through environmental feedback
- Built as a scalable consumer-facing mobile app
Design System
Design System
Principles
CalmMinimalNature-inspiredReward-driven
Focus Areas
- Lightweight interactions
- Clear visual feedback
- Cozy illustration language
- Mobile-first usability
Dev Journey
Design to device
Building Grove as a solo designer-developer.
Challenges & Solutions
What we solved along the way
Balancing Gamification
Focused on peaceful progression instead of competitive mechanics.
Maintaining Simplicity
Reduced unnecessary UI complexity to keep interactions lightweight and approachable.
Animation & Performance
Explored optimized animation workflows for smooth mobile performance.
Comparison
Grove vs. traditional habit apps
Traditional Habit Apps
- Static checklists
- Data-heavy interfaces
- Productivity-focused experiences
Grove
- Living visual progression
- Environmental feedback
- Calm, game-inspired interactions
Outcome
Impact in practice
Grove evolved into a polished mobile habit tracking experience that blends gamification, calming visuals, and lightweight interactions into a more emotionally engaging daily routine system.
The project also became an exploration into combining product design, illustration systems, animation, and front-end development into a unified consumer app experience.