Reclaim

Inspiration

Nowadays, working parents are overwhelmed by fragmented schedules, competing priorities, and the constant pressure to be present everywhere. From managing design labs, people, projects, sport goals, and family time to just keeping up with life, users describe a loss of focus when one area takes priority over another. 'When you focus on one part of your life, another loses focus. Is this normal?' Users try managing with shared calendars, to-do lists, and notebooks, but nothing gives them the big picture or keeps priorities in check. They want balance, not just structure.

What it does

Reclaim is a smart personal assistant app designed for busy parents who feel overwhelmed by the daily juggle of work, family, and personal time. Most parents today suffer from mental overload, blurry work-life boundaries, and conflicting schedules, leading to missed appointments, burnout, and no time for self-care. Unlike traditional calendars or to-do apps, Reclaim doesn’t just show you your time; it helps you protect it. With intelligent scheduling, well-being prioritization, and support for dynamic family logistics, Reclaim helps parents:

• Stay on top of overlapping tasks
• Regain control of their time
• Prioritize their health, hobbies, and peace of mind

How we built it

Our team of 5 designers followed a Human-Centered Design approach to build Reclaim.

We started with the Problem Discovery:

• Conducted in-depth interviews with 8 parents of school-age children to understand their daily struggles with time, mental overload, and lack of balance.
• Ran a competitive analysis of 12 calendar and time management apps to identify gaps and opportunities.
• Identified key pain points: overcommitment, blurred work-life boundaries, forgotten tasks, and lack of self-care time.
• Formulated the problem statement and crafted a clear “How might we…”: “As a busy parent with school-age kids, I need personal time away from work and family so that I have dedicated time for my well-being. But I can’t, because I’m overcommitting to work and family tasks. So I need a personal assistant who finds free time slots for me.”

We proceeded with Design Exploration:

• Conducted visual research to align with the tone and voice of the app.
• Created a user flow diagram to define the core experience of reclaiming and protecting time.
• Built a reusable UI Kit with accessible components and visual consistency.

We came up with the interface and developed it in Bolt.new:

• Designed key screens and interactions in Figma, ensuring usability, clarity, and emotional resonance with our target users.
• Used Bolt.new to bring the Reclaim app to life as an interactive, high-fidelity prototype.

Challenges we ran into

• It was tempting to solve everything (calendar, to-dos, family planning), but we had to focus on what truly moves the needle: protecting personal time.
• Our team lives across various time zones with full-time jobs, ongoing projects, and family responsibilities. Thus, coordinating meetings and collaboration was challenging.
• We had to work asynchronously and trust each other’s progress without constant check-ins, requiring clear communication and shared ownership.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Reclaim is built from the real user needs, not assumptions. We connected with 8 real parents and uncovered powerful stories of burnout, overcommitment, and the need for boundaries. Designed and developed a high-fidelity interactive experience in Figma and Bolt.new to help parents protect time for their wellbeing. As a fully remote team with different time zones and life situations, we communicated, supported each other, and delivered a unified product.

What we learned

• Listening to real parents reminded us that design starts with understanding users and their needs, pains, and gains rather than creating just features.
• It’s tempting to solve everything, but choosing one meaningful problem leads to more powerful solutions.
• Collaboration across time zones is possible and can even be efficient.
• Rapid prototyping accelerates learning with tools like Figma and Bolt.new

What's next for Reclaim

If interest grows, we may evolve Reclaim into a live MVP with deeper functionality.

Built With

• bolt.new
• figma