The task at hand was very clear

Founder wanted 2 critical user flows to be redesigned. Optimize engagement and create delight was the mantra.

Anchor the team. Show agency.

With a short contract and a remote startup team, deliverables can get derailed quickly. To bring structure, we maintained an evolving design roadmap in a shared sheet and used it to review priorities, align decisions, and track tasks with accountability.

I attended daily standups, alternate-day design sessions, founder feedback reviews, and weekly team share-outs with engineers.

Audit

Apple Books (Grid-heavy interface)

We studied reader apps like Apple Books and Libby to design a grid-heavy interface without overwhelming users. The competitive audit gave us reusable patterns for hierarchy, spacing, and navigation in content-dense reading interfaces while preserving a clear visual path.

Solution space

Optimize engagement- Library

This was the first and most central experience in the user journey. We tested tile treatments and mixed panel arrangements to keep the library expressive while improving scanability and interaction flow. We explored multiple visual permutations for book stacks: vertical, horizontal, grouped, and listed. This helped us create a readable layout while reducing cognitive overload.

Design decisions

Solution space

Create delight- Audiobook

"Art on museum walls" was the founder's vision. We aimed to welcome readers into the author's world by elevating each book visually in a poetic way. Our exploration sampled various gradient systems, including monotone and duotone. After testing across books with dark and bright covers, we finalized a duotone treatment for dynamic contrast.

Design decisions

Final outcome

As we headed toward the end of the contract, we were happy to deliver scope within the timeframe. These deliverables were piloted by engineers in TestFlight first.

Empty state

Library

Audio playback