Discover, follow, and see a creator’s reach at a glance.
UX and UI design.
Social media app · Mobile · 2 weeks
A social app built around creators.
A dark, photo-first social app: discover posts by topic, follow stories, and see a creator's reach at a glance.
Dark, photo-first, with creating always in reach.
✓ You’re all caught up
UX Design · UI Design — Krishom Sharma
Message meThe UX work
Behind the design
- From the build — read off the real screens
- Assumption — to validate with users
- Planned test
From the build
- 01
Discover is organised by topic tabs (Popular, Latest, Sports, Traveling, News) before anything else.
WhyBrowsing by interest is faster than searching when people don’t know exactly what they want.
Discover
- 02
Every trending reel shows its view count on the thumbnail.
WhyA quality signal before the tap — people choose what to watch, rather than gamble.
Discover
- 03
Home opens on a row of stories, then the feed, with likes, comments and saves counted on each post.
WhyStories are the quickest catch-up; counts help people decide what to engage with.
Home
- 04
A creator’s reach sits in one card — posts, followers, views and likes — with Following and Message as the two main buttons.
WhyThe two decisions on a profile are “is this person worth it?” and “what do I do next?”
Profile
- 05
A floating bottom bar keeps Create (+) at the centre.
WhyCreating is the action the platform depends on; the centre is the easiest place for a thumb.
Every screen
- 06
A dark, photo-first palette with one warm accent.
WhyPhotos and reels carry the colour; the interface steps back.
Every screen
Assumption — to validate · The browser, on a spare ten minutes
Stage1Open2Explore3Watch4Check the creator5Follow
DoingOpens the app on HomeSwitches to Discover and picks a topicPlays a trending reelOpens the creator’s profileFollows or messages them
Thinking“What’s new from people I follow?”“Show me travel”“Is this worth my time?”“Is this person worth following?”“I want more of this”
Feeling
positivepositiveneutralpositivedelighted
PainStories and posts competing for attentionSearch needs you to know what you wantNo signal of quality before tappingReach is invisibleFollow buried in a menu
Design responseStories row first, then the feedTopic tabs — Popular, Latest, Sports, Traveling, NewsView counts on every reel thumbnailPosts, followers, views and likes in one cardFollowing and Message as the two main buttons
Proto-personas — built from the brief, not from interviews
-
The creator
Posts reels and photos, and wants to grow an audience
- Wants
- See their reach at a glance and post quickly
- Frustrated by
- Stats buried in separate dashboards
-
The browser
Follows topics — sport, travel, news — more than people
- Wants
- Find good content in their interests fast
- Frustrated by
- One endless feed with no way to steer it
From the build — the information architecture as shipped
- Home
- Stories
- Feed — likes, comments, saves
- Discover
- Popular
- Latest
- Sports
- Traveling
- News
- Recommended for you
- Create (+)
- New post
- Notifications
- Activity
- Profile
- Stats — posts, followers, views, likes
- Photo
- Subscription
- Reels
- Marked
From the build — key flows, screen by screen
From topic to creator
- 1Discover
- 2Pick a topic
- 3Trending reel
- 4Creator profile
- 5Follow or Message
Catching up
- 1Home
- 2Stories
- 3Feed
- 4Like, comment or save
The validation plan — how each assumption gets checked
-
We believePeople find content in a given topic faster with topic tabs than with search.
MethodTask-based test, tabs vs. search, 5 participants each
We’ll know byTime to first relevant reel
-
We believePeople read a creator’s reach correctly from the stats card.
Method5-second test on the profile
We’ll know byShare who recall followers and views correctly
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