Case study: Dozey

Overview

Dozey is a subscription app that helps parents create calmer, easier bedtimes through personalised meditations, body scans, and bedtime stories for children aged 5–9. Powered by AI, it generates fresh content every time, designed to reduce bedtime stress for parents and help children drift to sleep feeling safe and supported.

I designed and built Dozey from the ground up as a side hustle — blending UX, product design, and business thinking. The app combines character-led storytelling, personalisation by age and interests, and calming rituals, making it a unique bedtime co-pilot for families.

Launching in 2025, Dozey is a subscription business model with a free trial followed by £7.99/month, creating recurring revenue potential and a scalable platform for growth.

Company: Dozey Ltd

Role: Founder, Designer, Builder

Year: 2024 - present

AI subscriptions innovation side-hustle

Problem to solve

How might we help parents of children aged 5–9 — especially those with ADHD, anxiety or bedtime struggles — feel more in control of bedtime, while helping children feel calm, safe, and ready for sleep?

Solution and outcome

Through extensive user research, bedtime diaries, and prototype testing with families, I designed Dozey as both a parental support tool and a child-friendly character experience. The app includes:

AI-generated meditations and stories, tailored to the child’s age and interests
A childlike companion character (Dozey the beagle) with a circle of friends and treasures for themed exercises
A calm, bedtime-friendly design system (forest green, soft gold, cream palette)
Subscription model with free trial, £7.99/month thereafter

Unlike conventional meditation apps, Dozey solves the constant demand for new content by generating unique, personalised material every night. Early testing with families showed children were more engaged when content was tailored to them, and parents felt less stressed knowing bedtime had a ready-made structure.

My Role

I founded, designed, and built Dozey from the ground up as a side hustle, taking full ownership across product, design, and delivery. This involved:

Designing the product vision, brand, and character system, including Dozey the dog and his world of friends and treasures.
Conducting parent research, interviews, and diary studies to understand bedtime struggles and test early concepts.
Developing the app in SwiftUI, including onboarding flows, session generation, voice playback, and library features.
Exploring AI prompt design and training structures to ensure meditations and stories are age-appropriate, safe, and emotionally supportive.
Designing a bedtime-friendly UI and design system using a forest green, soft gold, and cream palette, optimised for low-stimulation, dark-mode use.
Defining a subscription business model (£7.99/month with free trial) and calculating TAM, CAC, churn, and revenue growth scenarios for investor readiness.
Partnering with advisors to ensure the app meets child-safety and data protection standards.

Learnings

Building from scratch meant wearing every hat — from designer and researcher to engineer and founder — which sharpened my ability to balance craft with speed.
Creating for children requires guardrails and simplicity: I learned to design scripts, flows, and character voices that were safe, inclusive, and endlessly adaptable.
Unlike corporate projects, where scale and teams drive delivery, I experienced first-hand how small, fast iterations with real families create the clearest product insights.
Subscription businesses live or die on retention: thinking early about churn, CAC, and fresh content supply was critical to shaping a viable model.