Streaks
Create shame spirals when broken. Increase anxiety. Reduce long-term engagement.
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2019
Research
Built on evidence.
Every feature traces to a peer-reviewed clinical framework. Pick one to see how the research becomes the product.
- 500+
- trials across 4 frameworks
- 60
- years of clinical lineage
- DOI
- on every claim
- 0
- gamification primitives
A 60-year lineage
Not a trend. A line of work.
CBT
1960s
Aaron Beck
Cognitive restructuring as a clinical method.
MI
1983
William Miller
Reflective listening over confrontation.
DBT
1993
Marsha Linehan
Distress tolerance and emotion regulation skills.
SMART
1994
Jack Trimpey · Tom Horvath
Self-management with the 4-point program.
Four frameworks
Decades of evidence, in one product.
CBT
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT identifies and restructures the thought patterns that drive unwanted behavior. It is the most extensively studied psychotherapy framework for behavior change, with 300+ randomized controlled trials across substance use, anxiety, depression, and habit-related domains.
McHugh et al., 2010; Magill & Ray, 2009
In the product
Check-in prompts are structured around CBT principles. Journal entries guide users through cognitive restructuring. Insights surface thought patterns over time.
Thought record
Automatic thought
"I'll never get past this."
Reframed
"Today is hard. I have moved through hard days before."
What we refuse
Patterns the research warns against.
Badges
Replace intrinsic motivation with external validation. Undermine the internal drive for lasting change.
Self-Determination Theory — Deci & Ryan, 2000
Leaderboards
Introduce social comparison to a personal change. Reliably reduce intrinsic motivation, especially in people lower on the board.
Social Comparison Theory — Festinger, 1954
Gamification
Borrows variable-reward loops and social pressure from addictive product design.
Persuasive Technology — Fogg, 2003
From research to product
We translate. We test. We remove anything that doesn't help.