The research, the calibration rounds, and what was rejected.
Part of the Konjo design language. The laws in the spine apply here unless this chapter contradicts them.
46 apps, 315 App Store screenshots, read image by image. Full notes and citations in the calibration record; the curated screens live in reference/ with attribution in reference/SOURCES.md.
| Reference | What we take | What we reject |
|---|---|---|
| Nike Run Club | The hero ratio — a stat bigger than the page title; loudness spent once; secondary stats packed left, value on top | Full-bleed photography as the default hero |
| Things 3 (4.82 / 27.8k) | Two type sizes per screen; grouping by 12pt of space instead of dividers; colour only in a single glyph | Its quietness — Konjo is deliberately louder |
| Apple Health | Tonal cards with no shadow; inset hairlines; icons as the only colour | Category-coloured headings — Konjo has one accent |
| WHOOP / Oura | Number-to-label ratio ~4.5:1; airy data layouts; uppercase micro-labels inside cards | Dark-first; gradients and glow as atmosphere |
| Linear (4.83 / 2k) | Monochrome text with colour only in small icons; zero dividers in the inbox | Desktop density on a phone — and its label casing. An earlier version of this row credited Linear for "sentence-case section labels with no letterspacing", which is the exact practice L5 forbids: eyebrow is the uppercase register and it is the only one. |
| Strava | The activity-row anatomy; a map as a slim 90pt strip rather than a square | Orange-on-everything |
| Partiful (4.95 / 233k — highest-rated in the study) | Social proof as overlapped avatars + a plain count; user-authored titles left alone | Iridescent gradients, floating circular RSVP |
| Superhuman (4.61 / 3.6k) | A flat colour wash to dim background content instead of a scrim + shadow | Photographic backdrops |
| Attio (G2 4.7) | The table reference for Studio: field-type icons in column headers, ~46pt rows, section labels outside the card group | Card shadows |
| Duolingo | The streak-and-badge mechanic | Its entire tone, its mascot, and every loss-aversion mechanic |
| Mindbody / Zen Planner / Gymdesk / Spark / MyStudio | Nothing | Everything — see anti-patterns |