How to Build a 2025 App-Like Planner
lugging around heavy paper planners year after year. Maybe with a few coffee stains, pages that were only half attached, and you had to dig around your bag to find a pen whenever you had something to add. And we all know what that is like!
You rarely go anywhere without your iPad – so why not use that to organize your life? Thousands of others have wondered the same thing, and as a result, we're seeing a rise in the popularity of digital planners.
More specifically – app-like digital planners. Our lives are busy enough and we can get easily distracted by doom-scrolling on any number of apps. It's no wonder that planners with a minimalistic design are flying off the virtual shelves.
App-like planners may have started as a trend, but now they're here to stay. With the new year just around the corner, we're in the middle of a digital planner designer's busiest season. What better time to design a yearly planner your dream customers are sure to love?
In this blog post, we're going to break down what goes into an app-like planner and how you can create one of your own!
🧠 Establish your app-like planner's core idea
The development process that will make your planner stand out is the first step on your design journey. To begin with, there's some essential information you need to know about what makes app-like planners different from your everyday digital planner...
App-like planners feature:
Simple, intuitive, and minimalistic designs inspired by your favorite notes, calendar, or task management apps
Clean, modern aesthetics with more negative space
Fewer colors and illustrative elements
To-do lists, calendars, and schedules
Integrations with other apps & shortcuts
Syncing across devices for location convenience
Now it's your turn: how will you use these features to build a unique planner? Brainstorm a list of possible ideas that will be easy to use, access, and appeal to people whose lives are busier than ever. Your core idea can be anything from a specific theme or the fonts and colors you use to the page types and available layout options you offer.
Our expert recommendation: Start by moodboarding. In our Digital Planner Design Mastery course, our design experts will help you gather ideas and moodboard!
🤝 Get to know your audience
It's time to pick a niche! This is all about deciding who it is that you want to make your planner for. When you design with a specific kind of customer in mind, it's easier for potential buyers to imagine them using your product in their life. The clearer that picture is in their minds, the quicker they hit that "add to cart" button.
In a world where digital planners are everywhere, having a niche helps you stand out. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone (and potentially no one), you’ll carve out a space where your designs resonate deeply with a specific group of people.
When your planner is aligned with a niche, your ideal customers will feel like you understand their needs and their routines. And that’s powerful — it’s what turns a casual browser into a loyal customer.
What to consider when picking a niche:
Think about the problem you want to solve, then work backward to identify who
Consider what passions you have and how you can use them to create a planner you're excited about
Create a list of non-negotiable things you want to have in common with your customers
What are you most knowledgeable about? This will make it easier to establish yourself as an expert
What routines and habits have you implemented into your own life that you can turn into a system for others?
Now it's your turn: Once you know who you want to target, it's time to find where they hang out online. This could be Facebook groups, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or even Pinterest. After you find your audience, you can identify what they're struggling with, what their goals are, and how you can help.
Our expert recommendation: Read this blog post all about the importance of picking a niche and three reasons why you need to do so!
✏️ Outline essential features for user satisfaction
It's time to start seeing your hard work pay off. A list of key features will help you streamline the planner design process. You can begin to think about how you want to organize your pages, what is necessary, and what additional features you want to include that will help your planner stand out and convince customers to complete their purchases!
Minimalistic, app-like digital planners may include some of the following features. Take out your pen and paper (or iPad and Apple Pencil) and use this list as inspiration as you create your own outline of features:
Drag-and-drop functionality
Daily tasks
Habit tracker
Digital stickers
Customization options such as...
Light and dark mode
Vertical and horizontal layouts
Various color palette
Page view options such as...
Quarterly overview
Hourly breakdown on daily pages
Yearly and monthly overviews
Budget and finance pages
Health and wellness pages
Integrations with apps like iCal, Google Calendars, Google Tasks, Apple Reminders, etc.
Psst! Inside our PLR template membership, The Hub, we released an all-new app-like planner template this month! This PLR template includes features we knew customers would love – such as monthly reflection and budget sheets, plus a spot for users to add a quote of the month. These features make our template unique and with a little customization, can be selling points for you too!
Click here to learn about the hundreds of templates you can access by joining the membership today.
👁️ Focus on user experience design
When it comes to designing an app-like planner, simplicity and ease of use matter the most. To determine what works and what doesn't, research well-liked apps and interfaces so your design can be intuitive, easy to navigate, and understandable to users.
An app-like interface allows users to find what they need quickly and efficiently without getting distracted by unnecessary elements. The learning curve is nearly non-existent as the simple layout is often easy to figure out. You can dive in and get straight to planning! Everything is also visually organized and labeled clearly, with the most important tools and features being prominently displayed so you can find them effortlessly.
Besides ease of use, app-like planners are built around logical workflows and a streamlined flow. The layout guides you through each step in an orderly progression that helps keep you on track. With an efficient flow and intuitive navigation, the overall process feels straightforward and enhances creativity and productivity.
I love to use platforms like Dribbble to gain inspiration. You can also download various calendar and note-taking apps to study their user interface. Take note of things like:
What kinds of icons do they use? What do they represent?
What is the size and thickness of line strokes?
How are icons prioritized and grouped together?
What kinds of fonts are being used?
