Build around the practice.
Ascend is my fitness and lifting app. It gives me a sustained product problem to work on: making software that fits around training, with decisions about usefulness and interaction that have to hold together over time.
I approach that work through both the product and its implementation. The interface is part of the experience, and the engineering underneath it needs the same attention.
Leave room for personal taste.
Ascend’s look is customizable. I want the visual experience to feel like something a person can make their own, while keeping the underlying product coherent.
That creates an interesting design constraint: give the app character and allow variation while retaining a clear, readable interface. The appearance is one part of the product, and it deserves deliberate work.
Keep building, and keep checking.
The project has grown into a substantial codebase with a verification workflow. It is a place to practice the less visible parts of product development: maintaining context, checking changes and returning to decisions as the application develops.
I’m documenting Ascend as work in development. This account focuses on the product and design work I can show; distribution and release details belong with a verified release.