Case 02 · Tidepool Surf Co.
Reading the ocean in one glance
An iOS forecast app for surfers and swimmers, designed around a single draggable tide curve.
- Role
- Product designer & iOS prototyper
- Year
- 2025
- Duration
- 4 months
- Client
- Tidepool Surf Co.
- Stack
- SwiftUIWidgetKitOrigamiFigma
01 — Problem
Surf forecasts are spreadsheets pretending to be apps: swell period, direction, wind, tide, all in separate tables. Tidepool’s founders wanted a forecast you could read on the walk from the car to the water.
02 — Process
- 01
The curve is the interface
Everything hangs off one tide curve. Drag it, and swell, wind and water temperature update for that moment. We tested five alternatives; the curve won every session because it matches how people already think about the tide.
- 02
Haptics as information
The scrubber ticks on every hour and gives a heavier bump at high and low water, so you can find the turn of the tide without looking.
- 03
Widgets that don’t need the app
Three lock-screen widgets carry the answer to “should I go now?” — most users now check them more often than they open the app.
03 — Result
Tidepool launched on the California coast and in Portugal with a 4.8 App Store rating, and was featured in “Apps We Love” in its second week.
- App Store rating
- 4.8
- day-30 retention
- 61%
- median session to decision
- 2.4s
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