Designing for Ash - Design

Ash (produced by Slingshot AI) is a consumer AI companion for mental health and personal growth. The audience is broad, the stakes are personal, and retention and meaningful impact are the primary success metrics.

What designing for mental health means

Someone may be using this app in a vulnerable emotional state. The interface must feel safe, warm, and unhurried.
“Respecting the user’s time” doesn’t mean “make everything fast.” Sometimes it means giving people space to reflect.
Never ask users to do work that only benefits the business. No surveys disguised as features. No engagement mechanics that exploit vulnerability.
The experience should feel like talking to someone who genuinely cares — not interacting with a system.

How this shows up in Sundial

The design system encodes these values in concrete decisions:

Value	System expression
Warmth over sterility	Parchment/wood neutral palette instead of grays — see Reference Colors
A companion, not a dashboard	Libertinus Serif display type for Ash’s voice — see Typography
Personal, not corporate	Persona accent palettes the user chooses — see Accent Colors
Calm surfaces	Flat elevation, color-ladder hierarchy instead of shadows — see Shape & Spacing
Safety for vulnerable states	Generous whitespace, unhurried motion, no urgency mechanics

If a proposed feature exists primarily to move a metric rather than help the person, flag it. That’s not a design compromise to negotiate — it’s an anti-pattern.