design IMPACT
Timeline
2025.9-2026.4
ROLES
Founding UX designer
teams
3 designer, 3 Engineer
tools
Figma, Claude, Lovable, Cursor
Design Process
Newcomers were overwhelmed by scattered information across platforms.
International students weren't lacking information—they were overwhelmed by it. Through 20+ interviews, 30+ surveys, site visits, and competitive analysis, we found that students relied on fragmented sources such as PDFs, group chats, social media, and map platforms to navigate a new city. The onboarding experience was scattered, difficult to trust, and hard to act on. Because international students showed both the strongest onboarding needs and the highest adoption of digital tools, they became the focus of our MVP.
We identified how onboarding needs evolve over time and tested multiple product directions before committing to an MVP.
Through a second round of interviews with 15 international students, we mapped how needs evolve across different arrival stages—from information gathering before arrival, to practical settling-in tasks, to exploring the city after feeling established.
To explore solutions, our team generated 50+ ideas and synthesized them through affinity mapping into three concepts: Journey Map, Micro Community, and Personalized Lens Map. Using AI-assisted prototyping workflows, we rapidly built and tested all three directions with participants. More than two-thirds of participants preferred the map-based concept, leading us to focus the MVP around curated Lists and location-based discovery.
We built the product around two complementary experiences: Lists, which help newcomers navigate essential information, and Postcards, which encourage them to explore, document, and share meaningful moments in the city.
After defining the MVP direction, we mapped the product architecture across onboarding, discovery, list creation, postcards, and social interactions. We designed key user flows, structured the experience into 4 primary navigation areas, and established the information hierarchy. Based on this foundation, we built the visual identity, design system, color palette, typography, illustrations, and reusable UI components to create a consistent experience across the product.
We tested the experience, built the system, and explored how Piece could grow.
Through three rounds of usability testing with 30+ participants, we continuously refined the product by measuring click-through rates, task completion, drop-off rates, and time-to-first-action across key flows. Insights from testing led us to elevate Explore into a primary navigation tab, simplify list creation with reusable templates, and replace the Circle feature with lightweight chat interactions. Beyond the interface, we designed the backend architecture, collaborated with engineers on implementation, seeded the platform with 50+ curated onboarding lists, and explored monetization, growth, and partnership strategies to support long-term adoption.
