Insight 1
Giving advice builds wisdom
Mixed Signals
Sandbox for Ethical Dilemmas
Project Scope
Platform: Responsive Web
Timeline: 2024-2025
Current Stage: Live Beta
Role & Team
Solo Project
Full Product Ownership
Technical Details
React Native/Typescript
Supabase
Vercel
Key Metrics
10,000+ Lines of Code
100+ Scenarios
4 Major Updates
PROBLEM SPACE
The internet made advice abundant but lost what makes advice valuable: trust, context, and accountability.
THE CHALLENGES
Crisis of Trust
Behind every username is an unknown voice offering life-changing advice with no credentials or track record.
Missing Context
Real life is messy and nuanced - but online advice pretends everything is black and white.
Zero Accountability
Advice floats in a vacuum - no one tracks if it helped or hurt, so the community never learns or improves.
THE OPPORTUNITY
How do we transform internet advice from a random free-for-all into a structured learning system?
Insight 2
Getting advice builds confidence
Insight 3
Quality rises through game mechanics
GAME LOOP
Core Game Loop
The initial path a user takes when first starting out
Home Screen Evolution
The home screen serves as users' daily entry point into ethical decision-making. Through countless iterations, I refined how scenarios are presented, focusing on reducing friction and increasing engagement while maintaining the delicate balance between gamification and meaningful reflection.
Initial Intent
Enhanced user experience with a clean, nuanced aesthetic - creating sophistication through subtle design elements
Results
'Coming Soon' indicators streamlined development focus while setting clear user expectations
Implementation
Optimized navigation for both web and mobile platforms, keeping focus on essential features
Key Learnings
Position testing revealed Daily Challenge performs best at top, while secondary features need clear visual differentiation
Visible User Progress
The visible user progress feature helps users monitor their progress on each scenario, ensuring they know where they stand and how close they are to completing the goal.
Progress Bar
Redesigned the XP visualization to show proportional progress toward next level, creating clearer achievement pathways
Recent Gains Box
Social comparison through ranking increases competitive engagement while validating effort
Self-Reference Effect
Users are more likely to engage with, remember, and respond positively to content that relates to themselves personally.
Scale
Implemented 1-10 rating scales for each answer to create personalized thinking style analysis across multiple dimensions
Beyond the Choice
What happens after a decision is just as important as the choice itself. We iteratively refined these crucial screens to strike the perfect balance - delivering valuable insights and encouraging deeper ethical reflection without overwhelming users with information.
Categorical Organization
Added topic tags to create structure and enable personalized experiences
Community Percentages
Enhanced visibility of how others responded with clear percentage indicators
Influence System
Introduced exchangeable points as tangible rewards for thoughtful contributions
Multiple Perspectives
Added the ability to see alternative approaches to the same dilemma, assigned per answer
INSIGHTS
What I Learned
1
Structure Beats Chaos
Building an XP system with AI felt like teaching math to a goldfish - every interaction needed clear rules and double validation to maintain integrity
2
Focus Beats Features
Product development is like a RPG - side quests are tempting, but you'll never finish the main story if you chase every shiny new feature
3
Layers Drive Engagement
Like a good game, meaningful engagement requires multiple reward systems - immediate feedback, mid-term goals, and long-term progression
