Hello! I'm a product designer inspired by complex problems and passionate about in-depth systems thinking. I help launch new digital products and establish design systems that deliver valuable human-centered experiences.
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Sesame
frog
Experience Designer II
18 Weeks
Responsibilities
Visual Design
User-Interface Design
Wireframing
Design Language System
Web App Design
Developer Collaboration
Summary
frog partners with Tuesday Capital to bring newly funded venture programs to the studio. Entering Phase 2 of Sesame, we designed and developed an MVP digital experience to lay the foundation for future growth. We (the frog team) acted as Sesame's design department alongside our other partner, BetaAcid, who handled the development portion of the program. This was an end-to-end endeavor from 0 to launch in just 18 weeks. Seeing the idea of a zero-commission food delivery marketplace come to life but also facilitating the ordering and delivering of food to hungry New Yorkers was incredibly rewarding.
View on frog.co
Ordering delivery has never been simpler for customers, but it's become increasingly challenging for restaurants to stay afloat.
A Zero-Commission Delivery Platform
While convenient, the most popular delivery apps often use practices that jeopardize the industry they aim to support, charging hefty fees and offering subpar customer service. Despite this, the demand for delivery services continues to rise, something the team at Aurify Brands—operators of The Melt Shop, Le Pain Quotidien, Five Guys, and others—saw affecting their businesses. Many restaurants are nudged towards more delivery orders, often leaving small community-loved establishments behind, unable to foot the bill of day-to-day operation.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Aurify Brands recognized the need for a paradigm shift in the delivery industry. They envisioned a delivery marketplace that would be fairer to restaurants, a platform that would support rather than exploit them. They partnered with us over at frog to turn this vision into reality. Together, we began working on Sesame, a platform that offers a better way to handle delivery, promising transparency, zero-commission fees, and a genuine connection with the community.
Building an Efficient Design Language System
To kick the program off, I got our design language system (DLS) off the ground. I first collaborated with our visual designer to discover high-level possibilities using our existing brand guidelines to create a clear visual direction. Through our process, we found accessibility limitations in the initial brand application but were able to see a path forward. I then brought those ideas to life by applying them through Angular Material UI, using Figma's auto-layout, components, libraries, styles, and variants to build something solid and scalable.
This groundwork allowed our team to hit the ground running with high-fidelity screens from day one. It made our design reviews and user testing way more straightforward, cutting down on guesswork. Plus, it meant that our engineering team could start their development work alongside the design efforts, syncing up beautifully and speeding up the whole process.
Testing As We Went
In phase 2 of the engagement with Sesame, we were working from an already established backlog of features that the founders and strategy teams had identified. This served only as a starting point; as we developed more final screens, we got them in front of potential hungry customers. After the interviews, we synthesized the feedback and observations and implemented the agreed-upon changes into the product.
Some new themes emerged from the synthesis and valuable insights around differentiators like restaurant presence, featured restaurants, discovery, and reward incentives.
Shaping Features Through Collaboration
After the initial library was built, I designed key features, such as the order impact, restaurant landing, various menu pages, and the logged-in and logged-out home screens. My process involved building on the early rough drafts from our interaction designers and sticking to our evolving design language system to keep everything consistent. This gave the engineering teams precisely what they needed to start development. I then went back after each sprint and added new components to our design language system and evolved it for future features.
Ensuring Timely Feature Release
I made sure our feature releases stayed on schedule by supporting the front-end engineering team in pushing designs all the way through to production. My role involved annotating design files clearly and providing detailed interaction documentation to avoid confusion. I also stayed on as the go-to person for quickly resolving any development blockers, ensuring smooth progress throughout.
After launching features, I provided QA support, helping to iron out any kinks. This approach paid off, as we pushed features to production on time. Plus, our handoff procedures got slicker with every sprint, streamlining the whole process and setting us up for even smoother runs in the future.
Zero to Market in 18 Weeks
We launched Sesame in New York City in October 2021, hoping to revolutionize the delivery scene with a focus on transparency, hospitality, and community connection. This was especially crucial as we were helping rebuild communities and businesses hit hard during the pandemic. Through our partnership with City Harvest, every order on Sesame also contributed to feeding hungry people across the city, making each delivery count more.
We pulled it off in just 18 weeks—launching with multiple Aurify brands on board from the get-go. Orders started rolling in and being fulfilled smoothly. Plus, the buzz was real; we received a lot of great press that helped propel our mission forward and get the word out. It was a whirlwind period in the world and at work, but seeing our impact made all the fast-paced effort worth it.
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