“We design for sleepy people”
Petter Wallin, Sleep Cycle

3 min readJul 25, 2019

Created 10 years ago, Sleep Cycle is one of world’s top wellness apps with more than 3 million monthly active users. We asked their Head of Product Petter Wallin to answer our questions.

What does your product team look like?

I joined Sleep Cycle 7 years ago and I’ve been taking care of the design since then. Things changed recently as we hired Filip, our art director. He does UX, illustrations and design. He helped me a lot with our latest app facelift. We also have 3 developers and work closely with the team in charge of the sleep analysis, as well as the content and growth teams.

Are you working with sleep experts?

We are collaborating with a sleep scientist and other medical experts on a regular basis. On top of that, many people at the office are very interested in sleep and read a lot about it. We are a really small company and share knowledge with each other so everybody is up to date.

How do you get insights from your users?

We don’t do phone calls but we read most of the reviews in the app stores and the feedback we get on Twitter. And for every new idea we have, we design prototypes on Origami, InVision or AdobeXD and try them with friends and at the office. Then, we share a coded Alfa-version of the feature with our closed testers group on Facebook before the official release.

What is the most important principle you follow when designing?

Accessibility! An old person or a kid should be able to use the app without problems. And as it’s mostly used during the night, we have to take care that our interface is intuitive enough for people that are sleepy or that don’t have their glasses on.

What is the feature you’re the most proud of?

I especially like the first tab of our app in our latest facelift. You can easily swipe between different alarm settings, and the screens are now more dynamic and living than ever. The stars and the clouds are animated in a parallax scroll. The moon even shows the correct moon phase!

This tab is the one all the users use every night. It’s a nice feeling to know that’s millions of people see that beautiful night screen before they fall asleep. And it’s just the start. Very soon more magic stuff will arrive there.

Is there a feature you planned but eventually decided not to do?

I don’t think so. We have a lot of things we want to do and ressources are limited, but we’ll get there!

3 apps that you use a lot?

NYTimes: It’s easy to navigate, and I love the typography they used.

Apple Notes: I’m always offline when I’m not working, so I don’t get distracted by emails. Notes is my go-to app for private stuff, as well as inspirations and ideas for Sleep Product’s product!

Kindle: I read a lot of books on my reader and this app is very useful to continue reading on the subway with their Whispersync feature. I like their typography too!