Napp

Modern workplaces invest in gyms, therapy, meditation apps and ergonomic furniture. But when an employee hits a wall at 2pm, there is rarely anything in the workplace designed to help them recover.

We built Napp to fill that gap: physiological recovery, built into the working day. For employees, it offers a structured, stigma-free way to reset during work hours. For employers, it provides a measurable recovery system with the data to prove it works.

We built Napp's brand around a simple principle: if something demands unnecessary cognitive effort, it does not belong here. The identity needed to feel calm without becoming clinical, sophisticated without feeling exclusive, and human while retaining the credibility required for workplace adoption.

Every element was designed to reduce friction and create a sense of safety, ease and recovery. Soft gradients, curved shapes and flowing forms helped minimise cognitive demand. Colour plays a central role: Napp's soft purple evokes tranquillity and reassurance, supported by muted, harmonious pastels. Together, these choices turn rest into a sensory experience.

We designed the digital and physical experience as one connected system, helping organisations introduce restorative rest without disrupting existing workflows or office environments.

We brought every part of Napp for Work into a single enterprise programme. Shared VR headsets and guided sessions support the employee experience, while the companion app manages bookings and personal data. We also designed the workplace implementation, onboarding programme and employer dashboard, giving organisations the tools to launch Napp, track engagement and understand its impact.

We used immersive technology to do the opposite of what it is usually designed for. Rather than adding stimulation, Napp gradually reduces sensory input, helping users disconnect from work, settle into restorative rest and return gently.

For where VR is not the right fit, we also designed a smart sleep mask experience, giving organisations a more flexible way to introduce recovery across different users and workplace settings.

We chose VR first because it offered four key advantages that other devices could not replicate:

The journey guides users through three stages: winding down through guided meditation, entering an immersive rest session, and waking up gradually. By removing unnecessary choices and focusing on a single flow, the product helps users transition smoothly from stress to recovery and back to productivity.

We designed the platform around a simple idea: the more it understands about human behaviour, the better it can support recovery. By combining check-ins, schedule inputs, session history and optional wearable data, it can recommend suitable recovery windows without disrupting the working day, adapt the intensity of each wind-down to the user's needs and surface more meaningful insights over time.

Headset sensors can also detect changes in rest state, helping the experience adapt and time the wake-up more precisely. We also identified wearable integration as a scalable way to deepen personalisation and build a clearer picture of individual recovery patterns.

To capture changes in mood, clarity and energy, we introduced short check-ins before and after each session. These simple interactions reveal subtle shifts in how people feel and function — insights that sensors alone couldn't pick up.

For organisations to invest in recovery, we needed to make its value visible. In response, we developed an employer dashboard that brings together engagement data, pre- and post-session check-ins, usage patterns and recovery trends.

This gave employers a clearer view of adoption, shifts in energy, stress and focus, and potential links with absence and sick leave over time. To protect individual privacy, all employee insights are presented as aggregated data rather than personal records.

We partnered with two universities to ground the product in both scientific research and real-world testing. Sleep research was developed in collaboration with Loughborough University's Sleep Science Department, while ongoing experiential testing is being conducted with Staffordshire University's Serious Games Institute.

This evidence-led foundation helped us challenge assumptions, refine the experience over time and successfully secure grant funding from WMHTIA — the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator — to support its continued development.

To build early traction and test the proposition in a real workplace context, we created a dedicated landing page to onboard business testers and make participation simple.

At the same time, we refined the MVP for the workplace, adapting the experience and data collection to generate insights businesses could use to demonstrate ROI and build a more compelling case for adoption. This made defining the data architecture behind the employer dashboard a crucial next step.

Currently in Private Alpha, Napp is undergoing early validation with selected users and organisations. Insights gathered during this phase will inform the next stage of development as the product moves towards broader adoption and continued expansion of its personalised rest experience.