GratitudeDesign🪴CalmMindfulnessARGrowthCase StudyReflectionInnovationpsst, you can drag the tags
Capstone
UM Interactive Media · 2024
Sole
designer & researcher · built with Ameya
Best Graduate UX
UM Interactive Media Showcase 2024
TL;DR
The Challenge
Gratitude apps are all text, all journaling, all screen. Nothing gives you something physical and living to return to.
Team & Time
2024, my MFA capstone at the University of Miami. Me on research and design; Ameya built the live iOS prototype.
What I Did
The research, every flow and screen, the AR interactions, 3D plants directed with AI, and a home-screen widget that keeps you coming back.
What Happened
Won Best Graduate UX at the UM Interactive Media Showcase 2024. Visitors started pitching features on the spot.
How do you want to read it?
interactive media showcase
won best graduate UX award
glimpse of my idea
01 – The Origin
This did not start as a design brief.
This did not start as a design brief.
A month after moving to the United States, I was in an accident. I will leave it at that. What I will say is that I arrived in Miami ready for something new, and very quickly found myself trying to hold onto anything that felt like joy.
I tried keeping houseplants. I thought having something alive around me would help, something to tend to, something that needed me. Miami's heat had other ideas. The plants died. And I was left trying to feel grateful for anything when gratitude felt like the furthest thing from where I was.
A year passed. I healed. But I had not forgotten what it felt like to need something living to hold onto, something that existed in your space, not just on a screen. Something that grew with you.
When it came time to choose my capstone project, I did not have to think very hard. Bloom was already there, waiting.
02 – The Insight
Gratitude apps give you a text box. Nothing more.
I ran a survey and spoke to people about their relationship with mindfulness and gratitude apps. The responses were mixed. But one pattern was clear across almost every response.
Current gratitude apps are glorified journals. They ask you to write something down, maybe rate your mood, and close the app. There is no connection between the act of gratitude and anything that persists in your physical world.
FROM THE SURVEY
“I regularly use mindfulness apps to manage stress, but I always forget to open them.”
Survey participant
“I didn't know we could use AR for something like planting gratitude, it sounds amazing.”
Survey participant
“I would love to see my AR plants around me. It would be really motivational.”
Survey participant
The insight was simple: text disappears. A plant on your desk does not. What if gratitude had a physical presence, something you walked past every day, something that grew when you tended to it and needed you when you did not?
Quick question · from my competitor scan
Which app lets you plant gratitude in your own room?
Pick one.
COMPETITORS ANALYSIS
What they do, and what none of them do
COMPANY
AR FEATURE
MINDFULNESS
GRATITUDE JOURNAL
EASY SIGN UP
COMMUNITY
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Headspace
Mindfulness Courses
Planta
Plant Care Tips
Calm
Sleep Time Stories
Insight Timer
Large Free Library
THE IMPORTANT FINDINGS
Gratitude Focus
Current mindfulness apps primarily offer audio meditations, with little emphasis on active gratitude practices. That opens room for an app centred entirely on gratitude.
Innovative AR Use
Where AR exists, it is used for object scanning, not for merging virtual content with a user's real surroundings to build comfort and familiarity.
Community Aspect
Many wellness apps build a sense of community. That can be adapted to foster shared experiences of gratitude, deepening engagement and support.
03 – The Goals
What the app had to feel like, not just do.
USER GOALS
Make gratitude feel tangible, not just written
Build a daily habit that feels caring, not punishing
Have something living in their space to return to
Express gratitude in a way that feels personal
Feel a sense of growth alongside their plants
DESIGN GOALS
Blend AR seamlessly into a daily mindfulness habit
Make 3D plants feel magical, not technical
Design an onboarding that sets a calm, open tone
Use AI to help users express gratitude more deeply
Build something genuinely new, not a Calm clone
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
– Melody Beattie
04 – Key Design Decisions
Five decisions that made Bloom feel alive.
Each one is something you can try below, with a short log of why it works.
DECISION 01
ONBOARDING AS A MOMENT
The breathing exercise.
Most mindfulness apps open with a form or a feature tour. Bloom opens with a breath, and a plant grows on screen with you.
Try it · the first screen
Breathe with it. The plant grows with you.
Ready?
01 Inhale
02 Exhale
03 Ground
04 Begin
Decision log
What it is
Inhale, exhale, ground, begin. The plant grows with each breath, before a single note is planted.
For the person
It sets the tone. Not an interrogation, not a setup wizard. A moment of growth, slowness and presence.
For coming back
The first interaction sets the template. A breath teaches that the app gives; it doesn’t demand.
How I’d know
Onboarding completion: the share who finish the breath and plant a first note.
Most mindfulness apps open with a wall of questions or a feature tour. Bloom opens with a breath. The onboarding begins with a simple breathing exercise, inhale, exhale, and as the user breathes, a plant grows on screen with them. Before a single gratitude note has been planted, the user already has a felt sense of what the app is about: growth, slowness, presence.