Leave no stone unturned in your search! Study everything from yearly calendar set-ups to monthly, weekly, and daily designs so you can start brainstorming what you do and don't want in the planner you design.
Pro tip! Many app-like planners stick to sans-serif fonts. Some fonts have little decorative lines or "tails" at the letters' ends — called serifs. A sans-serif font is a cleaner, simpler style where those extra lines or details are removed. Popular sans-serif fonts are Arial and Helvetica.
Dribbble can be a great place to find inspiration!
Wait! What's the difference between UX and UI?
When building an app-like planner, we've talked about two important elements to consider before you start designing: User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI). But what do these terms even mean?
What is UX?
User Experience (UX) refers to the experience a user has when interacting with your digital planner. It includes usability, accessibility, and satisfaction from navigating through the planner. A well-designed UX focuses on creating a smooth and intuitive flow between pages and sections of your planner so that users can easily accomplish their tasks without getting lost or frustrated.
What is UI?
User Interface (UI) refers to the visual elements through which users will interact with your digital planner. When thinking about UI, consider the aesthetics of your planner so they'll contribute to the overall experience you're creating – the color palette, typography, layouts, and icons. An aesthetically appealing planner is one step closer to a digital planner with an enjoyable experience that will keep your customers coming back for more.
🪄 Adapt to minimalistic design trends
You've probably noticed a recurring pattern in your research – minimalistic design trends can be found in nearly every single calendar app, notetaking platform, and the app-like digital planners already out there. And for good reason! Minimalist digital planner designs are appealing and beneficial for several reasons including simplicity, ease of use, accessibility, and affordability.
A streamlined, app-like interface allows users to find what they need quickly and efficiently without getting distracted by unnecessary elements. The learning curve is nearly non-existent as the simple layout is often easy to figure out. You can dive in and get straight to planning! Everything is also visually organized and labeled clearly, with the most important tools and features being prominently displayed so you can find them effortlessly.
Your main goal in designing a digital planner for your audience is to help them solve a problem, and oftentimes, a simple solution is what sells. That's why digital planners prioritize minimalistic designs, which results in them selling so well! When a person opens their iPad and finds their digital planner, you want them to feel peace. By providing a minimalistic experience and getting rid of all the loud and overwhelming elements that can be found everywhere else on the internet, customers who open their planner will feel calmed by the sleek, modern aesthetic.
An example of a minimalistic weekly view in an app-like planner. You can find this PLR template in our shop by clicking here!
Pro tip! Try to avoid using more "maximalist" designs such as faux leather textures, real paper-like pages, and heavy drop shadows. This will make your planner look sleeker and more modern. Digital planners that mimic physical planners can easily become distracting and overwhelming. Less is truly more!
Not to mention, with fewer distractions, your planner becomes more functional. The minimalist design gets distractions out of your way so you can quickly navigate to schedules, tasks, notes, and whatever else you need. Clean layouts also adapt well to smaller mobile screens, and who doesn't love a versatile planner?
🖼️ Sketch out your planner's dashboard
Every successful project needs a launchpad – your desk is your launchpad for a productive workday. Your cutting board may be the launchpad for cooking your favorite dinner. And an index page is the launchpad for a functional app-like digital planner.
Let's take a closer look at what that means...
What are index pages?
An index page is similar to a table of contents. It will tell users what they can find in the rest of the planner and provide hyperlinks to jump between sections easily. An index page will break down different calendar views (think yearly, quarterly, and monthly), plus the weekly or daily task pages where all the planning happens.
A great example of an index page can be found in the iCal app on Apple devices. Starting with the yearly view, you can double-click on a month to enlarge
What should I include in my index page?
Yearly calendar overview with links to each monthly view
Links to quarterly breakdowns
Weekly breakdown of the entire year
Quick links to additional planner pages (this could be icons for sticker pages, finance tracker, journal pages, and so on)
Take this 2025 app-like planner PLR template as an example – we created an index page to serve as a dashboard for navigating the rest of the digital planner.
How do I do it?
You have all your questions about app-like planners answered, now it's time to get to work! Bringing your vision to life can be intimidating, but we have just the tool for you.
Maybe your first question is, "What is the best software to create a digital planner?" This is where Digital Planner Design Mastery comes in handy. This self-paced online course will help you start designing obsession-worthy digital planners and stationery products like a professional in Affinity Publisher – a design program digital product designers love!
Not only will you receive a 6 module course taking you from ideating all the way to packaging up your finished product, but there's an entire bonus toolkit teaching you the step-by-step process to create an app-like planner. You'll learn what comes after sketching your layout – creating your template file, setting up the page document, adding your colors and fonts, and then designing your base page and dashboard. To start off strong, you can choose between two planner templates to customize as you start your journey toward building a bestselling app-like digital planner for 2025! Learn more and enroll in Digital Planner Design Mastery by clicking here.
A PLR Template Membership
Our membership is perfect for beginners just getting started in the world of digital planner design. Instead of worrying about a lack of design skills, limited time to create unique products, or the high initial costs of starting a business, this membership will provide you with a variety of templates you can edit and make your own before listing in your Etsy shop. In a matter of hours, you can have a new product ready to sell! Not only that, but with this membership comes a community of like-minded individuals to hold you accountable, swap stories with, and ask questions whenever you need a helping hand.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up to the here >>