The founders came to me with a clear mission but no product: build a mental health companion for young adults that doesn't feel like a therapy worksheet. The market is flooded with apps that are either too gamified to be taken seriously, or too clinical to be used daily.

The core challenge was designing for vulnerability — creating an experience that people would actually open during a hard moment, not shelve after day three.

Pako (from the Basque word for "friend") was born as a companion, not a coach. The interface leans on soft, organic shapes and a muted palette to create a sense of calm. Interactions are intentionally slow and deliberate — no streaks, no push notifications asking how you feel, no gamification points.

The subscription model was designed around a freemium core that gives genuine value: daily check-ins, a mood log, and a library of short guided exercises are free forever. Premium unlocks personalised journeys and 1:1 practitioner access — framed as growth, never as a wall.

Pako launched to a closed beta of 400 users in September 2023. The product team used the design system I delivered to ship new screens 40% faster than their previous project. The subscription conversion rate in beta exceeded the industry benchmark by 1.8×.

But the metric that mattered most: 68% of beta users opened the app three or more times in the first week — without a single push notification.

Designing for emotional vulnerability means resisting every instinct to add. Fewer prompts. Fewer features. Fewer choices at the moment someone needs to breathe. The hardest design decisions on Pako were the ones where we chose to remove something.

I also learnt that naming is design. The word "Pako" — short, warm, memorable — shaped the entire visual and interaction language before a single frame was drawn. I now start every brand project with naming.