It has been a long time since JackThreads last updated our Android app. We all agreed that our Android app looked out of date (it looked like it was designed by a bunch of developers ten years ago, yikes). This project also coincided with Google's Material Design as part of creating a better and homogenous visual language. 

The project was led by JackThreads' Director of User Experience and carried out by two Product Designers, including myself. This was a very large, holistic re-design effort on a product that has been using an old visual language for nearly six years. It was also very challenging for the design team, because none of us had experience with Material Design. 

We wanted to create a consistent experience across all platforms. There were many elements on Android that we borrowed from Web. For example, we kept the same layout on the Home, Categories, and Product Detail Pages. We also wanted to borrow a visual language and aesthetic from Google's Material, where it makes sense, such as tab bar, icon's style, floating button, shadow style, ui animation, card element, spacing, bold colors, dropdowns, dialog box, buttons, and text fields. 

We presented these design mocks to Google at their NYC headquarter, last year. The feedback was overall positive. They loved the direction that we went and couldn't wait to see the final product. 

Tripcipe (www.tripcipe.com) is an early startup that makes travel planning as easy and seamless as possible. Our name comes from combining the two words "trip" and "recipe". 

Most people when they travel spend hours researching, copy and pasting into google docs and excel. then they print everything out to take with them when they go on their trip.  It’s a tedious process and in this day and age. 

With Tripcipe, when you find something you want to see, eat, or do, you can save it as a “clip.”  You can save this information from any website (TripAdvisor, Foodspotting, Yelp, etc.) using our plug-in.  A trip is a collection of clips. It can be a list of your favorite pizza places you want to share with your friends. It can also be all the things you plan to do on your next vacation.

We keep it all in one place, all plotted on a map, and we have mobile apps so you can take everything with you--no more printouts.

Being the designer on a startup team means having a role to play in every stage of product. At Tripcipe,  I am involved in product design, ideation, interaction design, UI design and the visual design on both web and mobile. My day to day role begins with collaborating and brainstorming with the cofounders. We often talk about how to improve the user experience on the site and how to make the product as intuitive as possible, so that our users have the best possible experience of trip planning. I am also responsible for creating a unified visual and identity for Tripcipe. Lastly, since we are still in an early stage, selling the product becomes one of the most important aspects at this point. My main task is to reach out to the "influencers" or the bloggers and get them to use our product.  This has been one of the most challenging and exciting design jobs where I have had to juggle between so many different roles at the same time.