Selected work 04
Role
Product Designer
Category
Productivity
year
2026
Type
AI Product / MVP
THE IDEA
Many productivity tools focus on planning, tracking, and organization. But for people with ADHD, anxiety, or executive dysfunction, the hardest part often comes before productivity begins: getting started. The goal wasn't to make users more productive. The goal was to make meaningful work easier to enter.
Ahead explores how AI can reduce initiation friction by lowering task ambiguity, cognitive overload, and emotional resistance through guided task reframing and meaningful progress tracking.
Brand direction
The project was designed and validated as a rapid MVP to test whether AI could reduce friction at the very beginning of the productivity process.
PRODUCT EXPLORATION
Concept 01
Users describe what they need to do, and AI converts it into smaller, actionable steps.
Concept 02
A guided experience combining planning, prioritization, and timed focus sessions.
Concept 03
An AI assistant that responds differently depending on how overwhelmed the user feels.
Concept 04
Instead of managing isolated tasks, users organize work around projects and progress milestones.
The final MVP combined elements from all four concepts into a lightweight workflow focused on clarity, momentum, and low cognitive load.
WORKFLOW
I defined the product concept, user flow, interaction logic, information architecture, visual direction, and design system. Claude was used to challenge assumptions, generate alternative solutions, and accelerate iteration cycles.
Lovable was used to rapidly prototype and ship a working MVP. This workflow allowed me to move from idea to functional product significantly faster while maintaining ownership over product thinking and UX decisions.
USER JOURNEY
The experience was designed to reduce decision fatigue and help users maintain momentum. Each screen focuses on a single action, limiting cognitive load and keeping the next step clear.
DESIGN DECISIONS
01
Users start by describing what they want to accomplish instead of configuring settings or learning the system.
02
Tasks live inside projects, helping users maintain context and track meaningful progress.
03
The system suggests next steps while keeping users in charge of decisions.
04
Soft gradients, generous spacing, and minimal UI help reduce cognitive overload.
VISUAL SYSTEM
PROTOTYPING
Instead of stopping at mockups, I used Lovable to build and iterate on a functional MVP. Working with a live product helped uncover interaction issues, edge cases, and opportunities that would have been difficult to identify in static designs alone.
Reflection
Working on Ahead taught me that speed alone isn't the advantage of modern AI tools. The real value comes from exploring ideas faster, testing them earlier, and learning from real interactions instead of assumptions.
The project demonstrated how modern AI tools can significantly shorten the path from concept to validation.
Available
© 2026 Daria Perepadia. All Rights Reserved.