Supporting user engagement and retention by prioritizing and designing joyful features and playful copy.
Freebites
Designing an app to fight food waste.
Role
Timeline
Design Lead
January 2025 - Present
Team
Skills
3 Designers
9 Devs
4 Marketers
1 PM
Design system
Product management
Team leadership
Feature prioritization
Tools
Figma
Notion
I’m leading a team of 3 designers to improve user engagement for an app connecting students to leftover food on college campuses. I’ve learned how to prioritize features with the business and user in mind, identify new features to design, foster psychological safety, handoff designs to engineering, and make quick iterations in the spirit of the startup.
I am proud of the intuitive designs that helped us expand to more universities, increase user touchpoints, and strengthen brand recognition.
⊹ To date, Freebites has 2,000+ downloads and is established at three universities. Check us out on the App Store and hit us up if you want to bring Freebites to your school! freebites7@gmail.com 🥕;)
Summary
In this case study, I’ll share three of my solutions to the question:
How might we develop an engaged user base?
Solution 1: Streamline Onboarding
The original onboarding flow lacks branding and is dauntingly long. Without visual signifiers, users need to dedicate mental energy to understanding what information is needed in each container.
Context
Design
My new onboarding flow incorporates personalized copy, clear CTAs, and intuitive information-grouping for a fun and smooth first impression of our app.
Solution 2: Livening the Home Screen
Sometimes, there is no leftover food on campus and therefore nothing to post on Freebites. However, a blank home screen is a missed opportunity to welcome hundreds of new users.
Context
Market Research
How might we populate the home screen without posts? I researched websites of companies who don’t have constant products for inspiration.
harrypotter.com has polls (Potions, in my opinion)
JetBlue displays offer information
Design
Branded status message - maintain our playful feel, inform users of system status
Weekly polls with a streak - engage users, funny/shareable touchpoint
Freebites app statistics - remind or educate users of our impact
Solution 3: Fostering Community in Posts
User Research
“I don’t know who’d be seeing my posts.”
— a user explaining why they hesitate to post free food on the app
+
Market Research
The most engaging apps foster community through likes and comments (Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn)
=
Design
Now, Freebites users can like posts, allowing them to
thank the person who posted the free food
see and engage with other people using the app
⊹ Likes drive our business model forward. This feature
increases the user’s touchpoints with Freebites
encourages the poster to keep posting
shows users that others are using the app
Results - coming soon!
We are releasing these features soon. I will be back with results of usability tests and app analytics to confirm that these features did indeed increase user engagement after we ship them!
Leading a team
I’ve learned a lot about product and leadership during my time at Freebites. Below are three learning experiences.
When I want to start a new feature, I have to gather data and formulate a proposal for the team. I’ve learned how to tell a story to pitch my new idea, write clear handoff comments in Figma, make design decisions on the fly when an engineer asks me questions at standup, and overall feel confident in my product sense while being receptive to feedback.
⊹ Owning products
I implemented a Kanban board on Trello, which increased visibility, clarity, and efficiency for my designers. Given the success of our Trello board, the entire Freebites organization adopted a similar Kanban system on Notion.
⊹ Streamlining workflows
⊹ Psychological safety
Google’s Project Aristotle taught me psychological safety in a team— where members feel safe to provide their opinion and make mistakes. I make sure to shoutout my designers during standups, quantify the impacts of their designs, help them achieve their personal design goals, and let them choose which prioritized ticket they want to tackle next.
