iOS — 2024
Ember
A private journal that treats every entry like a letterpress print.
Challenge
Journaling apps optimize for streaks and dashboards, which makes writing feel like a chore to gamify. Ember's brief was the opposite: make a quiet, tactile place people actually want to write in.
Approach
I designed and built a typography-first composer — real typographic rhythm, paper texture rendered live, and haptics tuned to feel like a pen catching tooth. Sync is invisible CloudKit; there are no streaks, badges, or feeds anywhere.
Result
Ember found a devoted paying audience with a 38% trial-to-paid conversion and press coverage praising it as the journal for people who love print. Its composer interactions became my most-referenced iOS work.
Next project
Atlas DSA design system that let a fintech ship consistent product 3x faster.