Any guesses on which direction won?
It is Direction 1 - Participation Winning direction 🏆 Figma ↗️ Latest downloadable Android Package Kit, APK↗️
All three directions explored the same question: How might we make returning feel hopeful instead of overwhelming? Each direction approached it differently.
Composition celebrated doing. Inspired by diamond art, every few minutes invested gradually filled a blank canvas with colour. It reflected a thought that repeatedly surfaced during research and Reddit discussions: thinking and planning are important, but nothing replaces doing. I appreciated how this direction visualised effort over time and made participation visible through every tile added.
Gallery celebrated reflection. Every completed action slowly transformed into a piece of string art, creating a personal gallery that users could revisit. Even unfinished artworks felt intentional, just as galleries use empty space to let existing artwork breathe. This direction offered users a gentle reminder of how far they had already come, especially on days when they returned feeling discouraged.
Yet, while both directions were meaningful, they still introduced a new interaction that users needed to understand. Participation felt different.
The more I reflected on my research, the more I realized that people already have their own ways of participating. Long before habit apps existed, we wrote things down in notebooks, coloured little boxes, crossed tasks off lists, scribbled reminders in margins, and made sense of our days in ways that felt natural to us. These weren't interactions that needed to be taught,they were already part of our lives.
That familiarity made the experience feel effortless. In Participation, every interaction carries a purpose.
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Writing represents intention. It is the quiet moment when a user decides, "This is the next small thing I want to do." It doesn't ask them to think about finishing a thirty-day challenge. It simply helps them identify the next step.
This idea came directly from the research. One participant described feeling embarrassed during swimming lessons after struggling with breath control while others progressed more quickly. Instead of returning immediately to swimming, she eventually decided to try yoga. Between those two moments was a series of much smaller actions: looking up instructors, making a phone call, asking questions, deciding on a class. Those were the moments that deserved attention, not the distant goal of becoming better at swimming.
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Colouring represents completion. It isn't about achieving perfection; it's about acknowledging that something happened today. Whether a user colours one box or five, the action itself becomes worthy of recognition.
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Crossing represents acceptance. Sometimes priorities change. Sometimes life changes. Sometimes an action simply no longer belongs. Crossing it isn't a failure, it is an intentional decision to let go and make space for what comes next.
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Together, these three interactions mirror how people naturally organize their lives. They don't celebrate perfect weeks or uninterrupted streaks. They celebrate the small decisions that quietly move people forward.
Ultimately, Participation became the strongest direction because it asked users to learn nothing new. Instead, it embraced behaviours they had already practiced for years and reframed them into a calmer, more compassionate habit-building experience.
Rather than motivating users through rewards or progress bars, it reminded them of something much simpler: Sometimes, showing up is as simple as writing something down, colouring it when it happens, or peacefully crossing it off. And sometimes, that's enough.