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COROS AI · Case Study

Founding designer: shaping the product and the AI together

How COROS AI learned to gather context before it coaches: three onboarding features, the prompt architecture behind them, and the brand around them.

3

features shipped 0→1

55%

next-day return

40%

weekly active users

0→1UX/UIUser Research
Role
AI Designer · Founding Employee
Timeline
June 2025 – Aug 2026
Company
COROS AI
Focus
Product · UX · AI · Research · Brand

The product

COROS AI is an AI coach that helps professionals shift moods, repair relationships and act when they’re stuck; I joined as founding designer in 2025 and led product, UX, prompts, research and brand.

Try what I built

Context

Founding designer at COROS AI

COROS AI is an ontological coaching platform that helps professionals navigate moods, repair relationships, and take action when they’re stuck.

I joined as the founding designer after a 2-month apprenticeship and owned product, UX, prompts, research, and brand.

COROS AI desktop chat: the coach challenges a user's avoidance in a candid, provocative tone, referencing their Self and Belonging life dimensions.
The desktop chat references a user's life dimensions in real time.
COROS AI mobile home screen: 'What's on your mind?' with a message being typed into the composer.
1 · Home
COROS AI mobile chat: the user has sent a message about working overtime and feeling stuck, and the coach is preparing a reply.
2 · The user opens up
COROS AI mobile chat: the coach reflects the user's exhaustion back and asks clarifying questions to understand before advising.
3 · The coach responds
The COROS AI chat composer: a 'What's on your mind?' prompt above an input field with a send button.
The composer: the front door to every conversation.

Research #1 · User interviews

Users said the AI coached too fast

It feels like it’s jumping ahead. I haven’t even explained everything yet.
It just hits all at once and makes me feel kind of awful.

Guidance felt rushed and misaligned with users’ emotional readiness and personal context.

Research #2 · Competitive analysis

Auditing how other AI products onboard

A competitive-analysis board comparing the onboarding flows of Pi, Duolingo, Headspace, Clementine, and Claude, screen by screen.
Pi, Duolingo, Headspace, Clementine, and Claude, screen by screen.

Most conversational AIs gather context in onboarding, then treat it as static.

Solution

Designing the interface and the AI together

The COROS AI onboarding flowEight onboarding steps in order, with an optional Skip for now branch around Influences, three gated steps, and a Back path running from Configuring to Name.1Welcome & sign-up2Intro3Name4Transition5Dimensions6Influences7Tone8ConfiguringSkipfor nowCaptured before any personalization step,so later screens can address the user directly.Back, from Name onwardOnboarding stepGated until a choice or skipOptional pathBack
  1. Welcome and sign-up.
  2. Intro.
  3. Name. Back becomes available here and on every step after it.
  4. Transition, which addresses the user by the name they just gave.
  5. Dimensions. The step is gated: it does not advance until the user selects.
  6. Influences. The step is gated but optional, so it advances on either a selection or Skip for now. Both routes lead to Tone.
  7. Tone. The step is gated: it does not advance until the user chooses a mode.
  8. Configuring, the final screen.

Eight steps, an optional Influences detour, and one Back path.

Three features let users define their context upfront, and I prompt engineered the AI to use it throughout coaching. Name comes first so every screen can address the user.

Feature #1

Mapping what matters in a user's life

Early Dimensions concept: a honeycomb of seven colour-coded hexagons (Work, Belonging, Health, Self, World, Family, Meaning) with short descriptions.
Before: colour distinguished each dimension.
Iterated Dimensions screen: uniform grey hexagons with a single selected dimension highlighted, a clear prompt, and a Continue button.
After: a calmer, selectable grid.
Personalization settings: 'Dimensions of Life' shown as selectable pills, with Self and Belonging chosen.
Dimensions stay editable in settings.

Users pick the areas of life that matter most: Work, Family, Self, Health, Belonging, Meaning, World.

The AI anchors guidance in them and tags which dimension each struggle belongs to, so users can track growth over time.

Feature #2

The people who shape a user

Influences step with selections: chips for Christianity and Simon Sinek in the field, and an active Continue button.
Chosen: the step advances.
Influences step with nothing selected: an empty search field and a 'Skip for now' button, since influences are optional.
Unselected: optional, so skippable.
Influences field with the suggestion dropdown open, listing Christianity, Simon Sinek, Brené Brown, Buddhism, and Mahatma Gandhi.
Typeahead spans thinkers, belief systems, and cultural figures.

Users name the thinkers, belief systems, or frameworks that shape their worldview, such as Brené Brown, Rumi, Stoicism, or Islamic values.

The AI references them sparingly, only when a specific quote or teaching would deepen a key coaching point.

Feature #3

Tuning the AI's personality

Personality slider set to Supportive, described as Calm · Gentle · Patient.
Supportive
Personality slider set to Balanced, described as Grounded · Curious · Discerning.
Balanced
Personality slider set to Provocative, described as Candid · Bold · Perturbing.
Provocative

The original slider set coaching intensity. Each mode switches the entire AI prompt architecture.

