Locally.
Closer to discovery.
An Android shopping-app concept that turns nearby small businesses into places people want to explore.
3rd place among 500+ teams.
- My role
- UX/UI designerFoundational research, creative direction and sprint planning.
- Collaboration
- Two designersA fully remote design partnership.
- Sprint
- One week37 screens across three design iterations.
- Adobe XD
- Qualtrics
- Zoom
- Discord
Help the overlooked
become the next discovery.
The brief asked for an accessible Android app highlighting favorite and undiscovered small businesses. We focused on the gap between knowing a neighborhood and finding something new in it.
A fresh reason to explore.
Discover places beyond a familiar routine, while keeping favorites within reach.
A more local point of view.
Find distinctive nearby places through people, atmosphere and shared recommendations.
- Days 1–2Research & framing
- Days 2–4Concept & structure
- Days 4–7Identity & prototype
Explore the place.
Understand the person.
A rapid Qualtrics survey surfaced preferences we could translate into design decisions during the sprint.
| Research signal | Design response |
|---|---|
| Food was a strong discovery interest. | Give food and dining a prominent place in exploration. |
| Atmosphere and service shaped positive experiences. | Show the character of a place, alongside practical details. |
| People wanted both new and familiar places. | Support open-ended exploration and saving places to return to. |
| Google Maps was the default discovery tool. | Explore a more social, less utilitarian way to find local businesses. |
| Positive experiences were less likely to become feedback. | Make community activity and recommendations part of discovery. |
Curious Sam: original research persona
The original persona brings together a desire for distinctive nearby places and more trustworthy recommendations.
Distinctive places.
More confidence.
Sam wants experiences beyond large chains, without spending the day commuting. Unreliable recommendations make the search feel like a gamble.
That sharpened the role of nearby discovery, saved places and community context.
Keep the paths clear.
Keep the scope in view.
The navigation map connected onboarding and landing to bookmarks, search, collections, community, promotions, profile and adding a place. It helped us prioritize the screens as the concept expanded.
Information architecture
The original screen hierarchy connects onboarding and landing to seven main areas.
Sketch quickly.
Choose deliberately.
Six notebook pages capture the routes we explored before refining the interface through three design iterations in Adobe XD.
Onboarding and landing
Early exploration of interests, location and the discovery feed.
Expressive enough to invite.
Consistent enough to scale.
The red-orange identity gave the concept warmth. A small shared XD library let us carry that language across 37 screens and make global changes during the sprint.
Energy, with room to read.
Coral and orange establish the identity. White space gives business content and imagery room to lead.
Personality with a reading role.
Bely Display gives headings character; Rig Sans supports the longer interface text.
One change, carried through.
Shared controls and rounded patterns keep the interface approachable and editing manageable.
Component, colour and typography board
Original controls, content patterns, colours and type exploration.
Discovery is the start.
Connection brings people back.
The concept paired an open-ended discovery feed with community activity, business promotions and a text-first option.
Make room for a pleasant surprise.
A browse-first experience makes nearby businesses feel discoverable, with the option to save a place for later.
Something nearby.
A place to discover. A reason to return.
The prototype behind the concept.
The original walkthrough and Adobe XD prototype preserve the submitted interaction intent.
A strong concept.
A clear next question.
Locally placed third among 500+ Creative Jam teams. The sprint produced 37 screens across three iterations, a visual identity and an interactive prototype.
Recognition is one kind of evidence.
The jury recognized the concept and prototype. The next step is task-based usability testing with residents and visitors.
Next, I would test finding, saving and revisiting a suitable business, alongside contrast, screen-reader order, target sizes and the proposed text-first experience.
Give discovery a clearer starting point.
The original feed grouped places by popularity and novelty. A later comparison proposes Food, Adventure and Entertainment so people can express intent.
The category change remains a hypothesis, with finding a suitable place as the task to test.
Landing feed: original and suggested categories
A later reflection compares the original popularity-led categories with proposed intent-based categories. The suggestion is not a measured result.
Earlier Creative Jam experience
Before Locally, AffiniTree received an honorable mention in an Adobe + Amazon Creative Jam among 400 teams across the US, UK and Canada. It was a separate competition.
View the earlier AffiniTree project (opens a new tab)The complete working collection.
From the first notebook pages to the later category comparison: the original research, structure and interface work.
Research and early concept notebook
Original handwritten exploration of the problem, discovery patterns and possible features.