Lead Product Designer
4 months, 2020
User interviews, focus groups, usability testing, UX/UI, wireframing, prototyping, interaction & gamification strategy
Figma
Miro
Plezmo: platform of intelligent wireless devices and easy-to-use coding web apps to learn, play, and innovate with technology. The Plezmo mobile app was a companion to the web platform — empowering young users (ages 8–14) to test, showcase, and share their app creations, fostering creativity, collaboration, and confidence in coding. It served as a catalyst for user acquisition, engagement and retention.
Pain point: Complete beginners often struggled to debug their projects.
Business implication: Led to a high volume of customer service requests. As a scrappy startup, this was super costly in man-hours.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Pain point: Complete beginners often struggled to debug their projects.
Business implication: Led to a high volume of customer service requests. As a scrappy startup, this was super costly in man-hours.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Young users thrive on immediate, tangible feedback. Social validation significantly motivates continued engagement.
Beginners need friendly, supportive debugging assistance.
Clear, achievable goals, along with novelty to sustain engagement in the long-term.
A companion mobile app, designed as a destination for inspiration, validation, and peer learning. This was intentionally built without a workspace, encouraging the use of web apps for actual coding.
Where students could view and use the mobile apps they coded.
Achievement badges to mark milestones and successes
⟶ sense of achievement
App grid mimicking smartphones made the student feel like they were making "real" apps
⟶ personal validation
QR scan for easy import
A place for users to view their peers’ work and garner inspiration for novel projects, and show off their own projects with pride.
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration.
⟶ social validation
Inspiration galore: search for and view projects
Community remix: view code and copy to your workspace to try it yourself.
⟶ peer learning
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
Creator recognition: validation for hard work
Highlighting creator profile
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement
⟶ inspiration + engagement
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back
Idea generator for inspiration
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Creator recognition: validation for hard work.
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement.
⟶ inspiration + engagement
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Creator recognition: validation for hard work.
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement.
⟶ inspiration + engagement
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
An authentic app usage experience, easy sharing with parents and friends led to a sense of achievement in the students, boosting user retention. Parents were more motivated to pay for premium content after seeing tangible result of learning.
⟶ 400% increase in MAUs
⟶ ~45% increase in sales of premium content
Features like Weekly Challenge, Featured Projects, and Community Remix not only encourage users to showcase their work but also facilitate knowledge sharing and collaborative growth.
⟶ ~35% decrease in customer service requests
Understand emotional motivators: Pride and recognition deeply impact user retention and engagement among young learners.
Reduce friction at every interaction: Friendly, supportive, intuitive UX is crucial, especially for beginners.
Continually provide fresh content: Regular, engaging updates (challenges, inspiration) strongly motivate continued participation.
Lead Product Designer
4 months, 2020
User interviews, focus groups, usability testing, UX/UI, wireframing, prototyping, interaction & gamification strategy
Figma
Miro
Plezmo: platform of intelligent wireless devices and easy-to-use coding web apps to learn, play, and innovate with technology. The Plezmo mobile app was a companion to the web platform — empowering young users (ages 8–14) to test, showcase, and share their app creations, fostering creativity, collaboration, and confidence in coding. It served as a catalyst for user acquisition, engagement and retention.
Pain point: Complete beginners often struggled to debug their projects.
Business implication: Led to a high volume of customer service requests. As a scrappy startup, this was super costly in man-hours.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Pain point: Complete beginners often struggled to debug their projects.
Business implication: Led to a high volume of customer service requests. As a scrappy startup, this was super costly in man-hours.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Young users thrive on immediate, tangible feedback. Social validation significantly motivates continued engagement.
Beginners need friendly, supportive debugging assistance.
Clear, achievable goals, along with novelty to sustain engagement in the long-term.
A companion mobile app, designed as a destination for inspiration, validation, and peer learning. This was intentionally built without a workspace, encouraging the use of web apps for actual coding.
Where students could view and use the mobile apps they coded.Get started: a quick introduction to new topics
App grid mimicking smartphones made the student feel like they were making "real" apps
⟶ personal validation
QR scan for easy import
Achievement badges to mark milestones and successes
⟶ sense of achievement
Achievement badges to mark milestones and successes
⟶ sense of achievement
App grid mimicking smartphones made the student feel like they were making "real" apps
⟶ personal validation
QR scan for easy import
A place for users to view their peers’ work and garner inspiration for novel projects, and show off their own projects with pride.
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration.
⟶ social validation
Inspiration galore: search for and view projects.
Community remix: view code and copy to your workspace to try it yourself.
⟶ peer learning
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration.
⟶ social validation
Inspiration galore: search for and view projects
Community remix: view code and copy to your workspace to try it yourself.
