AI Journal, 2022

Linen was an AI-powered journal for self-growth. It was built by Gytis Daujotas and I, and involved exploring large language models and novel HCI paradigms.

This project included UI/UX design, prompt engineering, and full-stack development. We tested with dozens of users before winding down our learning experience.

“I feel like there’s a weight off my shoulders. I’ve never been able to open up in therapy. With [Linen], I felt like there were no judgements.”

~ early Linen user

Linen v1

Linen was built to help individuals process emotions, get unstuck, and reflect on progress. It was designed as a hybrid journal/dialogue interface with a nameless (non-anthropomorphic) conversational agent. As users wrote, they could select a paragraph and choose from multiple options to guide further introspection. These included:

  1. Different Perspectives, to get a fresh point of view,

  2. Guiding Questions, to understand yourself further, and

  3. Actionable Ideas, to take concrete next steps.

Users could then continue a thread or collapse into a summary of what was discussed. Users particularly liked the choice-based dialogue interface, and found that Linen helped managed their stress.

Linen v2

Linen v2 expanded on this core flow with several new features, including:

  1. Thought Linking, which highlighted past thoughts relevant to your current entry,

  2. Starter Suggestions, which provided starter questions based on past entries, and

  3. Dynamic Dialogue, an experimental UI which allowed users to indicate tone preference for every AI response.

Takeaways

  1. Journaling requires a significant time investment from individuals, which limits its reception. While its possible to make design choices which decrease the amount of user effort required, we found that these choices largely detracted from Linen’s primary function as a self-growth tool.

  2. Self-growth is a highly personal process. Designing products for self-growth risks arriving at a local minima, and requires taking a stance on what constitutes valuable, or skillful, personal work. For more on this, see “Moral Competence”.

In addition to technical and product learnings, I left with many personal takeaways befitting a journaling project:

  • Reflection: When lost in ambiguity, I find it helpful to reflect on my fundamental passions—both in the past and constantly-evolving present.

  • Self-Awareness: If something feels off—whether in a product decision, technical plan, or interpersonal dynamic—it’s worth bringing awareness to the feeling and seeing what that reveals.

  • Storytelling: We are continually writing the stories of our lives. Wherever you are, this too is part of your tale.