As a homebody, I often find it hard to motivate myself to go outside. I know I enjoy fresh air and going on walks but it’s usually hard to peel myself off my laptop to make it happen. I wanted to create a fun, playful, and non-competitive walking app that encourages me to take more breaks to enjoy the outdoors.
So, with a free weekend I created and launched Ponchi, the meme-y walking app 😊
PONCHI
Your friendly walking buddy
Ponchi was inspired my first love—my tamagotchi. As a kid, I always took way better care of my tamagotchi than I did of my own self. From walking to playing to feeding, I was a MOTHER.
I did everything in my power to keep my tamagotchi alive and wanted to see if I could create a product that incorporated the same game mechanics to encourage a healthy habit.
Ponchi is a virtual pet that stays alive by you heading outside and getting some steps in. As you take it on walks, you accumulate food and can only keep it alive by feeding it everyday. You can add friends to cheer them on as they go on walks and also look back at your previous walk history.
APP SUMMARY
With Ponchi, I decided to go hard on the experimentation. Unlike most modern apps with sleek UIs, I wanted to make use of the video game retro-tamagotchi feel. That meant no icons or tabs, and only making use of Ponchi’s environment and the exploration of its users.
Users can check in on the health of their Ponchi by clicking the health bar and food status shown above. They can find out all the fun places Ponchi has been by clicking the suitcase to reveal walk history. And users can check in on friends by clicking the jumping Ponchi’s in the back.
It was very fun, but I now fully understand why this kind of interface is mainly used in video games and rarely in mobile apps.
SPATIAL DESIGN
Ponchi game play is fun and easy!
As users take their Ponchi on walks, aka go on actual walks and track their steps through the app, they accumulate food for their pet. Once their Ponchi lets them know that they’re hungry, users can feed them with the food storage they’ve collected.
In addition, users get notified whenever their friends go on walks and have the ability to cheer them on!
GAME PLAY
Ponchi received 175+ downloads on Testflight within 24 hours! Here are a few of the messages I got from strangers on Twitter.
