PeaceWise App

Overview

The PeaceWise app, a 2025 Australian Web Awards finalist in the mobile app category, fosters user engagement on their peacemaking journey. Developed with Heartburst, it offers biblical peacemaking tools, daily encouragement, conflict coaching, and reflection features. As the UI designer, I stepped in during the high-fidelity phase, translating low-fi wireframes and workshop insights into refined, interactive mockups. With the client requiring a visually polished solution to visualize the app’s functionality, much of the design effort focused on this stage, integrating gamification, wayfinding, and progress tracking. This case study covers the discovery process, my design contributions, challenges, solutions, and outcomes.

Discovery Phase

In December 2023, Heartburst held a half-day workshop to define the app’s vision: accessible peacemaking tools, daily encouragement, and conflict coaching for faith-based resolution, prioritizing quality. Target personas included inspiration seekers, conflict navigators, and educators, needing quick tool access (e.g., Four Gs, PAUSE Principle) and reading plans. Key features were training tools, progress tracking, goal alerts, and journaling. A Progressive Web App (PWA) was chosen for simplicity and accessibility, despite limited notifications. A March 2024 workshop refined screen data for the Reading Plan and gamification elements.

UI Design Contributions

High-Fidelity Designs

Given the client’s need for a refined visual solution, I led the high-fidelity design phase, transforming low-fidelity wireframes into interactive mockups. I carefully incorporated the client's brand color palette to enhance the user experience. Intuitive custom icons for tools (e.g., Four Gs) and progress (e.g., olive leaves) were designed to enhance recognition and clearly convey progress status. For example, a green leaf indicated an achievement, providing immediate visual feedback to the user.

• The Today section featured daily tasks with verses, reflections, and progress bars.
• The Tools section organized program frameworks into an accessible grid, enabling users to easily access helpful resources like reading plans and peacemaking tools throughout their journey.
• The Coach section offered guided coaching based on user input, with content seamlessly fed from their WordPress website.
• The Journal provided a minimalistic note-taking area and the ability to view items saved (or favorited) from other areas of the interface.
• Face-to-face courses were displayed for users to view details and navigate to the main website for registrations.
• Gamification provided ongoing encouragement with progress trees and animated reward pop-ups, celebrating user milestones.

Prototyping and Testing

Using Figma, I developed interactive prototypes, simulating navigation and rewards. Usability testing validated the design, leading to adjustments in icon sizes and CTA contrast for accessibility.

Challenges & Solutions

• Intuitive Wayfinding: Enhanced with consistent navigation and visual hierarchies from wireframes.

• Balancing Gamification: Used subtle rewards tied to actions, with non-distracting pop-ups.

• Progress Tracking: Added ticked statuses and pagination with color-coded indicators.

• PWA Limitations: Leveraged in-app alerts to maintain engagement.

Outcomes

The app achieved high user engagement, a 2025 Australian Web Awards finalist status, streamlined features, PWA accessibility, and positive feedback on its intuitive design.