How do you design an AI
people want to keep talking to?

How do you design an AI people want to keep talking to?

Boopie

See It Live

Boopie is a nurturing AI companion designed to provide personalized mind care through conversation. The project explores how prompt design, character-driven interaction, and subtle emotional feedback can make AI feel more approachable, responsive, and worth returning to.

services

Mobile App

timeline

Jun 2024 -
Sep 2024

team

Seeun (Product Design Lead)
Martin (Frontend Engineer)
Rucas (Backend Engineer)
David (CEO & Strategy)

tools

Figma
Adobe CS

✷ Achievements

Average session depth

12 ➝ 58 turns

Return rate

1.2 ➝ 3.7 visits/week

Funding stage

Pre-A funding secured

The Problem

Boopie struggled to retain users beyond Day 1.

Research approach

To understand the drop-off, we spoke directly with
users and studied their feedback.

To understand the drop-off, we spoke directly with users and studied their feedback.

I led user research together with the CEO, focusing on qualitative insights.

Research Insight

What we learned from users:

The research revealed clear patterns in where users disengaged.
To move quickly and strategically, I narrowed the scope to two high-impact flows.
This sharper focus guided every design decision that followed.

The research revealed clear patterns in where users disengaged. To move quickly and strategically, I narrowed the scope to two high-impact flows. This sharper focus guided every design decision that followed.

Problem statement

How might we help emotionally distressed users share more naturally and feel understood, to increase long-term engagement and retention?

Measured by session depth in number of turns

Returning days per user per week

Design Process 1

Prompt

Lowering the barrier to start.

Boopie’s previous version, Clapy, had a blank interface, users had to know what they wanted to talk about,
which created a high barrier to entry.

To reduce friction at the start,

we designed topic cards that guide users

into conversation with minimal effort.

To reduce friction at the start,

we designed topic cards that guide users

into conversation with minimal effort.

Blank interface made it hard to start

Let’s give users topic cards!

💡

Blank interface made it hard to start

Let’s give users topic cards!

💡

Design goal

Before jumping into solutions,
we set a simple framework of design principles.

Design Directions

I developed two directions and assessed them using our design principles.

Option A: List Style

Lower the barrier to start with
approachable prompts.

Foster emotional engagement to motivate
users to explore more topics.

Text-heavy / cluttered

Option B: Swipe Style

Lower the barrier to start with
approachable prompts.

Foster emotional engagement to motivate
users to explore more topics.

Interface feel lighter and more engaging, letting them focus on
one topic at a time

Interface feel lighter and more engaging, letting them focus on one topic at a time

Interface feel lighter and more engaging, letting them focus on
one topic at a time

This layout opened up the lower screen
as a potential area for character interaction

Iteration

Okay, we picked Option B. Now what?

I recommended Option B, as it encouraged focus despite showing only a few cards per day, and the team aligned.
But selecting the format was just the start. The real challenge was making the cards engaging long-term and scalable for growth.

Added Category Tags

We introduced themed categories to diversify daily topics.
This also enabled light monetization by letting users unlock preferred categories.

Daily Quest & XP System

We integrated an XP system to encourage exploration.
Less-picked topics rewarded more points, and completing five cards unlocked bonus XP.

Typographic Emphasis

Because the prompts were full sentences, I highlighted key words
to reduce cognitive load and make each card feel intentional.

Starting was solved. Feeling was not.

Design Process 2

Response

Making the AI feel alive.

Users felt that Boopie was too much
like a bot and lacked responsiveness, liveliness, and interactivity.

Design Directions

Based on research,
I proposed three character-first design concepts.

Concept A: Abstract

Lightweight and flexible, but emotionally flat.

Lightweight and flexible, but
emotionally flat.

Simple

Flat

Concept B: Animal-like

Playful, friendly, and scalable, but needed
multiple variations and full-body animations.

Playful

Full animation

Concept C: Human-like

A cute, bust-up character that’s expressive and relatable, but typically resource-heavy to produce and maintain.

Expressive

Resource-heavy

Stakeholder review

However, when I shared this with the CEO and engineers..

To meet the MVP timeline, the team prioritized resource efficiency and minimal animation.
As the sole designer, building and maintaining a large customization library would have been too time-intensive.

Iteration

Minimal abstract character
with expressive face & simple customization

Through rapid iterations with the team, I combined the strengths of the Human-like and Abstract directions.
Boopie became a minimal abstract character with expressive human touches and focused customization.

This direction balanced efficiency and expression

It reduced development overhead, enabled lightweight customization, and kept the character expressive and engaging.
It met technical constraints while leaving room for personalization.

It reduced development overhead, enabled lightweight customization, and kept the character expressive and engaging. It met technical constraints while leaving room for personalization.

final design

A responsive character makes onboarding feel more seamless and inviting.

final design

Daily topic cards make starting a conversation feel effortless.

To reduce hesitation, I introduced daily topic cards that made starting effortless.
The character below subtly reacted as if waiting, reinforcing immersion and connection.
So, when the user swiped the character down, the daily topic cards appeared, ensuring the immersion wasn’t broken.

To reduce hesitation, I introduced daily topic cards that made starting effortless. The character below subtly reacted as if waiting, reinforcing immersion and connection. So, when the user swiped the character down, the daily topic cards appeared, ensuring the immersion wasn’t broken.