Wellie
Wellie
A pet wellness app that helps owners track their pet's health holistically—from supplements and activity to nutrition and mental wellness. I designed and built the entire product end-to-end: native iOS app, backend API, and marketing website.
Visit Live SiteThe Challenge
Pet owners lack a unified way to track their pet's holistic wellness. Existing solutions are fragmented—separate apps for activity tracking, medication reminders, and vet records—none of which communicate with each other or provide meaningful insights. The core insight: owners wanted a simple answer to "Is my pet doing well?" without becoming amateur veterinarians.
The Solution
Built a wellness companion app around a 7-Dimension Wellness Framework that evaluates pet health across interconnected areas: Physical, Mental, Social, Nutrition, Activity, Environment, and Medical Care. The iPhone app syncs with the owner's fitness data, uses AI to generate personalized insights, and includes a marketing website with engaging visualizations.
Responsibilities
Full stack, from concept to App Store.
iOS app design & development (SwiftUI)
Backend API architecture (Express.js)
AI integration & prompt engineering
Apple HealthKit integration
Marketing site design & development
7-dimension wellness framework design
Passwordless authentication system
Performance optimization & caching
Tools & Technologies
iOS
Backend
AI
Web
Deployment
The Outcome
Shipped a complete product as a solo creator—a native iOS app, backend infrastructure, and marketing website—all designed and built from scratch. The app is currently in private beta with real users and preparing for public launch on the App Store.
The Approach
Rather than building a feature-heavy MVP, I focused on creating a cohesive experience around one core concept: the 7-dimension wellness framework. This framework became the foundation for every design decision—from the animated ring visualization to the AI prompt engineering.
Defining the Wellness Framework
I identified seven key dimensions of pet wellness based on veterinary research and pet owner interviews:
- Physical – Body condition, weight, mobility
- Mental – Cognitive stimulation, enrichment activities
- Social – Interactions with humans and other animals
- Nutrition – Diet quality, feeding consistency, supplements
- Activity – Exercise frequency, duration, intensity
- Environment – Living conditions, safety, comfort
- Medical – Vet visits, vaccinations, preventive care
Each dimension needed its own scoring algorithm while contributing to an overall wellness score. This created an interesting technical challenge: how do you weight different health factors fairly when they vary so much by pet type, breed, and age?
Design Iterations
The Wellness Rings Visualization
The signature feature went through several iterations based on usability feedback:
Version 1: Hybrid 4/7 rings — Initially, I designed a collapsible system—4 combined rings by default that expanded to 7 on tap. This reduced visual complexity but confused users who didn't realize more detail was available.
Version 2: Always 7 rings — I simplified to always show all 7 rings. Users understood the framework immediately, and the visualization became more distinctive.
Version 3: Refined iconography — Added a background circle behind the rings for better contrast. Changed to outline icons to match the marketing site style. Added tap-to-reveal tooltips so users could learn what each dimension meant.
Version 4: Legend carousel — The icon legend felt cramped, so I changed it to a horizontal scrollable carousel with larger icons and reduced icon sizes on the rings to prevent touching.
Each iteration was driven by watching how users interacted with the visualization and where they got stuck.
Typography Evolution
The app's personality needed to feel friendly but trustworthy. I tested three typeface directions:
Nunito — Rounded, friendly, but felt too playful for health-related content.
Quicksand — Cleaner geometric shapes, but lacked warmth at small sizes.
Google Sans Flex — Rounded terminals that feel approachable while maintaining legibility. This became the final choice.
Authentication UX: Going Passwordless
The login experience evolved significantly through real-world testing:
Phase 1: Email + Password — Standard approach, but users forgot passwords frequently and password reset emails felt friction-heavy.
Phase 2: OTP alongside Password — Added 6-digit code option. Improved paste support for codes and refined the input UI. But having two options created decision fatigue.
Phase 3: Fully Passwordless — Removed password authentication entirely. Users now enter their email, receive a 6-digit code, and they're in. This reduced login friction dramatically and eliminated password reset support requests.
Positioning: Companion, Not Medical Advisor
Early messaging positioned Wellie as a comprehensive health tool. User feedback revealed this created uncomfortable expectations—people worried about liability and whether they should trust the app for medical decisions.
I repositioned Wellie as a "wellness companion" rather than a medical advisor. The AI chat explicitly recommends consulting veterinarians for health concerns. This subtle shift made users more comfortable using the app regularly without anxiety about making wrong decisions.
