I've started naming who is actually there before designing anything. Not the action. The person.
Someone saving a file just finished three weeks of work. Someone in onboarding decided to try something new and doesn't know yet if it was the right call. Someone staring at an error message just had their momentum broken. Someone who missed a streak is already being hard on themselves. Someone who failed the same form field three times is confused, not careless.
The interface designed for the task is functional. The interface designed for the person is felt.
The Vault came from this. I kept building to-do lists and abandoning them. Task frame: someone managing priorities. Felt frame: someone who needs consequence, not another system that requires willpower. So the list stakes real money. Miss a task and you lose it. The friction isn't a bug. It is the design.