HOW TO BE TRUSTWORTHY

I started with an audit of the growth funnel, and pinpointed a lack of team understanding of the reasons behind its failures. So I proposed a qualitative study to gain insight into how new customers were actually perceiving it. After analyzing the study results, I articulated the key issue to the team: "users don't trust what they can't try." This became the guiding theory in our demo design going forward.

Although Block Party's desktop extension exists for 10+ web platforms, I decided to test out the impact of the demo on conversion channels for two of Block Party's most popular sites: Twitter and X. By scoping the project down I was able to test and prove the impact of the demo before investing company resources into deploying it across all conversion channels. This scoping also ensured project feasibility within tight timelines.

I began the demo design by constructing its information architecture. I structured the demo flow using engagement data from the extension and ordered the cards in the demo in a way such that high-usage automations would surface first, reducing cognitive load and time to value. Because users could drop off at any point, I placed Install CTAs at multiple moments — including after each automation card — to capture intent whenever it peaked.

The team wanted to reuse the extension's existing UI components for the mobile demo to maintain visual fidelity and meet engineering constraints. When I proposed mobile-specific adaptations, engineering pushed back on feasibility. The Head of Design and I tested multiple iterations to show how small UI adjustments could significantly improve comprehension without expanding scope. We reached a hybrid solution: reusing core components with targeted edits that balanced user needs with technical constraints.

As you can see in the images below, I made two key changes to the cards from the extension to adapt them to a mobile demo context more suitably.

1. Replaced "Update for Me" with Download CTA — Since the demo couldn't provide actual automation, the action button needed to clearly set expectations and drive toward install.
2. Removed header tags — They added visual noise and increased scroll depth on mobile. Cutting them improved scannability without losing meaning.

These changes improved mobile UX while maintaining feasibility and visual fidelity with the live product.

At the hi-fi prototype stage, there was brimming confusion on the team as stakeholders held different opinions on content and UI design details. To resolve this, I proposed a rapid user test designed as a contextual inquiry where I would be able to capture live user feedback on the demo, so that we could validate it externally before launch.

This user data successfully served as an arbitrator of our disagreements and provided crucial insight. The overriding insight was this: Users found the recommendations valuable, but hesitated at the hero due to low initial trust. This was the main issue I solved through changes in the next phase of design.