YI 易 · Daily Guidance — Rainmelon Studio

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YI 易 — I Ching-Inspired Daily Guidance

YI 易 — Daily Guidance App

Consumer app concept · 2026

Meet yourself in the moment.

One reading a dayAsk YIOne small action

Live prototype · tap anything

The middle phone shows the exploratory prototype that informs this concept. Try its symbolic interactions and optional sound, or open it full screen. The phones either side are the same app running its own demos.

Designed a divination app inspired by the I Ching, combining tarot- and astrology-style daily guidance, mood check-ins, and personalized hexagram readings to support self-reflection, emotional well-being, and personal growth.

ROLE

PRODUCT DESIGNER
PRODUCT STRATEGY

SCOPE

Positioning & Market Research
Content Strategy & IA
UIUX & Motion Design
Interactive Prototype (HTML · Web Audio)

｜30% of U.S. adults read astrology or tarot ｜1 minute a day ｜64 hexagrams ｜1 small action per reading ｜0 birth charts required ｜0 fate predictions ｜

Overview & Context

Divination has moved from the fringe to the home screen.

Tarot, horoscopes and birth charts are now part of everyday self-care. For a generation living with constant uncertainty, divination has become less about predicting the future and more about a daily ritual of self-reflection: a way to name a feeling, see a situation from a new angle, and decide what to do next.

YI brings the I Ching into that ritual. A one-minute mood check-in, a daily hexagram, and a question you can ask in your own words. Each reading ends with one small action you can take today.

YI's visual language grows out of the installation: eight trigram renders, one natural element each — Heaven, Earth, Wind, Fire, Rain, Water, Mountain, Thunder.

The Problem

People don't come for predictions. They come for clarity.

30% of U.S. adults consult astrology, tarot or a fortune teller at least once a year, and the number is far higher among young women. But most say they do it “just for fun”, and only 6% engage weekly. The habit is there; the lasting value isn't.

30%of U.S. adultsconsult astrology, tarot or a fortune teller yearly

46%of women 18–49consult astrology at least yearly

~1 in 4adults under 30read tarot at least yearly

6%engage weeklythe gap YI is built for

Source: Pew Research Center, survey of 9,593 U.S. adults, published May 2025.

GenericHoroscopes speak to everyoneThe same line for one-twelfth of the world.

HeavyBirth charts ask too muchExact birth time first, then a vocabulary of houses and transits.

Learning curveTarot needs a reader78 cards, and the meaning lives with whoever interprets them.

AnxiousApps predict instead of helpFate-heavy copy creates worry, not direction.

I know I'm feeling something, I can't quite name it, and I don't know what to do next. How might we turn a ritual people already enjoy into a daily moment of clarity?

The Project Potential

Divination as a mirror, not a forecast.

A reading works the way a good question does. A symbol is open enough that people project their own situation onto it; that is why tarot and astrology resonate: they give people permission to reflect. YI keeps the ritual and the mystery, and adds what is missing: a concrete next step.

MarketA proven habit, a fresh systemThe daily-reading loop is already familiar from Co–Star and tarot apps. The I Ching, a 3,000-year-old system of 64 hexagrams, is still largely untapped in consumer products.

AccessNo birth chart requiredPersonalization comes from how you feel today, not when you were born. Anyone can start in under a minute.

ValueBuilt for meaning, not addictionSuccess means “this helped me see today more clearly”, not streaks or fear-driven upsells.

GrowthRoom to growA private journal, shareable guidance cards and, later, Together: shared reflection for friends and partners.

Design Principles

Four principles for a useful daily moment.

01Start with how you feelBegin with a quick mood check-in and an optional question. People should be able to reflect without learning the I Ching first.

02Make guidance easy to act onKeep each reading brief: a perspective on the situation, a question to consider, and one small action for today.

03Leave room for personal meaningUse the sixty-four hexagrams as prompts for reflection. Offer possibilities in plain language and leave decisions with the person reading.

04Create space to pauseA quiet visual language and optional sound support attention. The daily experience should feel complete after one useful reading.

The System

Sixty-four perspectives, one consistent reading structure.

The I Ching provides the symbolic structure: eight lower trigrams paired with eight upper trigrams form sixty-four hexagrams. The proposed guidance layer gives each reading a consistent shape: a theme, a reflective question, and a small action. Mood and a question in the user’s own words provide context for reflection; they do not determine a prediction. The table below shows the underlying pairings, with four scenes from the original artwork outlined.

The Solution

A daily loop: check in, reflect, take one small step.

1 · Arrive: a brief check-in
The proposed daily experience starts with how you feel and what is on your mind. Onboarding introduces YI as a tool for self-reflection, then invites a mood check-in and an optional question. No birth time or prior knowledge is needed.

