An earlier direction explored a character-driven interface with expressive states like idle, transitioning, and listening.

While visually engaging, it introduced additional complexity and shifted focus away from the core journaling experience. The Lottie implementation was technically successful, but the character occupied a significant portion of the interface, competing with the primary task of writing.

I ultimately removed it in favor of a quieter, more intentional system to prioritize clarity, focus, and spatial efficiency over novelty.