Personal Finance App / 2026

Pelana

An iPhone finance app that connects spending, budgets and goals with an AI companion and idle adventure.

Shipaton 2026 submission

My role: Product Designer & Developer
Client: Pelana
Scope: iPhone finance app · Reviewable AI money-action flows

Designed and built Pelana, from the original research and prototype to the current iOS app. The implementation uses React Native, Expo and TypeScript, local encrypted storage, and RevenueCat for memberships.

Overview

Pelana began as a design study in making everyday financial habits more approachable. The current iPhone app combines a finance tracker, Pela AI companion and an idle adventure.

Connect three experiences without compromising the clarity of financial actions. Money inputs, pending actions and saved transactions must remain explicit and reviewable.

Design choices

Money remains the source of truth. Pela prepares structured actions for review, while the adventure translates financial engagement into XP, quests and rewards.

Keep financial records authoritative; AI prepares actions for the user to review before saving.
Connect habits to quests and rewards without rewarding spending more money.
Keep Money, Pela and Adventure connected through shared financial state.

Results

Released Pelana on the App Store.
Submitted the current app to RevenueCat Shipaton 2026.

The process artifacts below document the original design study; the demo above shows the current app.

Pelana gallery

01Original design study: Expenses, adventure map and analytics

02Original design study: Mobile app screen overview

03Original design study: Color, typography and character development

04Original design study: Onboarding screens

05Original design study: Chat-based expense logging

06Original design study: Avatar creation

07Original design study: Profile, support and reward screens

08Original design study: design development

Project details

Read the process

Product design · Original design study: 1 month

Research habits and motivation
Used interviews, surveys, competitor research, personas and journey mapping to understand the barriers to everyday financial tracking.
Prioritize the core experience
Developed flows and information architecture, using card sorting, How Might We questions and MoSCoW prioritization to define the prototype.
Design the product and characters
Progressed from sketches and wireframes to a Figma prototype, with an illustrated world, avatars, Pela and a shared visual system.
Test and iterate
Used usability feedback to refine the original prototype. The current app builds on that work with reviewable AI actions, local storage and an integrated financial and adventure state.
Build and release
Extend the original design study into the iPhone app: implement money-action flows, onboarding and membership, then complete QA and release preparation alongside the supporting website.