It has been a long time since JackThreads last updated our Android app. We all agreed that our Android app looked out of date (it looked like it was designed by a bunch of developers ten years ago, yikes). This project also coincided with Google's Material Design as part of creating a better and homogenous visual language. 

The project was led by JackThreads' Director of User Experience and carried out by two Product Designers, including myself. This was a very large, holistic re-design effort on a product that has been using an old visual language for nearly six years. It was also very challenging for the design team, because none of us had experience with Material Design. 

We wanted to create a consistent experience across all platforms. There were many elements on Android that we borrowed from Web. For example, we kept the same layout on the Home, Categories, and Product Detail Pages. We also wanted to borrow a visual language and aesthetic from Google's Material, where it makes sense, such as tab bar, icon's style, floating button, shadow style, ui animation, card element, spacing, bold colors, dropdowns, dialog box, buttons, and text fields. 

We presented these design mocks to Google at their NYC headquarter, last year. The feedback was overall positive. They loved the direction that we went and couldn't wait to see the final product. 

Tripcipe (www.tripcipe.com) is an early startup that makes travel planning as easy and seamless as possible. Our name comes from combining the two words "trip" and "recipe". 

Most people when they travel spend hours researching, copy and pasting into google docs and excel. then they print everything out to take with them when they go on their trip.  It’s a tedious process and in this day and age. 

With Tripcipe, when you find something you want to see, eat, or do, you can save it as a “clip.”  You can save this information from any website (TripAdvisor, Foodspotting, Yelp, etc.) using our plug-in.  A trip is a collection of clips. It can be a list of your favorite pizza places you want to share with your friends. It can also be all the things you plan to do on your next vacation.

We keep it all in one place, all plotted on a map, and we have mobile apps so you can take everything with you--no more printouts.

Being the designer on a startup team means having a role to play in every stage of product. At Tripcipe,  I am involved in product design, ideation, interaction design, UI design and the visual design on both web and mobile. My day to day role begins with collaborating and brainstorming with the cofounders. We often talk about how to improve the user experience on the site and how to make the product as intuitive as possible, so that our users have the best possible experience of trip planning. I am also responsible for creating a unified visual and identity for Tripcipe. Lastly, since we are still in an early stage, selling the product becomes one of the most important aspects at this point. My main task is to reach out to the "influencers" or the bloggers and get them to use our product.  This has been one of the most challenging and exciting design jobs where I have had to juggle between so many different roles at the same time.

For the Yelp redesign, my goal was to improve the usability and visual appeal of the Yelp website. The process of the Yelp redesign was as follows: first I needed to identify the problems to be solved. I used the Yelp website and its main features to figure out the website's strengths and weaknesses that they have. I then had one of my peers try the site for the very first time to get a new perspective.  I hoped to receive information that I might have otherwise overlooked.

I then concluded that the problems that I was trying to solve lay in the Yelp "User Account," "List" page, and "Review" page. I felt that the "User Account" page lacked an online community feel. Yelp, to most people, is all about rating restaurants. However, at the same time, Yelp is also an online community site where users can interact with one another. I believed that through a better design, I could bring the stronger sense of online community to the site. Other main problems included the List and Review page. When I looked at these pages, I could see that the information presented was very cluttered and therefore hard to read and understand. My friend informed me that she had to spend quite some time figuring the purpose of those pages.  Also, I believed that the steps to create a list and write a review on Yelp could be simplified to make using those features easier.

Then I had to think about my approach for this project. I wanted a mom-friendly design: very hyper-intuitive and easy to read and understand. When I designed this, I constantly had to step back and look at my work through the “mom” lens.

As you can see, the "User Account" page is much simpler and cleaner. I made the "Add as a Friend" button really noticeable to increase the interaction between the user and other users. I grouped user profile information together in one place so it is easy to find. All of the interaction buttons on the site such as "Send Messages" or "Send a Compliment" have now been moved to the top and are more easily noticed.

I added a lot of whitespace to the "List" page so the information does not get cluttered. I reduced the steps for creating a list to only two. First, the user has to click on "Create List" on the "List" page and then simply type their list information. Lastly, they drag and drop their reviews into their list and click the “Done” button.

For the "Review" page, the biggest problem that I found was the lack of visual elements. It sometimes could be hard for a new user to write a review. By adding the cover photo for the businesses as a visual representation, the user better understands the overall impression of the businesses. It also helps the businesses create their own clear identity.