Cade Ross + Dwell

As a product design intern at Dwell, I had the opportunity to craft a new concept the founders were working on. I took this idea into an initial round of wireframes, iterating over time into the full fidelity design prototype you see below. Many of the principles and ideas that originated here are now being integrated into the Dwell app.

Solana Project

When I first joined the team, I was informed of a new idea the Dwell team was exploring. They believed, among the landscape of faith and tech apps that were available, none were centered on guiding Christians in developing a daily rhythm of prayer.

My task was to design The Prayer App, an elegant, welcoming experience that guides Christians through a variety of prayer types and structures.

Through extensive collaboration with the leaders at Dwell Bible, we designed The Prayer App, a beautiful, complete prayer experience that provides daily prayer meditations, a library of prayer traditions, prayers for moments of comfort and trial, and more.

Sun Gradient

At the core of The Prayer App is the daily experience. With this, those who use Prayer are encouraged to take part in the app multiple times throughout the day. Within the Today view, there are three daily prayers: morning, afternoon, and evening, having the idea in mind that the app evolves as the day progresses. I believed the interface should reflect and guide the user unobtrusively in this principle.

I developed a palette of seven gradients that reflect the sunlight throughout the day. These gradients set the stage for the entire app, changing according to your local time. All components of the app are opacity-based, allowing every part of the user interface to change with the sun.

Solana Project

Today

The Today experience is at the center of The Prayer App. Along with the morning, midday, and evening prayers, you can add any other prayer from the other sections within the app. This gives you the ability to build a custom daily prayer routine. If you have a job interview, a presentation, or anything else that is causing anxiety or worry, you can schedule prayers for when these times arise that directly speak to the feelings you have. The Today experience is a powerful tool of prayer that can be uniquely tailored to who you are.

Today Screenshots

The pray button is a signature mark seen through The Prayer App. It is easily identifiable, and allows you to begin your prayer experience instantly. While viewing the today screen, the pray button has a soft, inviting pulse that builds upon the calming aura the design brings.

Along with this, the Today icon within the tab bar changes as the time of day shifts. In the morning, as seen below, the icon is the sun rising. During the afternoon, the icon changes to a full sun. At night, the icon changes once more into a crescent moon with stars. This is another example of the subtle cues that guide users throughout The Prayer App.

Today Screenshots

Prayer Player

The prayer player is your guide for all prayer experiences in The Prayer App. After many iterations and explorations on how this should feel, function, and look, we landed on something wonderful.

There are three primary touch points within the player: options, the dial, and stop/play. Pressing options opens a beautiful contextual menu, presenting four items. The first is music, giving you the ability to enable or disable the instrumental ambient music within the prayer experiences. The second is the ability to AirPlay your audio to any supported devices. The third is repeat, which enables you to continuously repeat the prayer you are praying. Lastly, the fourth gives you the ability to favorite the prayer for reference later. Each of these options are present without taking you away from your prayer experience, in line with the opacity-based nature of the app.

Prayer Player Screenshots Prayer Player Screenshots Prayer Player Screenshots

The player also includes unobtrusive signals that lead you in specific moments during your prayer. The "Praying Together" signal shown above leads the user in praying out loud along with the app and its guide. Signals have been designed to stay out of your way. They provide a gentle nudge without feeling like an obligation.

This dial is the primary interaction method within the player. It has been intricately crafted to resemble a timepiece, such as a clock or your watch. Each section of a prayer is represented within the border of the dial. As you scroll with your finger, the dial enlarges to provide an easier and clearer experience. Upon each section you scroll past, you feel a haptic and hear subtle clock ticks. Once you finish navigating and let go, the dial eases back into its resting place. This goes back, once again, to the theme of subtleties that guide the user in their experience, even if they do not consciously realize it. When holding the center of the dial, you enter Linger, a contemplative state where the prayer reading stops, but the music continues. Linger allows you to take a moment to dwell without feeling rushed or formulaic while praying.

Collections

Collections can be thought of as a capability library. It holds prayers throughout Christian history and is categorized into six sections for a simple and intuitive navigation.

The workings of Collections is my personal favorite within The Prayer App. It combines intuitive navigation with an easily searchable and digestible interface. The navigation on the left side acts as both a scroll bar and a section to quickly view favorited sections. As you scroll, the navigation will move with you. You can also tap on any section to immediately be taken there. Along with this, you can view your favorites and recents in their respective sections below.

Collections Screenshot Collections Screenshot

When you open a prayer in Collections, you are taken to an educational overview that may show the prayer’s origins, tone, story, author, and more. This is presented in an easily digestible format with images and videos along with a way to pray and share the prayer.

Practices

The Practices section takes specific types of prayer traditions and methods and breaks them down into small exercises led by influential Christian leaders. For example, if you would like to learn more about Lectio Divina and how to practice it, you can take a course.

Each practice comes with an icon and its own focus. Within this, subjugate pages are the courses offered as well as prayers that correspond with the practices.

Practices Player Screenshots Practices Screenshots

The Practices player offers powerful navigation functionality, allowing you to quickly find what you are looking for, whether that is browsing the highlights of a lesson or watching it for the first time.

You can also easily view what is next within your course without exiting the player, minimizing distractions and guiding you in your progress.

It has been a true joy designing The Prayer App in partnership with Dwell Bible. I find the user experience of this application truly stunning and delightful, feeling less like a digital product and more of an extension of your spiritual life.

If you would like to speak more, don't hesitate to reach out.