Voice and tone rules

  • Supportive: calm, gentle, patient. Acknowledges first, then asks for context.
  • Balanced: grounded, curious. Names what it hears and checks the read.
  • Provocative: candid, bold. Closes the loop and asks for a commitment.

Iteration 1: cutting Supportive

  • Testing and stakeholders showed a coddling Supportive mode contradicted the framework.
  • Ontological coaching challenges limiting beliefs to drive growth, leaving two modes.

Iteration 2: from slider to toggle

Two-mode personality slider with the handle at the Supportive end, between Supportive and Provocative labels.
Handle left: toward Supportive.
Two-mode personality slider with the handle at the Provocative end, between Supportive and Provocative labels.
Handle right: toward Provocative.
Redesigned personality toggle set toward Supportive, described as Grounded · Curious · Discerning.
The toggle: two clear states.
Redesigned personality toggle set to Provocative, described as Candid · Bold · Perturbing.
One deliberate choice.
  • Alpha testers called the slider “binary” and asked for radio buttons.
  • I redesigned it as a Personality Toggle with two clear states.

Outcome

Final onboarding designs

COROS AI welcome screen: Google sign-up with an 18-or-older confirmation, beside a 'Manage Moments of Crisis' example conversation.
1 · Welcome & sign-up
Onboarding intro: 'Hi, I'm COROS!' introducing the AI coach, with a 'Let's begin' button.
2 · Intro
Onboarding name step: 'What would you like me to call you?' with a name field and Back / Continue buttons.
3 · Name
Starfield transition screen: 'Great, Arshita. Let's take a moment to look at what matters to you most right now.'
4 · Transition
Seven-dimensions selection: hexagons for Work, Belonging, Health, Self, World, Family, and Meaning, with World selected.
5 · Dimensions
Influences step: 'choose any voices that influence your thinking,' with Simon Sinek added as a chip.
6 · Influences
Tone step: a Supportive–Provocative toggle set to Provocative (Candid · Bold · Perturbing).
7 · Personality
Completion screen: 'Configuring COROS AI around what matters to you,' with the COROS mark.
8 · Configuring

Welcome, a light warm-up, then dimensions, influences, and personality as one system.

Craft

Design system snippets

Personalization settings: AI response tone toggle, editable Dimensions of Life pills, and an Influences field.
Personalization settings.
Subscription settings: a $100-per-month plan with next billing date, and Cancel / Update subscription buttons.
Subscription settings.
Personalization settings with the Influences dropdown open, showing selected chips and a suggestion list.
Influences typeahead open.
A button specimen sheet: contained, outlined, and text variants across Primary, Secondary, Error, Warning, Info, Success, and Inherit intents, in large, medium, and small sizes with enabled, hovered, focused, pressed, and disabled states.
Buttons: every variant, intent, size, and state.
An input-field specimen sheet: standard, filled, and outlined inputs in medium and small sizes, across enabled, hovered, focused, disabled, and error states, with and without a value.
Inputs across sizes and states.
A floating-action-button specimen sheet: extended and round FABs across default, primary, secondary, and inherit styles, in large, medium, and small sizes and every interaction state, with and without an icon.
Extended and round action buttons.

Every component is specified as a full matrix for engineering.

Visual identity

Designing a brand

A brand-research moodboard collecting circular, portal, and swirl logo references and 'Hello I'm COROS' framing explorations.
Moodboard: circular, portal-like references.
A wide logo-ideation board with dozens of exploratory sketches: circles, orbits, atoms, and gradient orbs.
Ideation: dozens of directions for the mark.
A grid iterating the chosen crescent-and-droplet mark across construction guides and colour gradients on light and dark backgrounds.
Iteration: refining the mark and its colour.
Final COROS AI logo lockups: the crescent mark with the COROS AI wordmark in blue, black, and white on light and dark backgrounds.
Final lockups for light and dark surfaces.
Logo section divider.
Full gradient logo, blue to orange.
Flat duo-tone logo, dark and electric blue.
Solid fill logo, dark mode.
Solid fill logo, light mode.
Colors section divider.
Colour system swatches.
Gradients section divider.
Brand gradient swatches.
Typography section divider.
Logo font: Clash Display Bold.
DM Sans heading scale.

I led the brand and logo end to end, then documented it in a complete brand guide.

Fundraising

Investment pitch deck

The COROS AI investment presentation cover slide.
The cover carries the brand into the raise.
Investment pitch deck, slide 1.
Slide 1
Investment pitch deck, slide 2.
Slide 2
Investment pitch deck, slide 3.
Slide 3
Investment pitch deck, slide 4.
Slide 4
Investment pitch deck, slide 5.
Slide 5
Investment pitch deck, slide 6.
Slide 6
Investment pitch deck, slide 7.
Slide 7
Investment pitch deck, slide 8.
Slide 8
Investment pitch deck, slide 9.
Slide 9
Investment pitch deck, slide 10.
Slide 10

I also designed the investment pitch deck.

Reflection

Takeaways

  • Involve engineers early, and ideas ship.
  • Propose directions, test quickly, and adjust as requirements shift.
  • Users’ own words keep the work honest.

COROS taught me how to design under pressure, and how to stay focused on what matters when everything around you is moving fast.