CLIENT
Bird Buddy
YEAR
2021-2022
ROLE
Head of design, Lead Product Designer
TOOLS
Figma, Adobe, Lottie Files
→ Defined brand identity from the ground up (logo, visual language, and illustration style)
→ Directed illustrations to bring the product personality to life
→ Designed the mobile app end-to-end: UX flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity UI
→ Built and tested interactive prototypes to validate AI-powered recognition features
→ Collaborated with team to align design with hardware, AI, and product strategy
It all started with drafting different versions of letter B. We wanted a playful logo that also incorporates nature, birds, and is clean enough to convey that the product is sleek.
I came up with the letter B, which resembles a bird. The symbol from the logo gives us the flexibility to create all kinds of birds while still maintaining the integrity of the logo's shape.
After the logo was done, I did numerous iterations of the bird and illustrations. The idea was to bring birdie to life and use it for all the loading states. For example, connecting the AI feeder and Wi-Fi can take up to 10 seconds, so it is really important that the user doesn't feel bored or even "I'm waiting for so long".
After I'd done the illustrations, it was super fun to work with Tobias Fluck on animations.
Playful, educational and fun way to explore and learn more about birds.
Simplified Camera UI
The original camera interface looked more like a control panel than something approachable. Through several design iterations, I reduced the experience to just three core buttons. This kept the UI simple and user-friendly while still covering essential functionality.
Activity Feed Design
One of the biggest UX challenges was designing an interactive feed that could log around 30 different event types, from cleaning reminders to shared access notifications. I also added narrative elements such as rare bird “postcards” to turn raw data into a more engaging and delightful user experience.
App-Centric Pairing
We decided to eliminate printed instructions entirely and make onboarding fully app-driven. I designed animated, step-by-step guidance inside the app, which made the setup process more scalable across markets and accessible in multiple languages.
Edge Cases & Manual Review
AI recognition was not always confident, so we needed a way to gracefully handle uncertainty. We experimented with flows that prompt users to submit photos for manual review. This created a feedback loop that improved both the user experience and the underlying AI model over time.
