inside apple's app excellence program
for gratitude, 2024 — as a project lead & product designer
overview
Gratitude is a personal well-being app that offers simple tools like a journal, affirmations, and a vision board. It helps people slow down, reflect, and stay mindful in their everyday lives.
With over 5 million users worldwide, Gratitude holds a 4.9 rating on the App Store with more than 43k reviews, and a 4.8 rating on the Play Store with over 150k reviews.
Over time, it has become one of the most loved spaces for personal growth and self-reflection.
In 2024, Gratitude was selected by Apple’s India Developer Center to be part of the App Excellence Program, a 3 month initiative where a select group of apps work closely with Apple’s team to elevate product quality and experience.
As a Product Designer at Gratitude, I had the opportunity to lead this program, collaborating directly with Apple’s Design and Technology Evangelists. Together, we refined the app’s design, user experience, and performance, aligning every detail with Apple’s principles of clarity, depth, and human connection.
This experience was more than a design project. It was a collaboration grounded in craft and care, and a reminder that true excellence is not about adding more, but about refining what already matters.
project under one minute — please watch with sound
1.) dynamic type for better readability
"Is it possible to adjust the type size?
I need a larger size type….one of the joys of aging!!"
Judy — Gratitude user
Meet Judy, one of our long-time users. About an year ago, she wrote to us and said,“Is it possible to adjust the text size? I need a larger size… one of the joys of aging!”
At that time, even though we understood her need, we didn’t have a solution in place. For a moment, we felt helpless! Knowing that something as simple as reading comfortably was out of reach for many of our users.
Keeping Judy and thousands of others in mind, we’ve now fully embraced Dynamic Type to make sure Gratitude feels accessible to everyone.
The app now adapts beautifully to any text size a user chooses on their iPhone
This turned out to be one of the most rewarding challenges we’ve worked on; To make sure that no matter how large the text gets, the layout stays intact, the content remains complete, and user experience remains smooth.
This a gratitude journal entry — being viewed on 3 different dynamic type sizes.
2.) adding VoiceOver capability
Just like Judy, there are many others who experience different levels of vision impairment.
We wanted to make Gratitude more inclusive for them. So that more people can practice mindfulness with comfort and confidence. This led us to work on the VoiceOver capability in the app.
To understand how a visually impaired user experiences Gratitude, I tried using the app with my eyes closed, navigating entirely through iPhone's VoiceOver mode.
It made me realize how "thoughtful" design can make someone feel seen, included, and cared for. :)
A moment from the app — how VoiceOver makes affirmation practice accessible for vision-impaired users.
3.) introducing interactive gratitude widgets
We wanted Gratitude to feel closer to people’s everyday lives.
Something that stays with them through the day, not just when they open the app. That is where the idea of interactive widgets began.
For Journaling — Now, users can explore journaling prompts right from their Home Screen and choose the one that feels right for them.
For Affirmations — Users can add the affirmation widget to practice on the go and save the ones that speak to them.
For Motivation — The Daily Zen widget shares small reminders daily on right on the home screen and the Streaks widget helps see their Gratitude journey at a glance.
For Vision Board — loved by many of our users, the vision board widget auto shuffles through their vision board photos. Users can also tap to shuffle an image or choose which goal they want to see on their home screen.
These widgets bring Gratitude a little closer to its purpose. They make practicing mindfulness simple and always within reach.
A look at the new interactive widgets that bring Gratitude to the Home Screen.
4.) gratitude on apple watch
Before this program, Gratitude had no real presence on the Apple Watch. During the App Excellence Program, we built our first watchOS app.
The goal was to keep the experience simple, glanceable, and relevant — attaching key interactions to the Digital Crown for ease and flow.
Now, with just a quick tap, users can record a journal entry on the go. They can also practice affirmations or view their vision board right from their wrist.
We also added support for the Smart Stack, so Gratitude can gently appear as part of someone’s day. These quick moments act as subtle reminders to pause, reflect, or feel grateful, keeping Gratitude only a glance away.
This was my first time designing for watchOS.
And honestly, it was overwhelming at first to fit an entire app experience into such a small space, but with steady iterations and the support of the Apple team, we were able to shape Gratitude’s very first watchOS app.
A few screens from Gratitude’s first watchOS app
5.) journaling with apple's Suggestions API
Journaling is deeply personal. It is about moments, memories, and feelings that are unique to each person. This made us wonder how we can make this experience feel even more personal, more connected to someone’s everyday life.
In Gratitude, journaling prompts are designed to help people reflect and write about what they are thankful for. But we still felt there was a small gap between the prompt and the person writing it.
With Apple’s Suggestions API, that gap began to close.
Now, Gratitude gently reminds users of moments that matter, a photo they recently took, a call they made, or a memory from their gallery, helping them notice and write about the small joys in everyday life.
How Apple’s Suggestions API helps bring personal moments into journaling.
6.) gratitude on iPad
Gratitude has had an iPad app for a while, but it used to be a scaled-up version of the iPhone experience, which did not give the best experience to our iPad users.
Over the past few months, we had been working to make it feel truly at home on iPad; making better use of its screen space and unique capabilities.
We introduced a sidebar for easier navigation and redesigned layouts to feel more natural on a larger screen. During the App Excellence Program, we took this further by implementing Apple’s Split View support.
With Split View, users can now create their vision boards more effortlessly.
For example, they can drag and drop photos directly from other apps into their vision board without switching back and forth. This makes the process smoother, faster, and much more enjoyable.
Our goal has been to make Gratitude feel more natural for our iPad users, and with better support for multitasking, it feels like we are getting there.
iPad's split view in action — adding photos to Gratitude's vision board
end notes
This was my first time in such a program, leading a project and it turned out to be an experience that shaped me in many ways.
Over these three months, I learned how to balance design and leadership. Keeping the team aligned, collaborating closely with developers, and ensuring every detail moved forward smoothly.
Representing Gratitude and our work to Apple team was humbling and inspiring. Each week brought discussions, feedback, and new ways to refine what we were building.
It all came together in a final keynote presentation to the Apple team, where I shared the journey and the progress we had made. I was so nervous & proud :')
There was much more behind this project than I could share here — from building the watchOS app to creating interactive widgets and refining accessibility. I’ll be sharing those stories separately, soon.
This program gave Gratitude greater visibility within the Apple team and gave me a deeper understanding of what it means to lead design with clarity, intention, and care.
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the universe sends us exactly what we are ready for —
at the exact time, we need it in our lives.