My Journey With Propel: App for Adults with ADHD

When I was first approached to work on a project called Propel, I didn’t know I was about to step into one of the most exciting collaborations of my career. The idea sounded simple on the surface: a cognitive training app for adults with ADHD. But it was enormous as the app just doesn’t have to exist but provide a very good user experience and all elements should be backed by scientific evidence. From day one, I could tell this wasn’t going to be “just another app.” The team behind Propel designers, developers, and researchers were committed to doing things differently. The focus was,” is the app reflecting what the research said about ADHD, or were we drifting into assumptions?”

Building an App That Truly Fits

I remember countless conversations about UX and UI design. The team and João Oliveira e Silva (the man behind Propel) wanted Propel to feel supportive, not clinical. We discussed everything from how to present instruction stems in a way that didn’t overwhelm to how to create progress tracking that motivated users instead of pressuring them.

As a consultant and scientific advisor, my role was to ensure that the science remained at the core. Every feature and every module was backed by research. But what made this project so special was the respect that went both ways: the developers valued psychology as much as I valued their design instincts. Together, we built something that didn’t just look good it worked well.

The Story of Propel

Propel is now a cognitive training app designed to help adults with ADHD strengthen focus, memory, and executive functioning skills. It’s practical, engaging, and above all, evidence-based. For me, it’s more than a product it’s proof of what can happen when psychology and technology move in step with each other.

Looking back, my journey with Propel wasn’t just about advising on research or reviewing exercises. It was about helping to shape a tool that could actually walk alongside people in their daily struggles with ADHD. And that, to me, is the most rewarding part of all.

👉 Take a look at Propel here:

https://propel-dev.webflow.io/about