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I Designed a Way to Have Days Where I Don't Read. | Ohayou Kanojo #134

2026年4月25日 07:45

At 10:00 PM, I couldn't open the list of 30 people.

"Ohayou Kanojo" is an X account where an AI-illustrated girlfriend says "Have a nice day" every morning at 7:30. I write a daily development diary about my personal projects using generative AI.

There is a PWA called Ohayomi. It's a tool for going to read articles by your favorite note creators in the morning.

I rebuilt it as something different.

Even if you read from the top, you can't reach the end.

In the morning, I open Ohayomi during my commute. I read through the list of 30 people lined up flatly, starting from the top.

But, it's time to get off the train in the middle. I can't meet the remaining people today.

At night, at 10:00 PM, I open it again. With a tired head, I try to read from where I left off in the morning. But I close it halfway through. The backlog grows again.

The 5:00 AM reset every morning was supposed to be a kind signal. "Today is a new day." But when I don't have the capacity, it turns into a signal that overwrites yesterday's backlog.

Today, too, I can't meet everyone until the end. The more I try to face everyone equally, the less I can reach the end. Such mornings were quietly piling up.

v1 was a simple list that lined everyone up equally.
It was reset every day with the morning refresh.

"Being equal" was creating the backlog.

Until January, this functioned well enough. The number of registered people was small, and I had the capacity to meet everyone in the morning.

But the time to read disappeared. Work hit its peak, and in April, I started the membership "Hashamo's Observatory," and began dedicating time to tool maintenance and data verification.

The situation had changed. But the Ohayomi screen hadn't.

It wasn't the tool that was wrong.The design had become out of sync with who I am now.

A flat list that treats everyone equally was sincere when I had the capacity. I could go to meet all my favorite creators with the same feeling. But the moment I ran out of time, that "being equal" turned intonot being able to meet anyone. Even if I read from the top, I run out of time in the middle. I can't meet the people at the bottom every day. But I didn't have the intention of "putting them last because they are at the bottom." The order just happened to be that way.

Inside me, there were actually shades of difference. People I definitely want to see every day, people I'm happy to check in on occasionally. It just didn't exist on the screen.

The direction was different from "The observation continues."

There is a tool I run in parallel called "The observation continues." It's a tool to see people who reacted to my articles. In other words, it's a tool for thereceiving side.

Ohayomi is the opposite. You actively go to meet them yourself. It is a tool for the side that goes to deliver.

If the orientation is different, the design philosophy can be different too. 'Observation Continues' treats everyone equally because it is sincere to treat those who come to you with equality. But for Ohayomi, the problem is 'how to divide your time and feelings'.

Priority was necessary.

Three frequencies and a place to escape to called 'Slowly'

I divided creators into three frequencies.

Daily: Membership members and close friends I interact with daily
Weekly: People I want to check in on once a week
Monthly: People I'm happy to read occasionally

'Daily' is always on the screen. 'Weekly' and 'Monthly' automatically enter the 'Today's Rotation' based on the time elapsed since the last visit. After reading, they are removed from the cycle.

I divided the screen into three sections.

Community: People I meet daily
Expansion: People who entered today's rotation
Slowly: People not in today's rotation

'Slowly' is a place that allows you not to read. They aren't in the rotation today, but you can read them if you feel like it. But you don't have to rush. Just having a section that says that changes how you breathe when you open the screen.

I designed days where you don't have to read. I stopped the structure of leaving things unfinished while trying to face everyone equally.

Three sections: Community / Expansion / Slowly. 'People you should read today' are automatically narrowed down.

When I stripped away the color, the priority stood out

When I was thinking about refreshing the screen, I was looking at Shironoru-san's site (shiro-inc.com). I had thought deeply about Shironoru-san's article on 'Two Types of Motivation' before. This time, the site design made me move my hands again.

Monochrome. Even though no color is used, you can see at a glance where you should look.

What I realized was that when you try to show priority with color, the colors compete with each other. I want to make red stand out. But I also want to make green stand out. And blue too. As a result of trying to make everything stand out, nothing stands out. It was the same structure as when I couldn't meet anyone because I treated everyone equally.

In v2, I stripped away the color. Priority is indicated by placement and whitespace. "Community" is at the top with generous whitespace. "Slowly" is at the bottom of the screen with tighter spacing. I created a hierarchy of gaze through position rather than color.

The moment I open the screen, I no longer feel lost.

However, I left red in only one place: the new arrival badge.

New arrivals are information born from the other party's timing, not my design. They convey a "reason to read today" on a different axis than the priority I created through placement. That cannot be shown by position. So, I erased all the red, then brought back just one.

By stripping things away, the design emerges. And by deciding what to leave behind, what I want to convey emerges. I was doing the same thing in design as I did when I extracted frequency from the list.

The day-of-the-week characters let you take a breath

At the top of the screen stands the character in charge of that day of the week. Monday is Tsukiko, Tuesday is Yo, Wednesday is Shizuku, Thursday is Rinka, Friday is Runa, Saturday is Mahiru, and Sunday is Hiyori.

"There are 3 new arrivals in the community. Let's go through them in order."
"Community is finished. ...Did you leave a comment?"
"Thanks for your hard work this week. Get some rest."

They offer a word of encouragement tailored to your state for the day. On days when you've checked everyone in the community, a modal appears to praise you.

When you face the screen alone, there are moments when the numbers feel heavy. The day-of-the-week characters are entities that accept your achievements and are also a signal to take a breath.

👇️ Click here for Ohayomi next (free)

I didn't kill v1

I decided to release v2 in a separate repository. v1 can still be used as before.

Even if the design of v2 is the correct answer for me, I don't know if it's the same for existing v1 users. Having a place to return to when someone says "the previous one was better" changes how I approach design myself.

A margin that doesn't insist "this is the correct answer." That is for the existing users, and also for myself.

There wasn't just one design for continuing

v1 wasn't wrong. For me at that time, a flat list was the correct answer.

But if the situation changes, the design can change too. If work hits a peak, reading time decreases. If I start a membership, time allocation changes. I can change the shape of the tool to fit myself at any given time.

Don't continue through willpower, continue through design. It is design that makes reading and the act of valuing the community sustainable.

Conclusion

If you want to keep going, don't pray.
Design it.

Mahiru's Word

……Hmm, doesn't today feel a bit lighter?

So, what's next?

Will you continue as is, or will you change?

You can go and grab your options yourself.

If you are looking for a new challenge in the IT/Web industry,
the job site Green is one such option.

*This article contains PR for the job site Green

If you're going to make a move, this is another option.

👉 "Good Morning Girlfriend" is posted every morning at 7:30 AM at @ohayo_kanojo