Habit-breaking App Role: Product Designer Timeline: 2025 (4 weeks) Primary Tools: Figma, Xcode + Swift

Skip is a quit-vaping app that reframes abstinence as earning rather than sacrifice. Instead of focusing on what users are giving up, Skip calculates real-time money saved with every craving resisted, transforming the difficult process of quitting into a game of accumulating wins. The core interaction is simple: when cravings hit, users press a button instead of taking a puff. The app immediately displays money "earned" by skipping, creating instant positive reinforcement. Over time, Skip builds a financial narrative around quitting, showing projections, milestones, and tangible savings that make the abstract goal of "being healthier" feel concrete and achievable. This project explores how immediate feedback and data visualization can transform difficult behavior change into something that feels rewarding rather than restrictive, and demonstrates how positive reinforcement outperforms guilt-based approaches in health and wellness apps.

Problem

Most quit-smoking apps focus on what you're losing, whether it’s the buzz or your money. They frame quitting as deprivation, tracking how long you’ve given something up, instead of emphasizing what you have gained. This negative framing works against user motivation, especially in moments of real, physical craving when willpower is lowest.

How do we make quitting feel like winning instead of a struggle?

Pain Points

• Quit apps emphasize restriction and loss rather than gains
• Progress (days vape-free) feels abstract rather than tangible
• Cravings require immediate intervention, but many apps provide only passive tracking
• Long-term goals feel distant during in-the-moment cravings
• Users "cheat" by not logging puffs, afraid of in-app consequences like losing streaks

Research Insight

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"i think part of the problem is that its so easy to take a puff or two when u get the craving. like u dont think about health and money until ur looking back"

• Friend trying to quit vaping, 2nd attempt

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People understand the long-term consequences, but true behavior change often happens in the decision making moment. We needed an intervention that worked during cravings, not just after the fact.

Research & Discovery