The "Das Beste des Tages" App featuring Hotel Matze
Expertise
Tech Stack
Duration
Challenge
For eight years, Matze Hielscher and Philip Siefer have maintained a personal ritual: sharing a daily journal via an Excel spreadsheet. Our mission as joint venture partners was to build a radical “anti-social network”—completely free from likes, algorithms, and addictive pressure—that preserves a safe space for genuine reflection.
Solution
We developed a native app for iOS and Android. Designed according to the principles of "Calm Technology," we deliberately intentionally forgo advertising, streaks, and public feeds. A minimalist design creates a calm, protected space for exactly two people—fostering daily gratitude and deepening friendships for the long term.
From Ritual to Joint Venture
Joint Workshop in Berlin
FigJam board of the workshop
Key Sprint as a Springboard
During our first joint strategy workshop in Berlin, one central question was front and center: How can we recreate space for deep, authentic, and personal connections in the digital sphere? The result of this intensive phase is a sustainable app concept for decelerated journaling. Instead of superficial feeds, users exchange just one memorable moment—their highlight—each day with a single favorite person (their bestie). This deliberate shift away from typical social media stress fosters personal reflection and builds genuine bonds.
Co-creation for genuine digital intimacy
As joint venture partners, we took full responsibility for the entire process: from the initial product vision and market positioning to branding and the final concept. At the core of product development was an uncompromising Minimum Viable Product (MVP) focus: What core mechanic is truly needed for the ritual to establish itself as a daily "tiny habit"? This is backed by an ethical monetization model that relies on a transparent subscription and voucher system rather than selling user data.
The Art of Leaving Things Out
Hand-Drawn, Personal, and Human
How do you design an app when you are stripped of almost every tool in the traditional designer toolkit? "Das Beste des Tages" is a social network built for exactly two people: no feed, no audience, no numbers. We had to consciously strip away every familiar dopamine pattern. There are no likes, hearts, or streaks—preventing any comparative "bookkeeping" over who reacts how often or forgets to post. Designed around the principle of tiny habits, we followed one ironclad rule: anything more complex than a single row in a spreadsheet is a step backward.
Countering typical social media stress
Perhaps the biggest hurdle was not disrupting a ritual honed over eight years. We gave even the empty state its own sense of dignity: waiting for your bestie’s entry doesn’t feel like an error, but like a letter that’s already on its way. This reduction is also reflected in the UI: instead of a traditional menu, the app relies on small, hand-drawn illustrations. They feel intentionally human and approachable—serving as an honest, refreshing counterweight to the polished uniformity of AI design.
"The hardest part was the empty state. In most apps, 'there's nothing here yet' is an edge case you design away. For us, it’s the default state: you log your moment and wait for your bestie to log theirs. That waiting shouldn’t feel like an error or a reproach—it should feel like a letter that’s already on its way."
Small, hand-drawn illustrations
Lean in operations, scalable at heart
A smooth app for iOS and Android
Invisible technology for a seamless experience
For a daily ritual to work in seconds, the technology behind it must remain invisible—even when handling complex edge cases caused by different time zones and devices. On the frontend, React Native delivers lean performance across iOS and Android, while on iOS, SwiftUI and WidgetKit via App Groups power a native Home Screen widget. Privacy-compliant Sign in with Apple, StoreKit Subscriptions, and seamless deep linking for bestie pairing complete the mobile experience.
On the backend, we rely on a custom Go boilerplate built with CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation) architecture, a GraphQL API, and Asynq as the task queue. This setup handles asynchronous background tasks and traffic spikes with complete fault tolerance. Through end-to-end type safety and deployment as a single, low-maintenance binary, we keep long-term system complexity to a minimum. The result is an exceptionally robust, scalable foundation that effortlessly navigates the typical hurdles of the app stores.
8 out of 100+ screens from the Figma prototype
"Interactions between two people across different time zones create countless edge cases. Thanks to our Go backend with CQRS and GraphQL, we seamlessly handle this complexity in the background—lean in hosting, highly scalable, and completely reliable in operation."
