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• Interface design
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• About the artist

• Back to home
• Interface design
• Illustration
• About the artist

Bicker takes up the majority of the pause screen. It's what the player loads in to by default upon hitting tab, and as the live game stands, it's... kind of underwhelming!, both compositionally and in terms of information provided to the player. Bicker is fun, sure, but it's not gameplay-relevant enough to warrant its own dedicated screen with no other real usage of the space around it, especially when other features— like the questlog and player decision records (mostly depicted in-game as text messages)— are either hidden (such as the questlog behind layers of map interaction) or don't make a player-accessible appearance at all.The objective here is mainly to fulfill these three goals:1. To restructure the pause screen to make better use of space, both compositionally and in terms of usefulness,2. to give the player a visual reference for core gameplay-related information (including, but not limited to, both a more immediately locatable objective list and some way to track dialogue option deviations based on whichever behavior-modifying drinks they have Milo and Lola down), and3. to give Afterparty's UI a bit more of that distinct, engaging character that exists within the visuals and atmosphere established in-game.

conclusions

The composition went through quite a few (extremely) low-fidelity iterations before I landed on what's embedded above. Included are the objective list, a kind of status-bar format to reference which drinks the player chose, as well as visual cues for both the remaining duration and hints as to how, exactly, Milo and Lola's dialogue options are changed depending on what they've drank. To the left is a phone— stylized with cracks and dead pixels, because let's be real, nobody's getting a decent phone in Hell— from which the player can access Bicker, their past messages, and their camera roll.

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Introduction / the issue

Language learning apps are the easiest point of access for a lot of people who otherwise just wouldn't have the resources to learn, and when they're actually usable without a subscription, they democratize education in a really impactful way.Unfortunately, a lot of the apps available on the market aren't usable, with or without a subscription (although the paywalling thing could be another page entirely). Many of them not only rely on rote memorization, they won't even immerse you in your target language! Even a cursory search will give you plenty of sources (for brevity's sake, I'll direct you to Cambridge, Education First, and the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition) that all say generally the same thing: it's far harder to learn a new language in your native language than it is to dive headfirst.Beside all that technical stuff: this is an important educational barrier to address. Language acquisition can increase people’s neuroplasticity and empathy, and provide new channels for communication between demographics who otherwise would not have had the ability to connect. All good things, I'd say.

So, how's about moving forward with finding a fix? I think that's a good idea. Let's do that.After all the research you see above... user personas (the three right below)! User flows! Tone of voice! Who's using this, and how should it look and feel to appeal to them, and work for them the best it can? As it turns out, I do have some solutions in mind.Codex is a language-learning product that prioritizes a naturalistic learning style for users hoping to learn or bolster proficiency in a second language, which will allow them to gain confidence and fluency by:> regular grammar and vocabulary lessons, including notes describing slang and nuance;
> immersing them in their target language with regular reading, listening, and speaking practice, whether that be through connection with native speakers or recommending media and literature produced in the learner’s target language;
> directing them to additional external resources to reduce paywall discouragement,through which they can continue to strengthen their linguistic skills.Think about it. Wouldn't you rather learn Italian culinary language by watching Italian cooking shows, documentaries, dubs of The Bear? Wouldn't you rather read Chinese novels to get a better grasp on Mandarin than be asked the same four vocab questions on loop?

Conclusions

Codex is a big one, and it's nowhere near finished. It was conceptualized and worked on over the duration of the Fall 2025 semester, and I'm still going — I've been thinking about paywall circumvention, of all things, how a streaming service partnership could get around the need for a subscription-based content distribution system and act as free marketing — but I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out so far.

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Introduction / the issue

Since its release in 2011, Duolingo has gone through quite a few UX changes, with the most notable (or, at least, the one that stuck out to me the most as an on-and-off user) being the switch from the Unit system to the Path system to the kind of middle ground that exists in-app today. However, as far as I'm aware, there haven't been any major revisions in the user flow. This shows most clearly to users like myself, whose relationship with Duolingo started off a bit rocky, in the onboarding flow.Duolingo's onboarding flow does a very efficient job of getting the user set up as quickly and easily as possible. What it doesn't do, though, is prompt its users to sign in or register for an account (at least, not from the get-go). Which isn't inherently bad! Accounting for an as-guest percentage of the userbase is far from a poor move. However, this flow fails to account for a key aspect of the user's long-term experience: progress retention.

As it stands (or stood, at the project's time of inception), Duolingo's entire onboarding process can be completed without ever linking or creating any account for data backup. This means that, in the event a user switches devices or wipes their hard disk— or, honestly, just deletes the app, with or without the intention of downloading it again later—, their existing progress, no matter how deep into the course, will be lost. Which, you know, isn't super ideal.The objectives for this redesign were as follows:1. To reconfigure the original account flow and prompt the user to link their progress upon initial launch, without sacrificing the existing immediate dive into learning,2. to streamline the interactive flow, and make it a little more visually interesting as opposed to the very minimalist, multi-page list-format composition that exists in-app, and3. to sharpen my illustrative UI skills a bit without straying too far outside of Duolingo's existing visual identity.

conclusions

Admittedly, this was a project where I knew from the jump which direction I wanted to go; while some aspects ended up changing as I worked (whether it be illustrative compositions or proportions, or the course selection rework after the official in-app addition of mathematics and music), the screens stayed largely faithful to my initial low-fidelity sketches.I think there's definitely potential to expand this redesign beyond just the sign-up/login screens— I'd like to try my hand at the entirety of the onboarding, honestly, course overviews and all—, but for now, I'm pretty satisfied with the product as it is.

• Back to home
• Interface design
• Illustration
• About the artist

• Back to home
• Interface design
• Illustration
• About the artist