Case study · Mobile app

Cadence

Cadence app screens on a deep blue starry background: the Groups screen and an AI assistant asking “How can I help today?”, next to the Cadence app icon.
Team
Navyaa Taneja, Bingxi Liu, Shenyu Zhang, Chongyu Xie
Role
UX Research, Data Collection & Analysis, UX Design
Methods
Desk research, competitive audit of 8+ apps, survey (129 people), interviews, 150+ wireframes

Most focus apps make you feel guilty when you fail. We asked: what if they helped you recover instead?

The Problem

It’s not you. It’s the system.

Struggling to focus isn’t about laziness, it’s about living in a world designed to steal your attention. And when you turn to productivity apps for help, the existing tools often make it worse: they assume stable energy, punish missed days, and pile on planning overhead before you’ve even started.

We started this project grounded in cognitive science, specifically, how sustained attention has a natural ceiling (~10 minutes), how multitasking is physiologically impossible, and how effective design should work with the brain’s rhythms, not against them.

Research

What we found in the numbers and in people’s words

We triangulated four methods: desk research into cognitive and behavioral science, a competitive audit of 8+ focus apps, a survey of 129 users, and in-depth user interviews.

  • ~90% of survey respondents were dissatisfied, struggling, or had given up on focus apps entirely
  • 58% stopped using their focus app because it couldn’t stop them from switching to other apps
  • 60% said “putting my phone away” was their most effective focus strategy, but hated forced phone-locking in apps

“The rules are too rigid. If I miss just one day and lose my progress, I completely lose the motivation to keep going.”

— Interview participant, Teacher

Across the competitor landscape, we mapped three dominant patterns, and found a gap in all of them…

Core Insights

  1. Insight 1

    Multitasking triggers overwhelm, clarity enables action.

    Answered by task breakdown

  2. Insight 2

    Manual tracking creates friction, and becomes the reason people quit.

    Answered by smart input

  3. Insight 3

    Community reduces isolation, and strengthens follow-through.

    Answered by smart matching & co-focus

Problem Statement

People don’t fail to focus because they lack motivation. They fail because multitasking overwhelms them, manual tracking adds burden, and they’re trying to stay consistent alone.

How Might We…

Help overwhelmed users move from multitasking to momentum, by guiding them through one clear next step, with quiet community presence and minimal manual effort?

Our Way Forward

2×2 matrix mapping productivity app patterns by attention (fragmented vs. unidirectional) and tone (punitive vs. supportive). The unidirectional and supportive quadrant is highlighted as the design opportunity.

The Solution

Cadence

After 150+ wireframes and multiple rounds of moodboarding, we landed on seven core features built around three value propositions:

  1. 1

    Reduces overwhelm

    Fewer decisions, less friction before you start.

    Functions 1–2 →
  2. 2

    Builds focus

    Co-presence and adaptive guidance instead of isolation.

    Functions 3–4 →
  3. 3

    Sustains self-trust

    No punishment for stopping. Recovery is part of the system.

    Functions 5–7 →

Jump to a feature

  1. 1Smart input
  2. 2Task breakdown
  3. 3Smart matching
  4. 4Co-focus
  5. 5Recovery breaks
  6. 6Accountability
  7. 7Rewards
Cadence home screen with a dark blue gradient and planet icon, greeting the user with “Hi Chongyu, how can I help you today?” Suggested prompts like “Plan my day” and “Create a to-do list” sit above an “Ask anything” input with a mic button. Cadence Groups screen showing the user’s active UX Design Help Group with progress and 11 days left, an achievements card, and recommended accountability groups such as “UXer Help UXer” and “Women in Tech”.

Function 1

Minimize manual input effort.

The NLP engine swiftly parses the user’s input and extracts key information into system-recognizable time fields.

Task entry screen with the placeholder “e.g. Revise biology notes daily at 7 pm”, quick-add chips for Date, Priority 2 and Location, and the keyboard open. Voice capture screen in listening mode. Spoken input has become three recurring tasks: Research paper (19:00–21:00), Do laundry (21:30–22:00) and Read (22:00–22:20).

Function 2

Reduce cognitive load by breaking down tasks.

The system can rapidly break down tasks based on user presets and needs, helping users stay focused through task decomposition.

AI assistant screen with a glowing concentric-ring orb, greeting “Hi Chongyu, how can I help you today?” with prompt chips and an “Ask anything” input. Assistant conversation breaking a research paper into three phases added to the calendar: Desk Research (Jan 12), Writing (Jan 30) and Polish (Feb 18), then offering to schedule around the user’s classes.

User Flow 1: Adding a task

Function 3: Community

Smart Matching: Find your people.

Based on your plan, the system recommends peers working on similar activities.

Groups screen with the active UX Design Help Group, an achievements card with two badges, and recommended groups, each with dates, tags and member avatars. Focus Room for the “UX Designers Women in Tech Meetup” group, with 127 members and a feed of members’ current tasks above a “Link your task” field.
Close-up of the Focus Room’s upper half: the group name, 127 members, and a scrolling row of members’ current tasks.
Preview what like-minded people are planning to accomplish.
Close-up of the Focus Room’s lower half: a “Link your task” field above a disabled “Join the group” button.
Link your task as a milestone to join the group.

Function 4 · Work together

Co-Focus Execution

Choose a small task and start a focus session alongside your group. Presence without performance, no leaderboards, no pressure.

Focus Room during an active session: a glowing central sphere orbited by smaller circles representing group members, the task “Research Paper 1”, a 10:36 timer, and Take a Break and End Session buttons.

Function 5

Recovery breaks + mind-reset games

Powered by “Flow Arcade”, short cognitive resets (not endless scrolling) designed to help users return to focus, not abandon it.

Music screen with category tabs (Nature, Lo-fi Beats, Birds, Popular), a featured 10-minute “Lavender fields” meditation, and tracks like Aurora and Galaxy. Take a Break screen with a 2:22 break timer, game categories (Number, Word, Colour) and a featured Number Crossword game.

Function 6 · Support

Social Accountability

Group members can post photos and likes. Lightweight, human, and opt-in, not a metrics dashboard.

Function 7 · Reward

Reward system

After each session, a non-punitive summary: how long you focused, how you compared, what moved forward. Motivation without shame.

Iterations

What changed, and why

We ran five rounds of moderated usability testing (remote and in-person), with both design and non-design participants. Three areas drove the most iteration:

v1: AI input

Clarification-first

Upfront questions to improve accuracy. Felt slow and friction-heavy.

v2: AI input

Speed-first, refine later

Confirm immediately, adjust over time. Less friction, more natural.

v1: Co-focus layout

Waterfall task list

All group tasks visible at once. Overwhelming, the opposite of the goal.

v2: Co-focus layout

Focus mode toggle

Switch between list and single-task view. Respects different working styles.

Reflection

What this project taught me

Cognitive science isn’t just background reading

Grounding every design decision in actual research (sustained attention limits, multitasking myths, the psychology of streak loss) made our decisions defensible and our critique of competitors sharper. It changed how I think about the “why” behind every interaction pattern.