First impressions in mindfulness apps are everything. A user who starts with a felt experience instead of a form is already in a different emotional state when they reach the core features. That emotional priming changes how they engage with everything that follows.
DECISION 02
GRATITUDE IN YOUR ACTUAL ROOM
Planting gratitude in your physical space.
Pick a plant, write what you’re grateful for, point at a surface and tap. Your note floats above a 3D plant in your real room.
Try it · two modes, one plant
Come back, and it grows.
Presence in the moment
Just placedGrowingFull bloom
Just placed
Rarely tended. Plants live in your real space, and growth is the retention mechanic. Tend to it, and watch it bloom.
Decision log
Two modes
AR view for presence in the moment. The 2D garden for reflection over time, every plant in one place.
For the person
Text disappears. A plant on your desk doesn’t.
For coming back
Gratitude in your space is a habit loop no notification can match: you sit at your desk, you see your plant. (Plants staying put between sessions is designed, and first on the list to build.)
How I’d know
7-day return rate to the garden.
Open the app, select a plant, write what you are grateful for, and place it somewhere in your physical world using AR. Point your camera at a surface and tap to plant. The gratitude text floats above the 3D plant, visible whenever you look at that spot through the app. The AR experience has two modes: AR view, where plants exist in your real environment, and 2D Garden view, where all your plants collect in a virtual space you can visit anytime.
Both modes serve different emotional needs. Presence in the moment, and reflection over time.
DECISION 03
AI-DIRECTED 3D PLANTS
Plants generated with intent, not at random.
I wrote detailed prompts with ChatGPT and turned them into 3D plants with Meshy.ai, each species in three growth stages.
Try it · my pipeline, in two steps
The AI made the geometry. The direction was mine.
ChatGPT · the prompt I built
Speciesa snake plant in a striped ceramic pot
Sizethree sizes: just planted, growing, full
Moodcalm, fresh, a little hopeful
Detailsoft, realistic leaves, plain background
→
Meshy.ai · the 3D model
waiting for a prompt
The prompt wording is illustrative; the four things I specified, and the three models, are real.
Decision log
For the person
Plants needed to feel alive, not like icons. Neglect one and it stays small; come back and it reaches full size.
For coming back
Growth is a metaphor you feel. Every return visit is rewarded, visually.
Honestly
The AI made the geometry; the creative direction was mine. A species generated for each user is a next step, not built yet.
I used Meshy.ai to generate the 3D plants, but the direction came from me. I used ChatGPT to first build detailed prompts describing exactly what I wanted: the species, the size, the mood, the level of detail. Each plant species has three growth stages representing the user's relationship with that gratitude note over time.
The real thing: generating a plant in Meshy.ai
DECISION 04
LIVING ON THE HOME SCREEN
The streak widget, with feelings.
Bloom lives on your home screen as a plant. Keep your streak and it thrives; miss a few days and it droops, gently nudging you back.
Try it · days in a row
A streak, told by a plant.
“You are doing great!”
A long streak. The plant celebrates with you.
Decision log
Why a streak
Streaks build daily habits, so Bloom uses one, like Duolingo’s. On purpose.
What’s different
The messenger. A plant that cheers you on at twenty days and, at zero, just asks where you are. Caring, not punishing.
For coming back
You don’t need to open the app to feel it. It’s just there, a little plant that needs you.
Bloom lives on your home screen, not just inside the app. The widget shows a plant avatar with an emotional state that changes based on your activity. Tend to your plants regularly and the avatar is happy, vibrant. Go a few days without opening the app and it gets droopy, gently nudging you back.
DECISION 05
ONE WORD, ONE SENTENCE
The one-word AI prompt.
A blank text box is hard when you’re not feeling grateful. Type one word, and the AI expands it into a full sentence.
ONE WORD IN
sister
AI EXPANDS THE FEELING
A FULL SENTENCE OUT
“
I’m grateful for my sister, for the way she calls just to hear my voice, even when there’s nothing to say.
TAP A WORD:
go on, try one. it’s alive
“I love how I can be grateful for something, write it in one word, and get a sentence out of it with more meaning. It made me feel more grateful than I expected.”
Showcase visitor
Decision log
At the showcase
About six people tried it. They loved this more than almost anything else in the app.
Why it works
AI augmenting a feeling, not replacing it. You bring the word; it helps you say it.
05 – The Screens
The decisions, as finished screens.
Bloom is a thinking project and a design project in equal measure. Everything above explains why each choice was made. This is the what: the actual screens, fully designed.
Click through · the real screens, in order
From a breath to a plant in your room.
1 / 11
06 – Built Vs Designed
Honest about the gap.
