Fieldnote
A calm journaling app for field researchers, from first sketch to App Store feature.
The problem
Fieldnote's founders are ecologists who spent years scribbling notes in muddy notebooks. Their first app did everything, and nobody could find anything. I was brought in to cut it back to the one job that mattered: capture an observation in under ten seconds, even with gloves on.
Over twelve weeks I ran interviews with 18 researchers, rebuilt the information architecture around places instead of folders, and designed a quiet, high-contrast interface that works in direct sunlight.
Outcomes
7 seconds
Average time to log an observation, down from 41.
App Store feature
Apps We Love, spring 2026.
22k researchers
Active monthly users six months after launch.
Sunlight mode
A high-contrast theme now copied by competitors.
What I did
- Field interviews
- Information architecture
- Interaction design
- Visual design
- Prototyping in Figma & SwiftUI
- Usability testing
Project facts
- Client
- Fieldnote Labs
- Team
- 2 engineers, 1 PM, me
- Duration
- 12 weeks
- Platform
- iOS, iPadOS
Ezra listened to our researchers more carefully than we did. The app finally feels like a good notebook.
Behind the project
