Design rationale

Design principles

• Colour means something, or it isn't thereThe page is warm neutral. Ember means "act now", amber means "watch", teal means "done / progress". Status badges are the only place where several hues sit side by side, as in Linear or Stripe. A rising line is not painted green if it is still below target.
• Type carries the emotionA serif for human moments (greeting, brief, reflection) and a precise sans for work. The tone shifts without extra decoration.
• Motion explains, never performsTabs slide to show where the filter moved. Finished rows drift out and the list closes the gap. The deadline ring fills as time runs out. Every animation answers "what just happened?". Reduced-motion users get none of it.
• Reward the right behaviourFinishing the urgent work gets a quiet "the urgent part of your day is done". For users, coming back is celebrated and missed days are never counted. Both reward progress, not streaks.
• Detail is respectUndo everywhere, keyboard paths, readable contrast, and plain privacy statements. The care you can't see is what makes it feel premium.

My Accounts Today

The CSM asks one question each morning: "Where should I focus today?" The page answers it in 5 seconds, and the next action is one click away.

Framing: what "needs attention today" means

That's different from "has a problem". A slow decline with a renewal 8 months out can wait. A campaign launching Monday with 12% sign-ups can't. The test is cost of delay, not severity alone.

The backend computes this. The UI never shows the score. It shows the reason in plain language, because CSMs act on reasons, not numbers.

The four signal types → one queue

Today these live in four separate views. We merge them into one ranked list, and the type becomes a tag rather than a place you navigate to.

Layout & hierarchy

Key decisions

• Why → Evidence → ActionEvery card follows the order a CSM thinks in. The why is one sentence. The evidence is one visual that matches the signal: a trend line for falling usage, progress toward a goal for a campaign, a day strip for an overdue promise. The action is a short verb ("Send assets to Dean"), never "View".
• Visuals are chosen, not decoratedA follow-up has no trend, so it gets no line chart. It gets a 14-day strip that makes "2 days late" countable at a glance. Rising registrations stay neutral, not green, because 12% is still far below the 30% goal.
• One primary action per cardThe system suggests the next step. Done and Snooze sit next to it as quiet secondary actions. This removes the "what now?" moment.
• Done ≠ disappearFinished items animate out, move to "Done today", can be reopened, and fill the progress tracker. Clearing all three urgent cards shows "The urgent part of your day is done".
• Snooze needs a reasonSnooze offers Later today, Tomorrow, Next week or Waiting on client. In customer success, why something waits matters as much as when.
• Drawer, not a new pageAccount detail opens in a side drawer, so the CSM never loses their place in the queue.
• Bulk actions floatSelect rows and a floating bar appears with snooze (with a day stepper), reassign, and done. It's hidden until needed.
• Trust in the ranking"How is this ranked?" sits next to Do first and explains the rules, including what the deadline ring means. A ranked list nobody understands gets ignored.
• Speed for daily useKeys 1–3 open the top cards, ⌘K searches, Esc closes. Daily tools should reward repetition.

Intentionally excluded

Reimagining the User Timeline

Framing: the purpose of a mental health timeline

Progress in mental health is slow and hard to feel. A good timeline makes it visible in three ways: continuity (I keep showing up), patterns (what helps me), and re-entry (the next small step). It must do this without judging, exposing, or nagging.

Structure

Re-engagement comes first, the past second. Most people opening "History" are actually looking for where they left off.

Structural decisions

• Chapters, not a feedActivity is grouped into stretches ("Finding a rhythm") headed by a summary card: sessions, check-ins, programs, and one line on how it felt. Inside, items group by day. A narrative is easier to reflect on than 200 rows. Older chapters collapse to one row.
• Timeline and Patterns are two views of one JourneyA segmented control switches between "what happened" and "what it means", so reflection is one tap away but never forced on the user.
• One timeline, filterableSessions, journal, mood, programs and chat sit together, because continuity spans tools. Each type has its own coloured icon (as in Apple Health), so the timeline scans without reading. Filter chips narrow it, and empty days hide.
• Takeaways over transcriptsA session shows the user's own takeaway, not therapist notes. It's reflective, and it keeps the therapist's notes confidential.
• A companion, then the next stepScreen 1 opens on a calm companion character standing in front of “Day 24”: days since you started, never a streak, so a gap never resets anything. Headspace’s Ebb shows a companion lowers the barrier to opening up. Under it: this week’s overview, today’s reflection, the next session and the week in faces. The mood check-in arrives as a sheet instead.
• Every moment has a next stepEach past item links forward: try the exercise she suggested, add it to the next session's agenda, reflect. The history itself becomes the re-engagement surface.
• Patterns are opt-in & explainedInsights say "seems to help · 3 of 4 times · from your check-ins". They're observations, not diagnoses, and there's a toggle to turn them off.

Emotional decisions

• No streaks, no shameGaps appear as "A quiet stretch · 6 days. You came back, and that counts." Broken streaks drive people away at exactly the wrong moment.
• A week you can read in a glancePatterns shows the last seven days as one bar each. Taller means lighter, and the face on top says how it felt, so there is no legend to learn. The headline (“Mostly calm”) and one pill (“5 of 6 lighter”) give the takeaway. A missed day is a dashed outline, not a gap or a failure. No scores, and never red.
• Check-in comes to you, onceThe mood check-in is not a card on the home screen. A card with a face already highlighted reads like a record, not a question. Instead, a sheet slides up a few seconds after opening, only if you haven’t checked in today, and never mid-task. Five equal face pills, nothing pre-selected. Optional “what’s behind it” tags unlock after a pick. “Not now” silences it until tomorrow.
• A gentle prompt, not a taskIt is not a reminder or a to-do. “Today’s reflection” is a stacked card with one reflective question (“What is one small thing I noticed today?”), tagged “Optional · 2 min”, with a one-line field whose send button stays disabled until something is typed. It invites without demanding.
• Warm, quiet language"Welcome back", "No pressure", "Moments you reached". Milestones celebrate showing up, not performance.
• One colour with a jobThe single action colour is the vivid blue of the companion’s cape, used only for primary buttons and selected states. Mood colours appear only where they are data (faces, mood chart).
• Native and familiariOS conventions (large titles, segmented control, sheets, switches, a floating glass tab bar) mean nothing has to be learned when energy is low. Warmth comes from one soft sky behind every screen, the companion, playful face tiles and a serif for reflective text.
• Motion is calmIllustrations float slowly and faces lift on tap. Animations only move position, scale and opacity, so they stay at 60fps, and they turn off if the user prefers reduced motion.

Privacy decisions

• Say who can see it"Only you can see this" sits under the check-in and the reflection field. The privacy sheet opens with a plain statement: your employer or college never sees individual activity, only anonymous totals. This is the #1 fear in B2B mental health.
• Locked by defaultJournal entries show a lock and a blurred title until tapped, so the screen is safe in an open office or a shared hostel room. Discreet mode blurs every entry.
• Control at every itemFrom any moment, ··· opens a sheet to hide it, delete it (with undo for 30 days), turn on discreet mode, or lock the Journey tab with Face ID.

Intentionally excluded

How I'd know it works

Assumptions to test

• A cap of 3 for "Do first" fits a typical book of ~30 accounts. Test with 3–5 CSMs on real data.
• Users want insights at all. Run a diary study before shipping patterns broadly.
• Chapter auto-naming reads as warm, not presumptuous. If it doesn't, fall back to month names.