WHAT WAS BUILT
Live in the prototype
AR plant placement on any surface
3D plant models in three growth stages
2D virtual garden view
Gratitude text attached to each plant
Breathing exercise onboarding
Home screen widget with emotional states
One-word AI gratitude prompt
WHAT WAS DESIGNED, NOT BUILT
In the queue
AR spatial memory: plants stay in place across sessions
Spoken affirmation interaction to grow plants
Social sharing of AR garden spaces
Sending a plant to a friend as a gift
Watering mechanic to grow plants faster
Custom AI-generated plant species per user
THE PART I DIDN’T BUILD ALONE
Bloom only worked at the booth because of Ameya.
I designed every screen, flow, and interaction, but the app had to be partly functional for people to actually try it. Ameya, a brilliant iOS developer (and one of the friends whose postcard is on my homepage), built the live prototype that made the AR placement, the 3D plants, and the widget real in someone’s hands. The designs were mine; the fact that a stranger could pick up a phone and watch a plant grow was ours.
thank you, Ameya. this one doesn’t exist without you.
The gap between designed and built is not a failure. It is the natural reality of a capstone with one designer and one developer. What matters is that the designs were fully realised, the interactions were prototyped, and the concept was validated by real users.
07 – The Showcase
People did not just like it. They wanted to build it.
trying the demo live
UM showcase · 2024
At the University of Miami Interactive Media Annual Showcase, the ribbon on the wall was not the most memorable part.
What I remember is the conversations. People stood at my station and immediately started pitching ideas back at me.
Heard at the booth · tap a card
They pitched it. Here’s where it went.
That is the sign of an idea that resonates. When someone interacts with your work and immediately starts imagining what it could become, they are not critiquing it. They are joining it.
I have been thinking about those ideas ever since.
08 – What Bloom Could Become
The idea is bigger than what was built.
YOU’RE AT THE BOOTH NOW
Like where this is heading? Draw me a flower.
leave a doodle, the way you would on a real showcase wall
draw here ✿
NOTHING IS SAVED · THIS IS JUST FOR THE TWO OF US, RIGHT NOW
THE MOOD I’D PULL FROM
Soft mindfulnessCALM GRADIENTS
Hand-drawn botanicalsIMPERFECT LINE
AI-grown plant speciesSELF-MADE, NO TWO ALIKE
Voice, not typingLESS TYPING, MORE TALKING
Grounded greensINTENTIONAL PALETTE
bloom.
Handwritten voiceWARM, NOT CLINICAL
Paper textureTACTILE SURFACES
Warm accentsBLUSH + CLAY
Directions, not screenshots: soft mindfulness, hand-drawn botanicals, AI-grown plant species unique to each person, and a voice-first feel where the app does less typing and more talking.
If I built Bloom today, it would look and feel completely different. Not because the original was wrong, but because I am a different designer now.
The rebrand would start with meaning. Every color, every element would have a reason rooted in the emotional purpose of the app. The greens would be intentional, not just “plant colors” but specific shades that research shows promote calm and groundedness. The typography would feel handwritten in places, clinical in none.
FEATURES I WOULD ADD FIRST
01
AR spatial memory
your plants stay exactly where you placed them, every time you open the app. Your desk becomes a garden.
02
Send a plant to a friend
gift someone a gratitude note that grows in their space. Grief and gratitude are not solo experiences.
03
Custom AI plant species
describe your mood and the AI generates a plant species unique to that moment. No two gratitude notes look the same.
04
Watering mechanic
return to a plant, water it, and watch it grow. Neglect it and it gently droops. Care as interaction.
05
Deeper onboarding
the breathing exercise is just the beginning. The onboarding could become a full felt experience of what Bloom means before a single note is planted.
I am still thinking about making Bloom a real app. Now that I build with AI tools, the gap between designed and built feels smaller than it used to.
09 – Reflection
Design is most powerful when it comes from something true.
Bloom taught me that the best design problems are the ones you have lived. Not because personal experience makes you biased, but because it makes you specific. I was not designing for a persona. I was designing for the person I was in my first semester, sitting in a Miami apartment with dying plants and a healing hand.
That specificity is what made the idea resonate. People felt it because it was real.
The technical growth was real too: AR interaction design, 3D asset direction using AI tools, emotional design systems, and the discipline of knowing when to stop adding and start simplifying.
“Design is most powerful when it comes from something true.”
Bloom is still growing. So am I.
Outcomes
Measured
A student capstone, so no usage data. The showcase gave qualitative signal, not metrics.
Best Graduate UXUM Interactive Media Showcase 2024
~6showcase visitors tried the one-word prompt
not measured · capstoneOnboarding completion (breath → first planted note)
not measured · capstone7-day return rate to the garden
How I’d measure it
Onboarding completionShare who finish the breathing intro and plant their first note — Maze test, n≈20.
Return rateShare who revisit their garden within 7 days (a retention proxy).
Emotional resonanceShort affect survey + SUS after a first session.