2 · Receive: a daily hexagram and a new perspective
The three-coin ritual offers a pause before the reading. Six tosses build a hexagram; changing lines suggest a second perspective. In the daily-guidance concept, this symbol opens a short reflection that users can relate to their own situation. The coin mechanics shown below are already explored in the prototype.

6old yinchanging

7young yang

8young yin

9old yangchanging

Line values from three coins (heads = 3, tails = 2). Changing lines flip to produce the second hexagram.

3 · Reflect: bring your own question
Ask YI is the proposed space for a question in your own words. The reading should help you consider what feels uncertain, what you can influence, and what another perspective might reveal. The existing Eight, Compose and Sixty-four explorations provide optional background for people curious about the symbols.

4 · Act: leave with one manageable step
Each proposed reading ends with a small, specific action: write down one concern, ask a clarifying question, or make time for a conversation. Optional sound offers a quiet pause while reflecting. The prototype’s two-layer player explores that supporting experience.

卦

Cast

Toss three coins. Consider a new perspective.

八

Sixty-four

Every hexagram, one library.

合

Compose

Pair two elements. Explore their relationship.

听

Listen

A quiet pause, space to reflect.

文

Framework

A framework, not a fortune.

These working demos explore the symbolic and sensory foundation: casting, the library, composition, optional sound and onboarding. They show the earlier exploratory prototype; the mood check-in, Ask YI and action-focused reading flow are the proposed next iteration.

5 · Return: a gentle reminder of today’s reflection
The next iteration would bring today’s reflection and chosen action to a home-screen widget, making it easy to revisit without starting another reading. The earlier concepts below explore a daily hexagram widget and optional audio controls. They establish the visual direction for that extension.

App iconHexagram 40, Xie: thunder over water, read top to bottom. The glowing line is its changing line, the one place the app spends its accent.

Earlier lock-screen, widget and icon concepts. The clock, waveforms and progress bar animate on this page; the proposed daily-action widget remains a next step.

Key Decisions

The trade-offs that shaped it.

A complete framework with a focused daily entry

OptionsLead with a library of sixty-four symbols, or give people one relevant starting point each day.

ChoseMake one daily reading the primary experience. Keep the full symbolic library available for optional exploration, using the existing paired visuals as its foundation.

Divination without fortune telling

OptionsUse predictive language, or frame symbols as invitations to examine a situation.

ChoseKeep the ritual and translate its themes into reflective questions and practical actions. The person decides what resonates and what to do next.

One accent colour

OptionsColour-code the eight elements.

ChoseStay black and warm white like the installation. The glow appears only on changing lines, the one moment where a hexagram moves.

A prototype that makes the next step clear

OptionsReplace the existing exploration immediately, or use it to identify what the guidance experience still needs.

ChoseKeep scripted demos of the existing prototype. The demos show the current symbolic exploration. The next prototype needs to test the full check-in → reading → action loop.

Under the Hood

A working foundation for the guidance concept.

Data8 × 8 King Wen tableEvery screen resolves a hexagram from its lower and upper trigram, derived from one six-line array.

VisualsFrom 1200 × 800 to squareEach p5.js render was cropped to its square canvas and re-encoded as an animated WebP, from about 34 MB of GIFs to about 11 MB.

SoundTwo-layer Web Audio graphEach trigram is its own source → gain → analyser chain; the analyser draws the waveform lines. Synthesized textures stand in for the field recordings.

Ground#000000

Line#F2EFE8

Panel#141414

Change · glow#FFFFFF

易 Yi · AaCormorant Garamond, display
Inter, interface

The design tokens. The glow appears only on changing lines, the one moment in a reading where the hexagram moves.

Outcome & Next Steps

From symbolic exploration toward everyday clarity.

64hexagrams available in the exploratory prototype

1 mintarget for the proposed daily check-in

1 actionintended takeaway from each proposed reading

3stages to test: check in, reflect, act

This is an untested concept. The figures above describe prototype coverage and design targets, not measured outcomes. The next study would test whether users can name how they feel, explain the reading in their own words, and choose an action that fits their situation. Follow-up would ask whether they took that action and found the reflection useful; time spent listening is a secondary signal.

Next
· Prototype the complete mood check-in, daily reading and Ask YI flow.
· Write and review guidance for all sixty-four hexagrams: a theme, a reflective question and a small action, with no claims to predict outcomes.
· Test clarity, emotional tone and action usefulness with people who already use tarot or astrology for reflection.
· Explore a private reflection history and a daily-action widget; provide spoken glyph labels, reduced motion and an experience that works without sound.

Reflection
The installation gave people a way to encounter the I Ching through image and sound. YI carries that openness into a daily practice: notice a feeling, consider another perspective, and choose one small step. The design challenge is to make the symbolic experience useful in someone’s day while preserving their agency. The next iteration will test whether that connection holds.