App Showcase: Peak - Brain Training

What it does

Peak is a mobile app designed to improve cognitive skills through a collection of short, engaging games. It focuses on areas like memory, problem-solving, language, mental agility, and focus. The app provides personalized daily workouts, tracks performance over time, and allows users to see how they stack up against others in their demographic.

Where it shines

Peak excels in its onboarding, which cleverly doubles as a product demo. Instead of a passive slideshow, the app immediately engages users with a goal-setting quiz (00:12) followed by a series of three assessment games (00:32 - 03:30). This interactive approach makes the user feel like they are already making progress. The app's design is clean and motivating, with satisfying animations and clear visual feedback, such as the score celebration after a game (01:19).

UX highlights

• Interactive Onboarding: The initial assessment uses actual gameplay, which is far more engaging than a typical questionnaire. It shows, rather than tells, what the app does.
• Clear Feedback Loops: After each game, the user sees their score, success rate, and how they compare to other players (01:25). This provides immediate feedback and a competitive incentive.
• Structured Content Hub: The main dashboard (05:49) is well-organized, offering a main daily workout, skill-specific training, and short 'Coffee Break' sessions to fit different schedules.
• Gamified Achievements: A comprehensive achievements section (10:27) with dozens of objectives gives users long-term goals to strive for, encouraging consistent engagement.
• Helpful Tutorials: Each game includes a concise 'How to Play' section with animated examples (00:34), ensuring users understand the mechanics before starting.

Monetization & growth

Peak uses a soft paywall model, allowing users to complete the entire assessment before presenting a subscription offer. The paywall (04:19) is for a 'Pro' membership, which unlocks all 48 games and personalized workouts. It prominently features a 1-week free trial with a very transparent timeline, explaining that a reminder will be sent before the first payment. This user-friendly approach likely helps build trust and increase trial conversions. After subscribing, the app immediately follows with a notification permission warm-up (04:52) to further engage the user.

Who it’s for

Peak is for anyone looking to keep their mind sharp or improve specific cognitive functions. Its playful design makes it accessible to a broad audience, from students wanting to improve focus to older adults looking to maintain mental agility. The comparative data features (03:38) also appeal to competitive users who are motivated by leaderboards and percentile rankings.

Notes & opportunities

The app's flow is generally smooth, but the onboarding is quite long. It involves a quiz, three games, a results analysis, age/profession comparison, and account creation before reaching the main dashboard. While engaging, this could be a point of drop-off for users with less patience. The app also requires an account to be created (04:59) after the subscription, which could be streamlined by integrating it with the App Store purchase flow.