Studying is Broken
Our research with students kept showing the same pattern: people are motivated, but they are overwhelmed, distracted, and often stuck before they even start. A timer alone does not solve that.
Catena was designed around a different emotional loop. Your study time becomes a recipe, a café upgrade, a cat visit, a small piece of a world that grows because you showed up.
Photos from the journey
Catfé research trip
A quick trip to Montclair, New Jersey to visit Catfé, a cat café with adoptable cats, to gather inspiration for Catena's cats (Lilymoon ended up adopting one of the cats we met on the trip).
Early sketches
Lilymoon's initial cat sketches in September brainstorming for how the cats and the app's reward loop could work.
Weekly sprint meeting
One of our weekly sprint meetings, where the team kept building across Budapest, China, Korea, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York.
Food inspiration
Every café visit gave us more inspiration for yummy food and café elements we wanted to incorporate in the app.
Study and work sessions
During our New York meetup, we worked in person from the office, coding and drawing and eating Din Tai Fung.
Work trip moments
Our trip to a meeting in FiDi, where we got advice on branding and what Catena could evolve into.