Case study · Mobile app
Calm productivity that grows with you.
A wellness-first planner for students. Set gentle daily goals, focus in quiet work blocks, and watch a tree — and a whole forest — fill in as you go. Meet Sprout, the little companion who sits with you.
Overview
PowerPlan(t) reframes productivity as growth. Instead of nagging streaks and red badges, every focused block and finished goal earns points that grow your tree and plant new ones in your forest. Rest is a first-class feature — breathing, journaling and a soft mood check-in live right next to your goals.
Quiet work blocks — “werkblokken” — with Sprout breathing softly beside you.
Points become trees. Keep showing up and your forest slowly fills in.
Breathing, journaling and mood check-ins — built in, not bolted on.
Signature feature
The heart of the app is a windowsill. Outside, a hand-built pixel landscape — mountains, a drifting sun — shifts with the real time of day on your phone. Every focused day plants another tree in the view, so your progress becomes a place you actually want to visit.
Inside the app
Home · Vandaag
A warm “Goedenavond, Erben” and a short list of doable goals — move a little, study one block, take some rest, drink water. Your growth ring fills as you check them off, and your tree reacts.
Focus · Werkblok
Work blocks run on a calm timer — “25:00, tikt rustig” — while Sprout breathes in and out to keep the pace soft. Four blocks make a session, with room to step away.
Rest · Rust
When it gets much, the Rust tab guides a slow breathing round — “Adem in… 4 sec” — with a soft expanding shape and Sprout along for company. Four rounds, then back to your day.
Journal · Dagboek
A two-tap mood check — Moe, Onrustig, Rustig, Blij, Dankbaar — and a small journal that nobody else reads. Gentle prompts are there for the days when words don’t come easily.
Under the hood
Originally a school project under the team name “photosyntax error” — but I designed and built the whole app end to end myself. The custom pixel-art window, the time-of-day sky and the calm motion were the most rewarding parts to get right: small touches that make the app feel alive and kind.