YouMind
Sign in

Notes on What I Prioritized When Creating 'Hitotoki'

@aso_aaaaa
JAPANESEMay 12, 2026
321K
5.1K
475
19
2.5K

TL;DR

The developer of Hitotoki shares three design principles for creating a diary app that prioritizes user peace and aesthetic attachment over social media metrics.

These are my notes!

1) Not making it a social network

Don't use 'expecting something from someone' as motivation.

I felt that if I didn't get that validation, I would stop, and the diary would lose its 'diary-like' quality.

While it's a bit lonely that you don't get notifications, likes, or follows, I want to guarantee the peace of mind when writing a diary; I want to cherish that feeling.

(By the way, I've designed it so that 'reaching no one' is minimized as much as possible, so please feel safe thinking, 'This diary will reach someone somewhere!')

2) Not forcing anything

I believe that people continue doing things that are fun, and if they truly think something is good, they will want to share it with others who feel the same.

Therefore, I decided not to use prompts like 'Let's write a diary' or 'Please share if you liked it.' Instead, I'm working hard to ensure that the experience itself makes you feel 'That was good' or 'I might want to do that again' when you take action.

3) Creating a sense of attachment

I believe that simply 'being happy to look at it' can be an important experience.

A regular diary starts with choosing the diary book itself. Because you feel an attachment to its shape and design, you feel happy carrying it around or want to open it.

In digital services, appearance is sometimes sidelined, but I think the feeling of 'It looks lovely, so I'm happy to use it, and because I'm happy, I'll use it again' is quite significant.

(It might look a bit like it was written by AI, but it wasn't!!)

Hitotoki: https://diary.aaaaaso.com/hitotoki/

One-click save

Use YouMind for AI deep reading of viral articles

Save the source, ask focused questions, summarize the argument, and turn a viral article into reusable notes in one AI workspace.

Explore YouMind
For creators

Turn your Markdown into a clean ๐• article

When you publish your own long-form writing, images, tables, and code blocks make ๐• formatting painful. YouMind turns a full Markdown draft into a clean, ready-to-post ๐• article.

Try Markdown to ๐•

More patterns to decode

Recent viral articles

Explore more viral articles