Orlie – Take Back Control of Your Screen Time
Transform the way you use your phone with powerful tools to build healthier digital habits, without restrictions, guilt, or friction.
Introduction
Orlie is a digital well-being app designed to help you take control of your screen time and build healthier digital habits. It’s not about restrictions, it’s about awareness, balance, and mindful usage. Through real-time activity tracking, personalised nudges, and behavioural insights, Orlie empowers you to make more intentional choices about how you spend time on your phone. Whether you want to reduce mindless scrolling, improve focus, or create better tech-life boundaries, Orlie supports you with customisable tools to fit your lifestyle.
The Brief
A stealth startup approached us to design a digital well-being app that goes beyond basic screen time tracking. The goal was to provide deep insights into users' device habits and equip them with practical tools to reshape their relationship with technology.
Rather than enforcing rigid restrictions, the app needed to encourage mindful digital habits, helping users gain awareness of their behaviour and make intentional choices about how they engage with their devices.
What problem were we trying to solve?
We set out to solve one of the biggest modern challenges, our relationship with technology. Most people underestimate how much time they spend on their phones, and even when they do realise, they struggle to change their habits in a way that feels sustainable.
Traditional screen time tools focus on hard limits and restrictions, which work for some people but can feel punitive and frustrating when it doesn’t go well. We knew there was a better way. The problem isn’t just time spent on a device, it’s how and why we use it. People want balance and control, not guilt.
By providing insightful data, gentle nudges, and supportive tools, we’re helping people reshape their digital habits in a way that fits their lifestyle, rather than forcing them to quit cold turkey.
Challenges
Overcoming ‘Screen Time Fatigue’
Many users have tried screen time limits before and found them frustrating or ineffective. Hard blocks don’t work because they don’t address the real issue, habit formation. That’s why we focus on awareness, behaviour change, and nudges rather than just restrictions.
Competing for Attention in a Noisy Market
The irony? We’re competing for mindshare in an industry built to keep people glued to their screens. Traditional social media and entertainment apps are designed to be addictive. We need to cut through that noise with a product that people actually want to engage with, one that feels like an empowering tool that they can control, not a punishment.
Balancing Impact With Privacy
To help users understand their phone habits, we need data, but today’s consumers are (rightly) concerned about privacy. Unlike other digital wellness tools, we make sure users are in control, keeping transparency at the heart of everything.
Making It Stick
Most behaviour-change apps see high churn because habit-shifting is hard. The challenge is to make our product part of people’s daily routines without becoming another source of distraction. We do this by making interactions frictionless, engaging, and supportive, not intrusive.
Proving Value Early
Users need to see the benefits quickly, or they’ll drop off. We’ve focused on a smooth onboarding, fast insights, and meaningful interventions from day one, so people feel the impact immediately.
Deliverables
We didn’t just build an app, we delivered a fully realised digital well-being ecosystem that helps users understand, manage, and transform their relationship with their devices. Here’s what we delivered and why each element is crucial:
Deep Market Research & Strategy
Our approach wasn’t just about building an app, it was about creating a category-defining product in the well-being space.
Seamless User Experience & Design
A thoughtfully designed experience that makes the app effortless to use.
A Fully mapped out Digital Well-being Experience
Behavioural change doesn’t happen overnight, so we designed a fun, engaging system to help users see progress towards their goals and a system with clear tools to help them stick with it.
Behaviour Tracking & Insights
A powerful analytics system that gives users a clear, real-time view of their digital habits.
Core Product: The Orlie App
A beautifully designed, intelligent well-being app that helps users take control of their phone habits, without guilt, without frustration.
Impact
The Impact of Orlie on Our First 500 Users is nothing short of incredible. With over 75% response rate during the prototype testing stages, we have seen a large uptake in usage and our users are reporting some pretty impressive results.
“This is a wonderful App! Just what I was looking for, thanks”
“It's made me put my phone in another room a couple of times so it's working. I think the concept of being "watched" ie the phone being monitored is enough of a prompt to force me to make an effort. I like the graphs.”
“I love the Activity breakdowns/info!”
“I'm enjoying learning about the app been gd”
“Really enjoying the articles. Short but to the point! Make me think about it all holistically”
“I like being able to select apps for support. this was really easy - keen to see how it will work”
Outcome
While there will be more iterations of this product down the road. Orlie is already proving its value, transforming how users interact with their devices and reshaping digital habits for the better. Since launching with our first 500 users, we’ve seen strong early sentiment that demonstrate its effectiveness:
Increased Mindful Screen Time
Users report feeling more in control of their digital habits, with fewer mindless scrolls and more intentional use of their devices.
Behavioural Change at Scale
Early data suggests a reduction in unnecessary app usage, with users consciously choosing healthier, more productive screen time.
High Engagement with Nudges & Insights
The personalised nudges and daily activity insights are helping users course-correct frequently, leading to better self-regulation.
Positive User Sentiment
Feedback highlights that Orlie is not just another restriction tool, users feel empowered, rather than controlled. This positions us as a unique, habit-forming product rather than a digital detox app.
Demand for More Features
The prototype has proven that people want this kind of intervention. Requests for custom scheduling, deeper habit insights, and integration with other wellness tools show a real appetite for Orlie’s continued evolution.