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End-to-end mobile app design

Howdyfeel

Overview

This project focused on designing a social app that allowed users to express and share their emotions visually. The challenge was to create an interface that captured and displayed a wide range of moods, making self-expression both intuitive and engaging.

My role was to design a playful and accessible UX, ensuring users could effortlessly communicate their feelings while keeping interactions light and engaging.

What I have done

Designed an end-to-end prototype from concept to handover
Created an interaction and UI design for a smooth, expressive experience
Conducted user testing and validation with iterative improvements based on insights
Developed branding and a UI Kit for a consistent visual identity
Managed the handover to development to align design and implementation

Please note: details of this project are under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).
A full prototype is available upon request.

Discovery

Understanding scope, structural features & establishing success metrics

Activities

Set interviews with the client to define project goals and expectations
Service blueprint to map out user flows and technical feasibility

Highlights

Understanding emotional roles and user journeys

Challenge

Before defining the core interaction model, I needed to map different user journeys based on emotional states. The key questions were:

How can we standardise interactions across a wide range of emotions?
Do users expect personalised interactions when sharing their mood?

Solution

Categorised emotions into two macro groups:
- Positive emotions
- Negative emotions
Hypothesised that each group should have a tailored interaction model with other users - to address in testing

Ideation

Creating a welcoming and fresh feel with a smooth user flow

Activities

Designed wireframes to define core user flows
Refined UI and visual branding essentials, securing client approval
Developed high-fidelity screens, preparing them for prototyping

Highlights

Triggering engagement for the phases after the emotion selection

Emotion selection was just the starting point - I carefully planned how the journey would continue to maintain engagement. To encourage further interaction, I introduced features like optional post submission and suggested posts from other users.

Challenge

Preventing drop-off after emotion selection by guiding users into the next phase
Ensuring interactions felt meaningful rather than forced
Balancing engagement without overwhelming users with suggestions

Solution

Introduced an optional post submission to trigger further interactions give users control over further interaction
Tested a model where users received posts from others with contrasting emotions, but refined it based on feedback
Allowed users to engage at their own pace, ensuring the journey felt organic and user-driven

Prototype and testing

Validating the two macro user flows and user roles

Activities

Ran user testing moderated online sessions
Tested onboarding clarity and core flows interactions
Tested the assumption that users with positive emotions could act as supporters for those feeling sad
Created and iterated on prototypes to assess how users engaged with emotional interactions

Highlights

Should “Happy” users support “Sad” users?

Challenge

We needed to understand whether users with positive emotions were comfortable supporting others
On the other hand, we also had to determine if users expressing negative emotions felt the need for support
There was a risk of forced emotional interactions, which didn’t resonate with all users

Solution

Through testing, we discovered that some users wanted support, while others preferred to express their emotions and move on.

We removed the curated emotional response model to allow for more organic interactions.
Enabled users to express emotions freely without prescriptive engagement.
Added a "None of these" option to collect ideas for missing emotions and provide space for users who didn’t feel represented by the selection.

“If I am sad I don't want anyone to come and talk to me"

User 3 (International, She/Her, 35y)