⟶ peer learning
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
Creator recognition: validation for hard work
Highlighting creator profile
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement
⟶ inspiration + engagement
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back
Idea generator for inspiration
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Creator recognition: validation for hard work.
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement.
⟶ inspiration + engagement
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Creator recognition: validation for hard work.
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement.
⟶ inspiration + engagement
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
An authentic app usage experience, easy sharing with parents and friends led to a sense of achievement in the students, boosting user retention. Parents were more motivated to pay for premium content after seeing tangible result of learning.
⟶ 400% increase in MAUs
⟶ ~45% increase in sales of premium content
Features like Weekly Challenge, Featured Projects, and Community Remix not only encourage users to showcase their work but also facilitate knowledge sharing and collaborative growth.
⟶ ~35% decrease in customer service requests
Understand emotional motivators: Pride and recognition deeply impact user retention and engagement among young learners.
Reduce friction at every interaction: Friendly, supportive, intuitive UX is crucial, especially for beginners.
Continually provide fresh content: Regular, engaging updates (challenges, inspiration) strongly motivate continued participation.
Lead Product Designer
4 months, 2020
User interviews, focus groups, usability testing, UX/UI, wireframing, prototyping, interaction & gamification strategy
Figma
Miro
Plezmo: platform of intelligent wireless devices and easy-to-use coding web apps to learn, play, and innovate with technology. The Plezmo mobile app was a companion to the web platform — empowering young users (ages 8–14) to test, showcase, and share their app creations, fostering creativity, collaboration, and confidence in coding. It served as a catalyst for user acquisition, engagement and retention.
Pain point: Complete beginners often struggled to debug their projects.
Business implication: Led to a high volume of customer service requests. As a scrappy startup, this was super costly in man-hours.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Pain point: Complete beginners often struggled to debug their projects.
Business implication: Led to a high volume of customer service requests. As a scrappy startup, this was super costly in man-hours.
Pain point: Users sometimes lacked fresh concepts for personal endeavors.
Business implication: Drop in app usage after free content is done.
Pain point: Users felt cool after completing projects, but were unable to show off to non-techie peers and parents.
Young users thrive on immediate, tangible feedback. Social validation significantly motivates continued engagement.
Beginners need friendly, supportive debugging assistance.
Clear, achievable goals, along with novelty to sustain engagement in the long-term.
A companion mobile app, designed as a destination for inspiration, validation, and peer learning. This was intentionally built without a workspace, encouraging the use of web apps for actual coding.
Where students could view and use the mobile apps they coded.Get started: a quick introduction to new topics
App grid mimicking smartphones made the student feel like they were making "real" apps
⟶ personal validation
QR scan for easy import
Achievement badges to mark milestones and successes
⟶ sense of achievement
Achievement badges to mark milestones and successes
⟶ sense of achievement
App grid mimicking smartphones made the student feel like they were making "real" apps
⟶ personal validation
QR scan for easy import
A place for users to view their peers’ work and garner inspiration for novel projects, and show off their own projects with pride.
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration.
⟶ social validation
Inspiration galore: search for and view projects.
Community remix: view code and copy to your workspace to try it yourself.
⟶ peer learning
Featured project: a way to commemorate successes and provide inspiration.
⟶ social validation
Inspiration galore: search for and view projects
Community remix: view code and copy to your workspace to try it yourself.
⟶ peer learning
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
Creator recognition: validation for hard work
Highlighting creator profile
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement
⟶ inspiration + engagement
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back
Idea generator for inspiration
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Creator recognition: validation for hard work.
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement.
⟶ inspiration + engagement
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
View innovative projects from the community, comment on projects for kudos or queries, remix to view code and make them your own.
Creator recognition: validation for hard work.
View and learn from projects
⟶ social validation + inspiration
A new theme every week with a chance to get featured to incentivize project submissions to community.
Themed challenges to boost sustained engagement.
⟶ inspiration + engagement
Weekly free content drop keeps bringing users back.
Easily enter apps in the challenge using tags.
An authentic app usage experience, easy sharing with parents and friends led to a sense of achievement in the students, boosting user retention. Parents were more motivated to pay for premium content after seeing tangible result of learning.
⟶ 400% increase in MAUs
⟶ ~45% increase in sales of premium content
Features like Weekly Challenge, Featured Projects, and Community Remix not only encourage users to showcase their work but also facilitate knowledge sharing and collaborative growth.
⟶ ~35% decrease in customer service requests
Understand emotional motivators: Pride and recognition deeply impact user retention and engagement among young learners.
Reduce friction at every interaction: Friendly, supportive, intuitive UX is crucial, especially for beginners.
Continually provide fresh content: Regular, engaging updates (challenges, inspiration) strongly motivate continued participation.