Case Study
Mendly logo

Mendly

Mendly is a mental wellness companion for the quieter end of the day. A small illustrated mascot greets you, asks how you are doing, and opens a calm grid of care categories, breath work, mindfulness, therapy prompts, movement, relaxation. The whole product is dressed in hand-drawn botanicals and cloud pastels, so opening the app feels like stepping into a garden, not a clinical tool.

React NativeWellnessMental HealthiOS
ClientMendly, self-initiated
RoleProduct, Design & Development
DurationConcept build
Mendly

The Challenge

Most wellness apps feel like productivity software in sheep's clothing, streaks, stats, push nags. That works for habit trackers, not for someone trying to sit with a difficult feeling. Mendly needed to feel soft first and capable second, without losing the structure that makes a daily practice stick.

The Solution

A React Native app built around a single calm home screen. A greeting block sets the tone, an Essentials grid surfaces the care categories, a Next Up card nudges the current practice, and a small three-item intention list sits underneath. Every icon, card, and background is hand-illustrated in the same botanical style so the app never breaks character, from splash to session.

At a glance

0

Care categories

0

Daily intentions

iOS

Platform

Concept

Status

Colour Palette

Botanical greens, daisy cream and warm botanicals. Fern sets the app surface, warm sand holds the cards, olive anchors the type, and a peach blush steps in for accents.

Olive

#6B7A4A

Logo / text

Fern

#8FA07A

App bg

Sage Mist

#B8C9A8

Promo bg

Warm Sand

#D4C898

Card bg

Peach Blush

#E8A882

Accents

Full palette flow

From the makers

Behind the Build

A closer look at what makes Mendly feel like a companion, not an app.

Soft, supportive, and personal
Soft, supportive, and personal
Soft, supportive, and personal
Soft, supportive, and personal
Essential Mode — one tap, just the care that mattersCare library, welcome screen, and daily schedule

Soft, supportive, and personal

Mendly is built around a friendly sage colour palette and a warm, approachable interface. Every screen is designed for people managing real health challenges, gently motivating them to take care of the basics without ever feeling overwhelmed. A small companion character greets you on every screen, not as a gimmick but as a presence that makes the app feel like someone is in your corner. When things get hard, Essential Mode strips away everything except the absolute necessary tasks for the day. One tap, less noise, just the care that matters most.

Build your care routine, schedule on your terms
Build your care routine, schedule on your terms
Category selection and scheduling side by side

Build your care routine, schedule on your terms

Every care item is personal. Pick a category with hand-drawn illustrations, choose how it works (checkbox, subtasks, mood tracker, or breath work), and set the energy cost. Then schedule it your way. Morning, afternoon, or evening. Daily, specific weekdays, every few days, or custom. Duration is optional because sometimes care is five minutes, sometimes it is an hour. Reminders are there if you want them, never pushy.

Guided templates that make care feel easy
Guided templates that make care feel easy
Guided templates that make care feel easy
Breath Work template, active session, and Mood Tracker

Guided templates that make care feel easy

Mendly ships with ready-made templates for breathing exercises, meditation, mood tracking, and more. Each one guides you through the experience with friendly animations and clear visual feedback. Pick a template, tap start, and follow along. No setup, no learning curve, just care that feels like it was designed for you.

AI-powered insights that stay safe

The Insights tab generates wellness observations from your completion data and mood trends. A weekly bar chart, a domain breakdown by category, and a mood trend line give you the picture at a glance. Ask Mendly anything through the chat-like interface. Every AI response passes through a tone filter before it reaches you. Medication names never leave your device. Only anonymised stats are sent for analysis. Alerts flag important patterns like missed medications, but the language is always gentle, never clinical.

Design Direction

The mood was pulled from storybook endpapers, old botanical prints, and the colour of a sage field at dusk. A serif sets the greetings, a soft sans carries the body, and every surface is rounded. Animation is kept to gentle fades and the mascot's blink, warmth comes from the artwork, not from motion.

Why it stays on one screen

A wellness app you have to navigate is a wellness app you abandon. Mendly keeps the daily loop on the home screen, check in, pick an essential, honour the three intentions. Anything deeper, long sessions, history, therapy content, lives one tap away but never fights the home screen for attention.

It needed to feel like opening a window, not opening an inbox.

DN

Design notes

Mendly

Technical Stack

Flutter cross-platform build with Supabase backend and offline-first architecture.

Flutter

Framework

Dart

Language

Supabase

Backend

GetX

State

Hive

Offline Cache

Edge Functions

AI

Custom Illustration

Brand

Quicksand

Typography

How We Got Here

01

Mood

Started from storybook art and botanical prints, not from competitor apps. The first asset shipped was the mascot, everything else was drawn to sit next to it.

02

Home first

Designed the home screen before any other flow. If the daily loop did not feel calm on that one surface, nothing else would save it.

03

Categories

Eight care categories drawn on the same day, in the same session, so the icon set feels like one hand rather than a collage.