Mewtual
Client Website Redesign
UI/UX Designer
3 Designers
January 2025 - February 2025
Mewtual is a gamified, cat-themed study buddy app that helps people stay motivated, connected, and accountable when studying or working. By combining real-time collaboration, gamified incentives, and a lighthearted cat theme, Mewtual transforms productivity into an engaging and rewarding experience.
hold close to my heart/valuable bc its My first ever design product and experience with the design process, jumpstarted my interest in human-centered design
What's the Problem?
Staying focused while studying or working is challenging. Distractions from phones, social media, or even one’s environment often make it difficult to maintain productivity. Without structure or accountability, tasks can feel overwhelming, leading to procrastination and stress. Traditional productivity methods, like to-do lists or timers, often fail to keep people engaged because they lack motivation and a sense of reward. As a result, many struggle to balance efficiency with enjoyment, highlighting the need for new approaches that make staying on task both fun and sustainable.
We surveyed students about buying/selling on campus: out of 36 participants, 83% (!) of respondents are less than satisfied with their current options.
Specifically, there are 2 major types of pain points: organization (difficulty finding listings due to volume of messages) and reliability (lack of trust due to scams).
Based on these insights, I created a user flow map covering all the MVP features to guide my design process:
Let's Ideate!
Sketches began with pen and paper…
and were refined into digital wireframes!
I'm a huge fan of paper wireframes in the early stages because it allows for rapid-fire iteration. Though not shown above, I created 50+ paper sketches before moving to digital wireframes.
Along with highlighting new features that the GroupMe lacked (sorting and filtering), my main design focus throughout these iterations was simplicity: would sellers be able to post a listing just as easily as sending a message into GroupMe? Among hundreds of listings, would buyers be able to process the content of a listing with a quick glance?
Many of my changes from wireframe to wireframe were minimal, as even small details can make or break whether a user decides to continue or stop using a new product.
Final Stages: Prototyping
Design system:
Bonus: Logo design evolution!
Now… onto my favorite part: the high-fidelity protoype! Below showcases some key pages/features.
Sign in/sign out:
Filtering and sorting:
Favorite a listing:
Creating a new listing:
Profile page:
Here's the full Figma file for more of my prototyping process: OwlMart Figma File
What Now?
Our MVP officially deployed February 3rd, 2026! 🎉
Since then, I've been wireframing some post-MVP features, including buyer requests and a messaging system. OwlMart is currently in launch phase, with our team working hard on marketing across campus.
Here's some flyers my Product Manager and I collaborated on designing!
Growth 🌱
After some reflection, here are my key takeaways:
1) The design process is rarely linear and is always iterative. I frequently returned to early sketches as new constraints and insights emerged throughout the process.
2) Adaptability is a core design skill. In my time working closely with the developers, I realized that implementation rarely matches the designs 1:1. I learned to adjust my work when certain elements were not technically feasible, balancing user experience goals with practical limitations.
Overall, seeing my designs come to fruition has been incredibly rewarding, and I'm so thankful to my product team for making this possible :)