Designing for trust in an AI-first journaling experience
Role: Head of Design
Overview
Untold is a voice-first journaling app that uses AI to generate personalized content that grows with you over time. The more you share, the more the app learns, surfacing reflections, guided journals, and content that feels genuinely responsive to your life.
I joined as the first design leader and built the product foundation from scratch, from onboarding to core flows to a full content architecture powered by OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and ElevenLabs. My central focus was making sure that anyone who opened Untold felt they could trust it completely with their thoughts, their voice, and their data.
App Store Messaging
Content Artifacts Map
The Challenges
- Users needed to understand what the AI was doing with their entries before they felt safe sharing anything real
- AI-generated content had to feel like a genuine reflection of what users shared, not a content push
- Every decision was a foundation decision that had to scale
Approach
1. Make trust visible
I designed trust signals into the core experience including encryption messaging, no data sharing commitments, and opt-in AI controls, present at the moments users needed them most, not buried in settings.
2. AI that listens, not performs
I designed the UI system that surfaced AI-generated content across the app, focusing on how users receive and interact with it. The goal was to make content feel like a natural response to what users shared, not a broadcast. When it landed right, users described it as feeling like the app was actually listening to them.
3. Ship the full system
I owned core journal flows across voice and text modes, meditations, guided journals, onboarding, rating and feedback loops, and service alert states. Each piece connected to a larger system of how users build a relationship with the app over time. I also used AI in our design process to generate visuals, prototypes, and sprint artifacts so the team could focus on higher-order decisions.
Core Journaling Flow
AI Feedback Loop & Service Alert
Outcomes
- 4.9 stars on the App Store across 1.9K ratings
- "I feel as if I am speaking to a wise friend or counselor. The AI integration is nearly seamless."
- "It tracks old entries and adds the knowledge to newer entries." This is exactly the behavior we designed for.
Looking Back
We made AI feel like it was on the user's side. At a time when most AI products optimized for engagement, we optimized for trust. That’s the harder problem and it’s the one I want to keep working on.
Davina Kim