Subconsciously

At a glance

Subconsciously is a hypnotherapy and wellness app built with Aaron Surtees, one of the UK’s best-known hypnotherapists. It makes his studio-recorded work available at home, on a commute or in bed, and it won Best Social/Lifestyle App at the Best Mobile App Awards 2023.

Sector: wellness, mental health and hypnotherapy. Platforms: native iOS and Android. What we did: brand identity, product and interface design, native app development for both platforms, and a custom content management system so Aaron and his team can publish new sessions without a developer.

The challenge

Wellness apps sit close to therapy, and that changes the brief. Five problems shaped this one.

Trust. People arriving at a hypnotherapy app are often sceptical. The product has to feel calm, credible and plain about what it actually is: a library of professionally recorded sessions from a named practitioner, not a clinical service and not a promise of a particular outcome.

Audio delivery. The whole product is long-form audio. Sessions have to start quickly, keep playing when the screen locks, cope with a patchy signal on a train, and be downloadable for a flight.

Routine without guilt. Sessions are designed to be returned to, so the app needs to support a habit. But streak mechanics borrowed from language apps punish people for missing a day, and a wellness product that makes someone feel worse for skipping one has the balance wrong.

Night and low light. A lot of listening happens in bed with the lights off. A bright white screen at that moment is a design failure.

Value felt early. This is a subscription, so someone needs to feel the benefit in the first session or two, not after a month of browsing.

What we designed

Goal-led onboarding. Rather than dropping people into a library, sign-up asks what they want to work on. Those answers assemble a personalised plan from the sessions Aaron recommends for that goal, so the first screen already looks like it was put together for that person.

A player built for eyes-closed use. Large targets, minimal chrome, background playback and controls you can find without looking. Once a session starts, the interface gets out of the way.

Offline downloads. Any session can be saved to the device, which turns planes, tubes and hotel rooms into usable moments. It became one of the most-liked features.

A gentle daily prompt. Push notifications invite people back at a time that suits them. They nudge rather than scold, and missing a day costs nothing.

A dark, low-light interface. Deep tones, soft imagery and restrained motion, so the app is comfortable to open at eleven at night.

Sound and imagery. Aaron wrote and recorded every script in a professional studio. We paired those recordings with soothing background audio and world-class imagery so a session feels like being in the room with him.

A custom CMS. Aaron and his team upload new sessions, artwork and plans themselves, so the library keeps growing without waiting on a release.

Results

Subconsciously won Best Social/Lifestyle App at the Best Mobile App Awards 2023. It is Digiruu’s award-winning wellness product and the clearest external verdict on the work.

Alongside the award, the app holds a 4.5-star rating in the App Store. The custom CMS has made the content library self-sustaining for Aaron’s team, and the two features users mention most are the offline downloads and the daily prompt. Sessions on anxiety, confidence and manifestation are among the most used.

Frequently asked

What makes a wellness app one people keep using?

Fit in the first session, and no punishment for absence. If onboarding produces a plan that matches the reason someone downloaded the app, they get something useful straight away. After that the job is a light, well-timed prompt and a library that keeps growing, not a streak that makes coming back after a gap feel like failure.

How do you design for night-time and low-light use?

Assume the room is dark and the phone is close to the face. That means a dark palette by default, softened secondary text rather than pure white, no sudden bright screens between steps, controls large enough to hit by feel, and audio that carries on when the screen locks. Then test it in a genuinely dark room, not on a bright monitor.

How do you design a subscription app people do not cancel?

Make the value legible early and keep the supply of content moving. Personalise the first week so the product proves itself before the first renewal, be plain about what the subscription includes and how to leave, and give the client a CMS so new material lands regularly. A subscription is a promise of continued value, and the tooling that keeps that promise matters as much as the interface.