Jiffie was an early-stage concept for an all-in-one social application, combining short-form content discovery, open discussion forums, and direct messaging into a single platform. I was brought in to redesign the interface and establish a cohesive visual direction.
Clarifying a complex product vision
The initial concept combined multiple social paradigms, which created visual and interaction complexity. My role was to bring clarity and coherence to the interface while respecting familiar social patterns and user expectations.
I began by reviewing the existing design state, identifying inconsistencies, unclear hierarchies, and opportunities to simplify navigation and core flows.
Designing a cohesive interface
I led the UI and visual concept design across key areas of the app, including account creation and onboarding, content feeds, messaging, forums, and collections. I focused on creating a consistent visual language that felt familiar to users while supporting different modes of interaction within the same product.
Key flows such as onboarding and feed exploration were designed with multiple states (e.g. verification, interest selection, content modes) to support a smooth first-time experience and ongoing engagement.
Building a design system, not just screens
To manage complexity and support collaboration, I created a component library with reusable UI elements such as buttons, form controls, cards, and navigation patterns. This helped ensure consistency across screens and made the designs easier to hand off and iterate on.
I also produced lightweight design system documentation to explain recurring components, patterns, and usage decisions, supporting developers and future collaborators.
Balancing usability and feasibility
Although the project was UI-focused, I paid close attention to usability, accessibility, and technical feasibility. I relied on established mental models from existing social platforms to reduce the learning curve, and made conscious trade-offs to ensure interactions would be buildable within realistic development constraints.
Reflection
This project highlighted the challenge of designing a complex social product under time constraints and with limited access to user testing. While deeper validation with a target audience would have strengthened the outcome, the work demonstrates my ability to bring structure, consistency, and usability to an ambiguous and multifaceted product space.
Selected interface patterns
