CycleSync.
A cycle and wellbeing companion for irregular bodies first. It shows the user’s real pattern instead of a broken month, is honest when it is not sure, keeps wellbeing alongside tracking, and treats the data as the user’s own.
View the prototype
- Status
- Independent concept
- Role
- Product designer
- Methods
- Health research, systems
- Prototype
- Interactive mobile flow
- Validation
- User testing proposed
The most common hormonal condition produces the most unpredictable cycles — and the tools are built for predictability.
The Year Ring
Instead of a monthly grid, the cycle is shown as a 12-month radial view. Period days, cycle lengths and symptoms sit around a circle, so a long or skipped cycle reads as the user’s real pattern rather than an error. A familiar month-detail grid stays one tap away.
an irregular cycle, read as a pattern — not a mistake
A window with its confidence, not a false countdown.
Cycle-length-only calendar methods cannot accurately predict ovulation day, so the app shows a probability window with its confidence and names anovulatory cycles plainly, rather than promising a date that may not come.
an estimate, not a promise
04 · Built on trust
Onboarding in which “not sure” and “very irregular” are valid, first-class answers.
Anonymous community spaces, wellbeing kept alongside tracking, and local-first data controls.
05 · Key decisions
Turn the calendar into a Year Ring
The signature interaction is a 12-month radial view instead of a monthly grid. Period days, cycle lengths and symptom markers sit around a circle, so a long or skipped cycle reads as the user’s real pattern rather than a mistake. It is unfamiliar at first, so a familiar month-detail grid remains one tap away.
Choose honesty over certainty
Rather than a precise date, the app shows a probability window with its confidence (“likely Jun 18–26, low confidence — cycles vary 31–68 days”), and names anovulatory cycles plainly. Research shows that cycle-length-only calendar methods cannot accurately predict ovulation day, so a confident date would often be misleading. Being clear about uncertainty is part of the trust model.
Keep wellbeing in the cycle, not in a separate tab
Mood, energy and body-image check-ins sit in the same log as physical symptoms, and the insights connect them. A light, CBT-informed support layer appears when it is relevant. The app is explicit that it explains and supports but does not diagnose, cites its sources, and points to professional help when low mood persists.
Make trust visible, and avoid the default pink
The local-first, no-sell commitment appears in the first 30 seconds, with straightforward export and delete. The palette is warm coral, green and violet rather than the clinical pink typical of the category — research indicates that pink can read as a stereotype to this user, so the choice is deliberate. Attention states use a gentle amber rather than a warning red.
Scope it to a companion, not a medical device
CycleSync is a literacy, tracking and wellbeing companion — not a contraceptive or a diagnostic tool. This means a smaller feature set than fertility-first apps, but it keeps the product honest about what it can claim, and clear of regulatory overreach.
Design system
One warm, deliberately non-pink palette and a shared component set run through the product, so a symptom or a mood reads the same way on the ring, the log and the doctor summary.
The prototype
A 24-screen mobile flow — onboarding, the Year Ring, logging, honest insights, the doctor summary, community and privacy controls — wired so it can be navigated from start to finish.
What it is
CycleSync is a concept: no real users, no launch, no shipped metrics. It is a complete, coherent system — a 24-screen mobile flow covering onboarding, the Year Ring, symptom and mood logging, honest insights, a doctor-summary export, anonymous community spaces, cited resources, privacy controls and edge states — all built on one design system, with the Year Ring as the signature interaction. A meaningful evaluation would be moderated testing with people who have irregular cycles: whether the Year Ring reads more clearly than a monthly grid, how confidence windows feel next to countdowns, and whether privacy-first onboarding builds trust. Success would be comprehension and trust, not download numbers.
