I designed SwipePhoto from scratch — concept, flows, UI and motion — around one bet: turn deleting photos, the most boring chore on your phone, into a game. Then I used the data to sharpen it.
The challenge
The average phone holds thousands of screenshots, blurry shots and near-identical duplicates. People feel the storage anxiety — but the actual job of deleting is slow, joyless, and a little scary. Existing cleaners made it worse: endless grids, “YOUR PHONE IS FULL!” fear screens, and upsells that felt like a scam.
The brief: build a cleaner people would open for fun, trust with their memories, and happily pay to keep using — on a tiny iOS team.
Discovery
It’s so boring and endless
Reviewing photos in a grid is decision fatigue at scale. People quit after a screenful and never come back.
What if I delete a good one?
Loss aversion freezes people. Without a safety net, they hoard everything “just in case.”
These apps feel scammy
Fear screens and aggressive paywalls killed trust. People wanted help, not a horror movie about their storage.
From 9 interviews, a camera-roll diary study, a teardown of 6 cleaner apps, and ~1,800 App Store reviews mined for the words people actually use.
How I decided
One photo, one decision, instant feedback. Momentum over grids.
Nothing is gone until you confirm. Undo and a trash buffer, always.
Celebrate freed space. No fear screens, no dark patterns.
Key decisions
I shipped the first version, watched how people actually used it, and redesigned the moments that leaked. Every call below is mine — and each one moved a number.
Delete
Keep
Trash
Review
Months
Duplicates
Screenshots
Scan
Reward
Favorites
Preview
Other cleaners sold fear. SwipePhoto sold the satisfying click of a tidy camera roll.
Impact
Measured over 6 weeks post-launch vs the previous grid-based version, via Amplitude and App Store Connect. The swipe + trash-buffer combo was the single biggest driver of both session length and conversion.
Reflection
First builds let people swipe faster than they could think. The trash buffer + a subtle “undo” toast fixed it — but I’d design the safety net before the speed next time.
A few users found swiping gimmicky for large libraries. I added a plain multi-select list mode — same engine, calmer surface.
Local vs cloud deletion confused power users. I punted real iCloud-state handling to v2 — in hindsight worth scoping up front.
Design system
Palette
Typography — Outfit display, Space Grotesk body
Key components
Red/blue action language users already understand.
A completable chunk with a progress bar.
Celebrate freed space — never a fear screen.