A new product direction — and everything needed to launch it.
A new product direction: a journey-based skill-learning app with guided practice at the heart of it.
A visual identity from scratch and a working design system in Figma — variables, tokens, components used consistently across the product.
The full V3 product at launch: journeys with progressive unlocking, guided practice, achievements & milestones.
An in-person dev handoff workshop in Hungary.
Post-launch iteration on journey flows, driven by Amplitude.
The Play hub — three games: trivia, match, swipe true/false.
How I worked
A modern, AI-accelerated design workflow.
I used AI tools throughout — both to move faster and to stay close to how the field is changing. GPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity for research synthesis and competitive analysis; NotebookLM for digesting source material; Lovable, Figma Make and Figma agents for rapid prototyping and visual exploration; and AI assistance inside the design process itself, including Figma.
AI accelerated the work — the strategy, judgment, and design decisions were mine.
Context
A learning app without a sharp answer to “why open it tomorrow?”
When I joined, V2 had three problems: confusing UX and UI, and weak positioning — a “learning app” without a sharp answer to why someone would open it tomorrow.
The team was small: a founder (acting PM / VP Product), four developer, and me. No PM. The founder, other team members and I co-led strategy together.
V2 at the time I joined.
My role
Design end-to-end — and strategy alongside the founder.
All design end-to-end — research, flows, visual identity, design system, prototypes, edge cases, dev handoff.
Co-led strategy with the founder. He set business priorities; I pushed for user clarity and design integrity.
No PM intermediary — I defended decisions directly to founders, and learned when to fight for an idea and when to let go.
Chapter 1
Reframing the product
The biggest shift from V2 to V3 wasn’t visual. It was strategic.
V2 was mainly focused on learning. V3 evolved into a journey-based skill-learning experience, helping users actively practice what they learn and build lasting habits through the app.
That shaped V3 around four pillars:
Pillar 01
Journeys with progressive unlocking
The path opens as users progress.
Pillar 02
The Now tab
Time-limited skills that give a reason to open the app today.
Pillar 03
Guided practice
Most learning apps stop at content. We didn’t.
Pillar 04
Achievements and milestones
The motivation layer.
Chapter 2
Design system & visual language
V2’s visuals didn’t have a point of view. For V3 I built the brand from scratch and a system to hold it together.
The aesthetic. Warm and editorial. Painterly textures, sparkle motifs, a dark backdrop. A learning app that feels like a magazine, not a classroom.
The system. Variables and tokens for color, type, spacing, and radius — one change propagated everywhere. Reusable components for everything we used repeatedly (buttons, cards, navigation, progress, journey cards, achievements, modals), with all states covered. Used consistently across journeys, Now, guided practice, achievements, and later Play.
Chapter 3
V3 at launch — journeys, Now, guided practice, achievements
I designed all four pillars end-to-end.
Journeys with progressive unlocking — skill paths where content opens over time: structure, unlock states, progress visualization.
The Now tab — time-limited skills that give users a reason to open the app today.Achievements and milestones — the motivation layer, with custom illustrations like the hand-drawn brick road.
Guided practice — the product’s USP. At the end of each skill, users move from passive learning to actually applying it.
Chapter 4
Dev handoff in Hungary
Before V3 launch, three of us flew to Hungary to work with the engineering team in person.
Sprint planning and kickoff
Tech spec review and scoping
Design reviews — every flow, edge case, motion spec
Open questions resolved in the room, not over Slack weeks later
Being together meant fewer surprises during build, faster decisions, and a shared understanding of why — not just what.
Chapter 5
Post-launch iteration
After V3 shipped, the work shifted from “redesign” to “evolve based on what users actually do.”
Using Amplitude with the founder, I prioritized fixes on the onboarding flow and the journey flow — refining how users move through skills and how progress connects back to achievements. One example: Amplitude showed users dropping off at the first skill-selection step. I redesigned the copy, hierarchy, and CTA, and the drop-off went away. Smaller iterations included skill-selection card improvements and motivational beats throughout the journey.
Chapter 6
Play hub
The last major addition. A dedicated space for game-based learning alongside the journey.
I designed the hub architecture, the visual language for game cards, the navigation, and the entry points from the main app. Three games at launch:
Game 01
Trivia
Quick knowledge checks.
Game 02
Match
Pairing exercises.
Game 03
Swipe — true/false
Fast binary decisions with a custom gesture system.
Play gave the product room to grow without overloading the core journey.
What I learned
Five things this taught me.
Strategy isn’t a separate phase from design in a small team.
A design system is a force multiplier even at small scale.