Ayoba serves ~30M monthly active users, which meant every design decision needed to balance growth, usability, and long-term system health.
Strategic impact
My work supported three product priorities: improving retention for existing users, attracting new users through meaningful feature additions, and enabling monetisation without eroding trust. By reducing friction in core journeys and introducing scalable new value (such as podcasts), the design work helped the product grow while maintaining a consistent, high-quality experience at scale.
Setting direction in a complex product
I owned product design from problem definition through delivery, setting direction for new features and core UX improvements. I made scope and trade-off decisions in ambiguous spaces and ensured design outcomes aligned with both user needs and business goals.
Collaboration
I worked closely with product, engineering, research, and marketing, often mediating between speed, technical constraints, and future scalability. By translating user insights into business and technical terms, I helped teams align on priorities and move forward with confidence.
Design system and scalability
Rather than designing isolated screens, I focused on reusable patterns and systems. New features and improvements were built as modular components and integrated into the design system, reducing future rework and improving consistency across the product.
Evidence based design
Design decisions were informed by research, usability audits, and behavioural data. I used evidence to validate assumptions, prioritise improvements, and document trade-offs so teams understood not just what we built, but why.
Key features and improvements
Podcasts: Led the end-to-end definition of the podcast experience, from feature vision and roadmap input to flows, UI, and launch assets. Designed a scalable solution aligned with Ayoba’s design system and growth goals.
Message replies: Designed reply interactions across all message and attachment types, with a strong focus on clarity and accessibility.
Link previews: Created rich preview experiences for Ayoba links shared in chat, supporting multiple content types and edge cases.
System feedback: Improved error states, empty states, and permission flows to increase transparency and reduce user confusion.
Settings optimisation: Simplified settings by removing duplication and improving information architecture.
Outcomes
The work strengthened Ayoba’s core experience, improved usability and accessibility across key journeys, and established more scalable design patterns to support future growth.
