Dao path

RoleUX/UI Designer

Timeline4 weeks

ToolsFigma

Designing a personalized spiritual practice app that encourage consistency through habit, motivation, and cultural accessibility Role.

Dao Path

Why I Started This Project

To find more inner peace, I started chanting Daoist scriptures. A friend encouraged me to stay patient and consistent, but I found it difficult to build the habit on my own. Existing apps offered scripture libraries but lacked guidance and motivation for daily practice. This inspired me to design an app that helps beginners stay consistent and make Daoist practice part of their everyday lives.

Talking With Practitioners.

To validate whether others shared the same challenges, I interviewed five people with different levels of Daoist practice.

Key Findings

After talking with practitioners, several common needs and pain points became clear.

1.Ritual Reminder

100% of participants wanted a tool to support their daily practice and remind them of important Daoist observance days.

2.Scripture Guidance

Practitioners wanted scriptures organized by purpose, making it easier to choose the right one based on their daily intentions or fortune.

3.Habit Building

Participants wanted features like daily check-ins and progress tracking to stay consistent with their practice.

4.Practice Guideline

Beginners needed clear guidance on how to prepare before chanting, including purification rituals, finding a quiet environment, and completing each scripture without interruption.

Interview questions

When practicing Daoism, have you ever thought, ‘It would be great if I had a tool to assist me?
If there is a Daoism app, what functions do you want it to have?
Is there any special rule that people need to follow when they reciting the sculpture?
How to help new believers to start their Daoism journey?

Design Goal

Based on the key findings, the design goal has been more clear, so this app should helps beginners build a consistent Daoist chanting habit through clear guidance, personalized scripture recommendations, and daily progress tracking.

Story

01.

Persona

02.

Research

Competitor

Type

Target

Audience

Community

Feature

Scripture

Categories

Select a

Scripture

Review Chanting

Guidelines

Start Chanting

Complete Practice

Practice Progress

Recorded

Initial Design Decision

Based on the research findings, I focused the initial design on making daily Daoist practice easier to organize and follow.

1.Daily Practice: Give users a clear place to begin their daily chanting.

2.Scripture Categories: Help users find scriptures based on different needs.

3.Practice Tracking: Record completed scriptures and practice days.

4.Wu Day Calendar: Remind users when chanting should be avoided.

5.Community: Help practitioners connect and share experiences.

Usability Testing

I tested the app with three users and asked them to complete the main tasks. Their feedback helped me identify four areas to improve.

04.

Testing & Iteration

Testing Goals

1.Can users complete their daily practice easily?

2.Does the content feel meaningful and engaging?

3.Would users want to return and continue using the app?

Findings

Their feedback showed that long-term engagement depended not only on ease of use, but also on meaningful content, accessible guidance, and a sense of community.

So I got 4 main advices to design my high-fi.

1.Easier Access to Guidelines Users wanted to see the chanting guidelines whenever they opened a scripture.

2.More Meaningful Content Daily scripture quotes could help users feel connected and encourage them to return.

3.More Accessible Scriptures Romanized pronunciation could help more users participate confidently.

4.A More Engaging Community A familiar, visual community layout could make users more willing to browse, interact, and return.

Before & After

1.Homepage

I spent a lot of time on the homepage because I wanted users to find different features easily while keeping the page clean and simple. I tried three different homepage layouts to find the right balance between easy access, meaningful content, and a clear daily practice experience.

Version 1

Easy Access to Features

All main features were easy to find, but the page lacked a clear starting point.

Version 2

Adding Meaningful Content

Daily content made the page more useful, but main action was still unclear.

Daily Practice First

Daily “Begin Today’s Practice” because the focus, with a clearer and simpler hierarchy.

Final Design

More relevant daily content

All features had equal priority

Clear starting point for users

3.I combine the doctrine(practice guidelines) into scriptures.

During usability testing, some users said the practice guidelines were easy to miss because they usually tapped “Begin Today’s Practice” right away. To make them easier to find, I added the guidelines at the beginning of each scripture.

4.Clearer Navigation

BeforeUsers could swipe between scripture pages, but there was no clear way to return to the scripture cover page.

AfterI added a header bar with a back button, allowing users to return directly to the scripture cover page.

2.English Content

BeforeThe English version closely followed the structure and length of the Chinese content, making some sections feel too long.

AfterI shortened and adapted the English copy to make it clearer and easier to read.

Separate Guidelines

Guidelines in Chanting Flow

Translate from Chinese

Simplified the translation

BeforeThe chanting guide wouldn’t show in the front of scripture text.

AfterUsers will see the guide before they start chanting.

05.

Design System

Color

Background

Bar & Buttons & Highlights

Typography

Core Components

Top Bars

Botton Bars

Button & Bar

Core Icons

Chapters

Font

Add Notes

Brightness

Typography

English Version

Begin Today's Practice

Inter Medium 20px

Head1

Inter Semi Bold 16px

Recommended today

Subtitle

Inter Medium 16px

Today’s Practice

Body

Inter Medium 12px

Language

Label

Chinese Version

Alibaba PuHuiTi Regular 32px

今日念经

Head1

开始今日修炼

Head 2

Alibaba PuHuiTi Medium 20px

道友圈

Subtitle

Alibaba PuHuiTi semi Bold 18px

今日修行

Body

Alibaba PuHuiTi Regular 16px

日历

Label

Alibaba PuHuiTi Regular 12px

F7F5F0

2F2F2F

7A7A7A

5F8F8B

BFD2D1

DFE9E8

learned to focus on what users need before spending too much time on visual details. I also learned to use color carefully, so the interface feels clear and comfortable without distracting from the content.

What I Learned

07.

Reflection

Challenges

Next Steps

My next step is to bring Dao Path from a design concept into a real product. I would like to work with developers, continue testing with practitioners, and improve the experience based on real user feedback.

1 .Designing a Bilingual Experience

Designing for both Chinese and English was more than simply translating the content. Because the two languages have different reading habits and text lengths, I adjusted the wording, typography, and layout to make each version feel natural while keeping the interface visually consistent.

20px

32px

Simplified the translation from Chinese

2.Finding the Right Homepage Direction

Ispent a lot of time designing the homepage because I could not find the right balance between appearance and usability. Instead of continuing to focus on visuals, I stepped back and thought about what users needed most. This helped me make daily practice the main focus and finally find a clearer direction.