Wild Brains → Atlas

A wearable that reads your brain — and an app that trains it

Wild Brains is a direct-to-consumer brain optimization platform built around a lightweight EEG headband. The device measures neural activity in real time while the companion app translates that data into personalized training programs — creative exercises, focus sessions, and behavioral tracks designed to improve how users think, feel, and perform.

I joined as lead designer during the company’s seed round, carrying the product from discovery through definition — all initial UX and UXR, the original UI, and the investor pitch deck — working directly with the founder and a small engineering team. The challenge was twofold: make neuroscience accessible to a mainstream consumer audience, and create an experience compelling enough to drive daily engagement with a novel device category.

First touch — goals and basic profiling

The app opens with a brand moment, then immediately gets to work. Users set their primary goal and enter basic demographics — just enough to start generating a personalized plan. No account creation friction, no feature tours.

Building a behavioral and psychological profile

The deeper assessment unfolds across eight questions — moving from binary personality dimensions to multi-select grids and analog sliders. Each interaction type is calibrated to the data it captures: chronotype, personality, self-perception, goals, focus capacity, and activity preferences.

This data seeds the recommendation engine. By the time the assessment completes, the app has enough signal to generate a personalized 2-week training program.

Turning neural signals into something you can feel

This was the core design challenge: how do you make EEG data legible to someone who isn’t a neuroscientist? We explored multiple visualization approaches — from radar charts mapping four cognitive dimensions, to 3D brain renderings with activity hotspots, to simple bar breakdowns.

Each approach served a different context. The radar chart works for at-a-glance brain profiles, the 3D rendering creates an emotional connection to the data, and the bar charts support comparison across sessions.

Structured brain training through creative exercises

Training programs are the core engagement loop — structured 2-week curricula of daily activities calibrated to the user’s brain profile. The headband captures EEG data during each exercise, then reveals what the brain was doing afterward — creating a feedback loop between effort and neural response.

A daily loop that makes progress visible

The home screen anchors the daily experience — surfacing the active training track, brain insight score, and weekly progress. The progress view maps the user’s journey across four dimensions — Focus, Creativity, Anxiety, and Sleep — turning abstract cognitive improvement into a visible trajectory.