Today / Readiness hero
0–100 score, push/recover verdict, today's session call. Switchable visualization (ring gauge · energy wave · cycle ring) via an in-hero toggle.
Women's Health · 2026 Personal project Design engineer
Cadence
Cycle-aware training readiness for high-performing women
Cadence is a premium iOS app that turns a woman's menstrual cycle into a daily training signal. Instead of asking "when is my period?", it answers the question athletes actually have: "How hard should I go today?" Each morning it surfaces a single Readiness score (0–100) that resolves to a clear verdict, Push, Build, Ease back, or Recover; plus a concrete session recommendation. It's built for women roughly 30–40, pre-perimenopause, who train seriously and want to work with their physiology rather than against it.
Try it yourself
Role
Design engineer
Timeline
June 2026
Platform
iOS and Web
Process
How it came together.
Cadence - onboarding
Cadence - walk-thru
Cadence - dark mode
01 · Challenge
Many generic apps none for high-performing women
Mainstream cycle apps are built around fertility and period prediction, wrapped in soft, "cute" branding that doesn't speak to athletes. Meanwhile, training/readiness apps (Whoop, Oura) largely ignore the menstrual cycle one of the biggest drivers of female performance, energy, and recovery. The result: high-performing women have no single tool that connects how they feel, how they're cycling, and how they should train. They're left guessing why a session that felt easy last week is brutal this week, or pushing hard in a recovery window and stalling their progress. The challenge was to translate hormonal phase science into an athletic, trustworthy, daily-decision product without it feeling clinical or childish.
02 · Principles
Principles
One decision per day. The hero is a single number and a single verdict. Depth is available on tap, never forced.
Coach, not clinician. Direct, motivating, performance-minded voice. Guidance is actionable ("Schedule the heavy lift") not diagnostic.
Simple by default, deep on demand. Two states — High Power vs Recovery — that zoom into the real four phases and the science when the user wants it.
Log in seconds. Tile-based symptom capture and a fast workout check-in, because data the user won't enter is worthless.
03 · What we shipped
Current version features
Today / Readiness hero — 0–100 score, push/recover verdict, today's session call. Switchable visualization (ring gauge · energy wave · cycle ring) via an in-hero toggle. Cycle map — 2-state High Power/Recovery view that expands into the 4 phases (menstrual / follicular / ovulatory / luteal). Symptom & feeling logger — tile-based capture of training feel, energy/focus, mood, and body symptoms, plus a "set your tone" quick state. Workout check-in — session type, RPE, and how it felt. Trends — readiness curve across the cycle, averages, energy-by-phase, and cycle history. Cycle calendar — month view with fertile/ovulation/predicted markers and a tap-to-log period sheet. Coach Insights — tappable articles with phase-specific takeaways. Onboarding — first-run flow (goal, profile, last period, cycle length) ending in a readiness reveal. Account drawer + Me settings, light/dark themes, and accent options.
FEATURE 1
FEATURE 2
Cycle map
2-state High Power/Recovery view that expands into the 4 phases (menstrual / follicular / ovulatory / luteal).
FEATURE 3
Symptom & feeling logger
tile-based capture of training feel, energy/focus, mood, and body symptoms, plus a "set your tone" quick state.
Prototype
Try it yourself.
Loads the live Figma prototype
Interactive prototype - fully functional
04 · Outcomes
Numbers we are proud of.
Three metrics that tell us whether Cadence actually solves the problem:
Daily readiness-check rate (engagement / habit)
4+ check-ins/week per active user.
% of active users who open and view their readiness score on a given day. Proves the "one decision per day" loop is sticky and the score is trusted enough to consult.
Recommendation-alignment rate (behavior change)
% of logged workouts
Proves the guidance is changing how women actually train, not just being read.
Perceived-performance lift (outcome)
30/90-day retention
change in a short monthly self-report ("I trained in sync with my body," "fewer wasted/burnout sessions") and 30/90-day retention. Proves users feel the benefit, which is what drives a high-ticket subscription.
05 · Reflection
Where next
The hardest and most important call was reframing the entire category — moving the hero from "period in X days" to a readiness verdict — which is what separates Cadence from every period app and justifies the premium positioning. The two-states-that-zoom-to-four model resolved the core tension between simplicity and scientific credibility well. Design-wise, committing to volt-as-fill / neutral-as-text gave the app its confident, un-cute athletic feel. Open questions for the next iteration: the readiness score is currently illustrative; it needs a real model (cycle phase + logged symptoms + ideally wearable HRV/sleep/temperature) to be trustworthy, and connecting a wearable is the obvious unlock. The biggest product bets ahead are the Macros and Workouts tabs, which would close the loop from insight to action (tracking the fueling and sessions the coaching recommends). And because this touches health, the voice must stay firmly in coaching territory with clear "not a diagnostic tool" guardrails.
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