01The problem
Lumen's problem was too much, not too little. It packs intentions, AI affirmations, alignment checks, friend compatibility, and an energetic profile into one app, and they looked so alike they blurred together until the whole thing felt repetitive. The real problem was hierarchy: making each surface earn its place and read as distinct.
02The thinking
I treated hierarchy as the core problem, not a finishing pass. Each feature got one job and a deliberate weight. The daily ritual leads; social and astrology sit below it as optional depth, never competing for the same attention. The discipline was restraint, giving similar content different rhythm so the eye always knows what matters most.
03Key decisions & tradeoffs
Intention → affirmation AI
AI bridges wish to wordsnotA blank journal to fill
ImpactActivation (first affirmation): ~85%
Social wellness
Friend compatibilitynotA solo journey
Energetic profile
Optional depthnotA required onboarding step
04Driving the call
The pressure was to give every feature equal billing, and I pushed the other way. I argued for subordinating most of the app so the daily ritual could lead, which meant telling stakeholders that feature parity was hurting the product, not helping it. I owned the design system and the hierarchy rules that kept new features from flattening everything back out.
05Outcomes
- 0→1 around one daily ritual
- Warm tone vs. a clinical category
- Optional depth without bloat
06Reflection
Restraint is easy to lose as features pile up, so the thing I'd build in earlier is a hierarchy rule set the team could design against without me in the room. I'd also validate the structure with real users sooner; hierarchy that reads clearly to the designer can still confuse someone opening the app for the first time.
