Mobile App Redesign

📌 Project Overview - Turning Frustration into Functionality

The ARKAD mobile app helps students navigate the career fair, but user surveys revealed some frustrating roadblocks. Attendees found the app difficult to use, and many didn't even know it existed!

That's where I came in. My goal? Redesigning the interface to make navigation easier, improve engagement and help students get the most out of the fair.

⚠️ The Problem - Low Engagement with the App

The ARKAD app had great potential, but students weren't getting the experience they needed.

📉 Low Awareness - 52.2% of attendees never used the app, and 44% weren't aware it existed. This meant many students missed out on features meant to help them navigate the fair.

😕 Usability Issues - Even among those who did use the app, feedback highlighted several frustrations:

• No way to re-read notifications
• Difficult-to-use company filtering
• Missing opening hours
• No option to change lunch lecture attendance
• Hard to find company locations on the map

These issues made it harder for students to plan their day, find interesting companies and take advantage of the fair's resources. I needed to redesign the app to improve both usability and engagement - without overcomplicating things.

🎨 Design Process - From Sticky Notes to a Polished UI

I kicked things off by gathering real user feedback, through surveys from fair attendees and casual chats with students inside and outside the organization. Using FigJam, I mapped out pain points and wishlist items on a wall of virtual sticky notes, prioritizing the most critical fixes.

Next, I jumped into Figma creating wireframes and interactive prototypes to test different layouts. The landing page saw a few design iterations before I found the right balance of clarity and usability.

The biggest challenge? Speed! With the IT team needing time to implement changes, I had to prioritize efficiently and ensure my designs were both user-friendly and feasible to develop. Despite the tight timeline, I delivered a polished, improved experience - and the users loved it!

✅ Solution - A Smoother, More Intuitive ARKAD App

To create a more user-friendly experience, I redesigned key parts of the app based on real student feedback. The main menu got a major upgrade with larger, easy-to-tap buttons, making navigation more intuitive. Company filtering was improved to help users quickly find the right employers and lunch lecture management became more flexible - students could now change their attendance status and see available seats.

Visually, I aligned the app with brand guidelines, refining colors, typography, and layouts for a more polished look. The overall layout became cleaner and less clunky, making information easier to digest. Other usability enhancements included better onboarding, clearer company descriptions and improved visibility for opening hours and company locations.

While time constraints meant not every idea made it in, the end result was a smoother, more intuitive app experience - and the positive user feedback proved it was a success!