A spatial journal that opens on today’s page.

Clear Writer opens on today’s page with the cursor ready. There is no document picker, setup flow, or dashboard between the intention to write and the first word.

Status

Available on the App Store.

Context

visionOS 26 · SwiftUI

My role

I owned the product definition, spatial interaction, writing model, accessibility, device QA, and App Store submission.

View on the App Store

Clear Writer journal page floating in an Apple Vision Pro room

Release: Version 1.0, build 1
Technical checks: 13 passing tests
Device testing: Physical Vision Pro QA
Availability: Free on the App Store

Role:: Solo product designer and product owner
Privacy:: Plain-text local storage · No account · No analytics · No tracking

AI working method

How I used AI to move from product decision to working software

Product decision: Product definition, spatial interaction, UX writing, design-system translation, device QA, accessibility, and App Store release.
AI-assisted build: I used Claude Code to translate Clear Page’s design system into a new SwiftUI app, while I chose the writing model, focus behavior, and release criteria.
Evidence: Release: Version 1.0, build 1
Technical checks: 13 passing tests
Device testing: Physical Vision Pro QA

Start with writing, not management.

Today’s page opens with the cursor ready. Autosave begins with the first keystroke, and typing folds the controls away.

There is no save button. The core loop is short: open, write, leave, return.

The first-run card reading The page floats in your room, with Clear, Frosted and Solid, and one Start writing button

A sibling needed shared laws, not copied screens.

Clear Writer inherits Clear Page’s typography, three materials, depth system, and quiet top control. The behavior changes wherever writing demands a different answer.

Clear Page opens books. Clear Writer receives words. One turns a page to quiet its controls. The other quiets them when typing begins.

Clear Writer's Format panel, built from the same rules as Clear Page rather than a copy of its screens — Shared type and materials keep the two apps related. Focus controls change to support writing.

Four focus modes led to Vanishing Ink.

The Carriage held the active line in place. Lit Line lifted the current sentence. Vanishing Ink faded completed words. The Wake moved each finished sentence backward through real depth.

The Wake was the most spatial, but it made every period a visual event. Vanishing Ink won because the interface recedes without interrupting the writer. Every word remains saved, and Show my words brings it back.

Vanishing Ink focus mode in Clear Writer — Completed words fade but remain saved. Show my words restores the full entry.

Spatial hierarchy had to include Apple’s surfaces.

Page text lifts 22 points. App panels sit at 50. Owned third surfaces sit above them. The first-launch card rests at 100.

Apple’s share sheet cannot move forward. When it appears, the room steps back. The app panel returns to the page plane and hushes beneath the system surface.

The writing page on a frosted material, sitting against the room instead of floating free of it

Quiet meant refusing productivity theater.

There are no streaks, goals, reminders, badges, prompts, or daily scores. Word count stays off unless the writer chooses it.

Entries are stored as plain text. If the index becomes unreadable, the app preserves it and rebuilds the journal from those files.

The Journal panel listing entries by date, with no streaks, goals, badges or daily scores — Entries are organized by date. No streaks or scores compete with the writing.

Current boundary

What this work does not claim

Version 1.0 does not include search, tags, folders, whole-journal export, an app lock, or encryption at rest. Public availability is not adoption evidence, so there is no usage or retention claim yet.

REFLECTION

Shared rules made room for a different product.

A design system became useful when it helped the reader and writer make different decisions consistently.