Sippilicious — Mobile App for Daily Tea Rituals
Sippilicious is a wellness startup building a mobile app to make Asian herbal teas part of daily life. Busy women wanted teas that were easy, beneficial, and fun. My role: design an engaging, habit-forming app that blends playful UI with wellness education.
Role
UX & UI Designer, Co-founder
User interviews, focus groups, competitive analysis, wireframing, prototyping, user testing
Information architecture, wireframes, product photography, high-fidelity prototypes, UI design kit
San Francisco, CA
2021
Wellness / Consumer Tech
Pre-Revenue
<10
Challenge
Women in their 30s–40s were interested in Asian herbal teas, but faced barriers:
Too busy to prepare nourishing teas consistently
Wanted teas targeted at specific symptoms (stress, sleep, immunity)
Curious about herbs but lacked trustworthy, digestible education
Found existing tea apps too commercial
Solution
I designed Sippilicious as a playful, habit-forming tea app:
Quiz → personal recommendations simplify discovery
Steeper & Timer → guided brewing with calming sounds makes tea time delightful
Tracker & Reminders → habit-building tools inspired by Atomic Habits
Articles & Herb Encyclopedia → evidence-based education builds trust
Visual Design → bold colors + playful design differentiated it from other e-commerce sites
Results
The app delivered clarity, habit support, and a playful brand that stood apart in the wellness market.
9
1:1 initial user interviews
6
rounds of usability testing
41
company competitive analysis
Process
User Research: I started by exploring both user needs and the competitive landscape. To capture real behavior, I hosted a tea party focus group and conducted 1-on-1 interviews with 9 women in their 30s–40s. Their feedback revealed barriers to consistent tea rituals and a strong desire for education about Asian herbs.
Competitive Analysis: In parallel, I analyzed 41 competitors across tea, wellness, and TCM and running a SWOT on the top 8 using the methodology outlined by Jamie Lvy in UX Strategy. This surfaced whitespace for a playful, habit-forming brand that could differentiate itself through education and personalization. I then collaborated with my co-founders to define a unique brand distinct from competitors using Miro, which subsequently influenced the content and visual design decisions for the app.
Persona: From these findings, I developed a persona: Kelly, a busy mid-career Asian woman who values health but struggles to maintain a herbal tea drinking habit.
I distilled the research into three core insights that guided every design decision:
Support habit-building
Personalize tea selection
Provide digestible herb education
Information Architecture: With Kelly’s needs in mind, I mapped the app’s flows around three pillars: Track, Steep, and Learn. Each was designed to remove friction while encouraging long-term engagement:
Track: reminders + habit tracker (inspired by Atomic Habits and the Power of Habit).
Steep: interactive timer for guided tea brewing.
Learn: articles, recipes, and an herb encyclopedia to build user trust
Wireframes: I began with mid-fidelity sketches to test early concepts, then iterated with feedback from mentors and co-founders. These evolved into high-fidelity prototypes built on a new UI kit, ensuring flows between education, personalization, and habit-building features were clear and consistent.
Visual Design: To avoid blending in with “Zen-vibe” tea brands, I developed a bold, playful visual identity:
Bright colors and charming illustrations
Warm, approachable tone of voice
Consistent UI kit for scalable implementation
Usability Testing & Refinement:: I validated my designs through 6 moderated sessions. Users found the app simple, clean, and intuitive. Their feedback led to following changes:
Improved font readability
Clarified tracker data
Simplified steeper flow and language
Final Design: The final app combined education, personalization, and habit-building into a playful experience. Unique features—Steeper, Timer, Tracker, and Quiz—set Sippilicious apart and turned a simple tea break into a daily ritual of mindfulness and discovery.
Final Prototype
“Ava is a thorough, data-driven designer. She goes the extra mile in research to shape clear strategy, ensuring her design work is both focused and impactful.”
Jessica Osborne
Product Design Strategist & Mentor | Bamboo HR
Conclusion
Designing Sippilicious taught me how to merge cultural insight, wellness education, and habit psychology into a mobile experience. It also underscored the importance of balancing ambition with startup constraints—building a lean MVP while keeping a vision for future IoT integration (an app-connected teapot).
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