Wellness Healthcare | B2C Mobile App | Sunflower

Koby came to us with a pre-alpha app he had been building as a side hustle. His concept was powerful, driven by personal history to help people quit through visual progress tracking and an AI companion that feels genuinely human.

Most users decide in the first 2 to 3 screens whether an app is worth trusting. Download is easy and drop-off is easier. We needed to design an experience that made users feel invested before they even created an account. The stakes were high. Onboarding a mental health recovery app means designing the line between someone finding life-saving support or silently suffering alone forever. And users will delete your app the second it feels preachy.

We went through four full iteration rounds before shipping.

Version one led with the garden visualisation to establish the CBT metaphor immediately.

Version two opened with Sam to build trust before asking personal questions.

Version three restructured the entire question flow around disclosure psychology.

Version four combined what worked: personalise the garden first to create ownership through cost fallacy, introduce Sam as ongoing support, then layer in questions at points where users are already emotionally invested.

We designed the garden visualisation system where every sober day blooms and every relapse costs something. Every sober day, the sunflowers grow. Relapse means watching something you built wither. We designed the field switch animation to make that psychological loop visible and felt, not just understood. The movement had to feel natural and meaningful, soft timing, nothing gamified or cheap.

We built Sam, an AI chat companion whose interface had to feel like talking to someone who gets it rather than a chatbot running through prompts. Instead of the usual guilt-driven recovery app tone, Sunflower built a space that felt human and safe. Users spend up to 4 hours straight talking to Sam. Many credited Sam with helping them quit and stay sober. Sam became the most beloved feature in the entire app.

We added real user testimonials directly into the onboarding flow at the exact moment users are wondering if this app is just another thing that is going to fail them. Proof that recovery is possible when you are in those first few screens.

We designed milestone celebration screens that feel distinct and personal rather than generic, because most recovery apps treat milestones as checkboxes and users feel nothing. The goal was to give users a moment that actually feels earned, something worth coming back for.

Pixel One delivered mobile UI/UX design for iOS and Android, the complete onboarding flow from wireframes to high fidelity, the Sam AI chat interface, milestone and celebration systems, personalization features, website design, and marketing materials.

Sunflower grew from pre-alpha to 100,000 monthly active users in under 6 months, secured $6.5M in funding at a $60M valuation, got accepted into Y Combinator, and now generates $1M ARR with 10K paying users.