Problem-Solving in Production
Real users revealed issues that testing didn't catch:
App Startup Performance
Users reported a 10-second blank screen on launch. I traced this to loading all data upfront and refactored to lazy-load non-critical data. The activity tab now loads only when selected.
HealthKit Sync Confusion
Users who walked with their pets expected automatic activity import, but were confused when walks didn't appear. I built a sync detection system that prompts users to confirm detected HealthKit activities rather than importing silently or requiring manual entry.
UserDefaults Corruption
The app crashed for some users due to cached data exceeding iOS limits (4MB+). I added automatic cleanup that detects oversized caches and clears them on startup.
Chat Scroll Position
The chat loaded showing the oldest messages at top, forcing users to scroll. Fixed scroll positioning to load at the bottom, matching every messaging app users already know.
Marketing Site Design
The marketing site needed to communicate the app's value proposition before users could download it. I focused on three goals:
- Immediate clarity – What is Wellie and who is it for?
- Visual demonstration – Show the product, don't just describe it
- Low-friction signup – Email waitlist with instant confirmation
The Hero Section
The hero uses rotating background images that adapt to the user's system theme—dog photos in light mode, moodier shots in dark mode. This small detail reinforces that the app is thoughtfully designed.
The signup form is prominent but not aggressive. Success states are friendly ("Thanks! We'll notify you when Wellie launches.") and duplicates are handled gracefully ("You're already on the list!").
The Wellness Showcase
I recreated the 7-ring visualization from the iOS app as an interactive SVG component. The rings animate on scroll using Framer Motion, and hovering over any ring highlights the corresponding category in the adjacent list. This lets visitors understand the wellness framework before downloading the app.
Dark Mode Considerations
The entire site supports system-aware dark mode. I found that the marketing site's dark mode needed to be darker than the app's dark mode to create contrast against hero images. This led to a CSS architecture where section backgrounds are controlled through ID selectors with !important to override Tailwind defaults reliably.
Key Decisions & Tradeoffs
Native iOS vs. Cross-Platform
I chose native SwiftUI over React Native or Flutter because:
- HealthKit integration is first-class on native
- SwiftUI's declarative syntax matches my mental model
- iOS 26's new design language was only available natively
- Performance for animations and transitions is noticeably better
The tradeoff is no Android app (yet), but the target audience skews heavily iOS.
Multi-Pet Support
Many households have multiple pets. The pet switcher lives in the top-left corner, always accessible. Switching pets automatically loads that pet's data throughout the app. For pets that have passed, the app shows a memorial message—acknowledging the emotional reality of pet ownership.
One-Tap Supplement Logging
Made logging a dose take under 2 seconds: supplements appear on the home screen with scheduled times, one tap marks it complete with haptic feedback, and the icon changes from empty circle to green checkmark. Overdue doses show red badges so they're impossible to miss.
AI as Companion, Not Doctor
Rather than building AI features that try to replace veterinary advice, I focused on AI as a companion—answering general wellness questions, generating personalized headlines, and surfacing relevant information. The app includes clear disclaimers that AI responses aren't medical advice.
Waitlist vs. Beta Launch
I chose a waitlist approach over an immediate beta because:
- It builds anticipation and validates demand
- It gives me time to polish without live user pressure
- Email collection enables targeted launch communications
- It creates a natural conversion funnel for measuring interest
Outcomes & Reflections
What Worked
- The 7-dimension framework is memorable—users reference it in feedback
- Passwordless auth eliminated login friction and support requests
- Apple Health integration removes duplicate logging
- The interactive ring visualization is the most-shared element of the marketing site
What I'd Improve
- Start with the marketing site earlier—it forced clarity on the value proposition
- Build a design system document before coding—some spacing inconsistencies needed cleanup later
- Add more onboarding tooltips to explain wellness dimensions on first use
Key Learnings
- Simplicity requires iteration — The "simple" 7-ring visualization took 4 versions to feel right
- Remove options when possible — Passwordless login worked better than password + OTP choices
- Positioning matters — "Companion" vs "medical advisor" changed how comfortable users felt
What's Next
Wellie is currently in private beta with plans to launch on the App Store in 2026.
Android App
Evaluating Kotlin Multiplatform for cross-platform development
Family Sharing
Multi-person households can share pet profiles
Vet Records
Import and parse veterinary documents via PDF
Wearable Integration
Automatic activity tracking from pet wearables
Community Features
Breed-specific advice and pet owner discussions
This project represents my design process: ship early, watch how people actually use it, and iterate based on real behavior rather than assumptions.
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