Case study · Companion web app
Everyday AI Playground
A print book can teach you a prompt. It can’t let you try one. So I built the place where readers can.
Start Here
Welcome to the practice space for your Everyday AI book. Nothing you type here can break anything. Just choose how you would like to begin.
The problem
The gap between the page and the keyboard
Everyday AI is written for people who have never typed a word to a chatbot. Every chapter ends with prompts to try. But a prompt printed on paper asks a nervous beginner to do three hard things at once: retype it exactly, pick an app, and trust that they won’t break something.
That is where most beginners stop. I wanted the book to keep working after the reader closes it, with a practice space that feels as calm and plain-spoken as the chapters themselves.
Readers didn’t need more information. They needed a safe place to press the button for the first time.
The approach
Designed for someone who's been told they're "not a tech person"
Every design decision came back to one reader: smart, capable and uneasy around technology. These four rules shaped the app.
Three clear ways in
The Start screen offers exactly three choices: use a book prompt, ask your own question, or find a prompt by topic. No dashboard, no settings, no sign-up wall.
Start from the situation
Readers don't think in chapter numbers. They think "my phone is full." The topic finder lists real moments from daily life and opens the matching prompt.
Safe by default
The first line promises that nothing can break. A standing reminder on every screen says never to enter passwords, SSNs or account numbers, the same habit the book teaches.
Mirror the book
The chapter picker follows the table of contents, and prompts appear as they do on the page. A reader can go from Chapter 16 in print to Chapter 16 on screen without hunting.
What's inside
The whole book, ready to try
The app carries every chapter’s prompts and adds two things a printed page can’t do: track progress and remember what worked.
It's 5:30, you're out of dinner ideas, and the fridge is half empty
Your phone is full
A light came on in the car, or the washer is flashing "E24"
A banner says 40% off and you're not sure it's a real sale
A text asked you to pay a toll
A call sounded like your grandson, and he needed money fast
Explain what AI is to me like I've never heard of it before. Keep it short and use an everyday example.
How I built it
An author with a studio, and AI as the dev team
I designed and built the Playground myself, using AI tools for the development work a team would normally do. That kept the app close to the book: the person who wrote every prompt also decided how each one should feel on screen.
Map the book into content
I organized the manuscript into chapters, prompts and everyday situations, so one source of content could power the chapter picker, the topic finder and the 30-day plan.
Design for the first five seconds
I wrote the Start screen before anything else. If a beginner could understand it at a glance, the rest of the app could follow its tone.
Build with AI, review like an editor
AI handled the code. I handled judgment: plain wording, button labels, the safety reminder, and cutting anything that felt like a tech product.
Bring it home to the studio site
The finished app is embedded in WordPress on creativetech.studio, so readers find it in the same place as my other work, and I can update it without a separate site to maintain.
For your project
Have a book, course or program that should do more than sit on a shelf?
CreativeTech Studio builds companion apps and interactive tools that turn what you teach into something your audience can use. Small studio, AI-assisted build, and the same care for the end user you see here.
