Hi, I'm Alex! 
A Senior Product Designer driven by craft 
, innovation 
, and solving problems that matter 
.
I believe design has the power to bridge complexity and differentiate products in meaningful ways.
What do you believe design has the power to do?
More case studies coming soon.
Summary
As the sole product designer for Nod, a mobile app built to help teens build social skills and combat loneliness, I led the design of a Snap Mini adaptation, working with Snapchat’s developer team to translate Nod’s core experience into a native mini-game within the Snapchat app.
The redesign adapted Nod’s interactions and content to fit the Snap Mini format while preserving its goal of helping teens practice social skills in a low-pressure way.
Role
Product Designer
Focus
0→1 Concept & Hand-Off
Duration
4 weeks, Summer 2022
Background
What is the Nod App?
Nod is a mobile app co-developed by Hopelab and Grit Digital Health that helps college students build stronger social connections, from shared interests to deeper conversations. The app is grounded in the science of social connection and has demonstrated efficacy in reducing loneliness among at-risk students.
The Nod app, through mindfulness and motivational psychology, “equips college students with science-backed skills to build satisfying social connections,” aiming to curb students’ symptoms of loneliness and depression during the pandemic. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
Project Details
I joined after initial research and early product exploration had been completed in Spring 2022. My responsibility was to take the Nod Mini from concept to a 0→1, developer-ready experience, delivering a final prototype and clear design requirements in collaboration with Snapchat partners.
Scope of Work
Lead Product Designer representing Grit Digital Health, collaborating with Product Managers and Developers from the Snap Mini team.
My Direct Contributions
I built on existing research and early concepts to define and deliver the core Nod Mini experience, focusing on clarity, engagement, and platform integration. My work centered on three key areas:
Contribution 1
How might we introduce familiar Snapchat native gamification patterns into Nod Mini so users can clearly track progress, feel rewarded, and stay motivated to continue engaging?
Goal: Strengthen social connection between friends by encouraging repeated, meaningful interactions.
Strategy: Use clear progression and shareable rewards to reinforce momentum and unlock Nod’s science-backed benefits, including reduced loneliness and depression.
Design Approach: Design and integrate core gamification mechanics — levels, points, and progress visibility — to motivate continued participation and deepen connection.
→ Shareable “Level Up” rewards: Celebratory level-up screens and Snap-ready stickers that mark friendship milestones. As users progress from light to deeper self-disclosure questions, shareable rewards increase visibility and perceived value of leveling up.
→ Progress tracking: Clear progress indicators across key surfaces (home and friendship views) so users can quickly understand their current level, growth over time, and points needed to reach the next milestone.
→ Social light features: Subtle activity signals in the feed that provide social proof, reinforce participation, and normalize continued engagement without adding social pressure.
Examples of gamification within the Snapchat Mini experience. Users answer questions to earn points and level up their friendship, then share their progress through custom stickers in the camera.
Contribution 2
How might we leverage familiar Snapchat notification patterns to surface meaningful activity, prompt timely responses, and encourage users to return to Nod Mini?
Goal: Increase return engagement and unblock stalled conversations within one-on-one friendships.
Strategy: Use clear, contextual notifications and lightweight social nudges to reinforce the Q&A loop without creating notification fatigue.
Design Approach: Applied proven social behaviors — activity feeds, notification badges, and app-level alerts — to ensure notifications felt intuitive, timely, and actionable.
→ Activity feed: An in-mini feed surfacing recent interactions and highlighting outstanding actions needed to earn points and progress a friendship.
→ Nudges: Lightweight notifications that let users remind friends when a question is awaiting a response, helping unblock stalled conversations without social pressure.
Defining Outcomes
Early user flow exploration leading to in-product execution. A nudge sticker prompts a response directly within a one-to-one Snapchat conversation, while the Nod Mini activity feed helps users catch up on recent friendship activity.
Contribution 3
How might we design around Snap Mini’s unique entry points to create a seamless transition between the Snapchat platform and the Nod Mini experience?
Goal: Reduce friction to entry and make Nod Mini accessible wherever users naturally interact.
Strategy: Leverage Snapchat-native surfaces and consistent system feedback so users can enter Nod Mini from multiple contexts without losing orientation.
Design Approach: After researching Snap Mini documentation and platform constraints, I designed a system that supports multiple entry paths while maintaining a consistent experience.
→ Dynamic stickers — built to re-engage users and drive return traffic into Nod.
→ Chat and camera notifications — support contextual re-entry from active conversations.
→ In-app notifications — surfaced through a live activity feed to guide users back into the Mini.
To align teams and reduce implementation risk, I documented each entry point through interactive prototypes, helping product, design, and engineering teams understand system behavior and edge cases.
Exploring multiple entry paths into Nod Mini: users can open the Mini via interactive photo stickers, conversation threads, or the message history interface.
This project was ultimately discontinued during development due to industry-wide layoffs in Fall 2022. While it was disappointing to see the work not launch, the experience reinforced the realities of building products within evolving organizational and market constraints.
Despite the outcome, I’m proud of the vision we created — to help millions of users deepen one-on-one social connections — and of the quality of the work produced across design, product, and engineering.
Reflection
What I Learned
Working alongside teams at Hopelab and Snapchat was a formative experience. The project strengthened my ability to design within complex platforms, collaborate across organizations, and advocate for products grounded in social impact. It further reinforced my commitment to building digital experiences that meaningfully support human connection.
Role
Product Designer — led end-to-end, from concept through dev handoff, over multiple sprints.
Impact
User problem
Users had no compelling reason to use the CrossFit app year-round. Daily workouts and content existed, but they weren't available in the app, limiting engagement to competition periods.
Business problem
Because the app primarily served the annual CrossFit Open, engagement was highly seasonal. This limited CrossFit's ability to retain users, build habitual app usage, and maintain an ongoing relationship with its community throughout the year.
Hypothesis
By creating an app experience that makes CrossFit content more discoverable, relevant, and connected to the community, we can increase user engagement, strengthen users' connection to the CrossFit ecosystem, while increasing brand value beyond competitions.
Design features
I was responsible for designing the following features in the app:
*This is a high-level overview, feel free to reach out if you'd like to dive deeper.
Before & After: Reimagined the CrossFit app by replacing the competition-focused home screen with a dynamic vertical feed for discovering workouts, coaching, and community content.
Designed 12+ personalized content feeds across workouts, coaching, media, and more to help users discover relevant CrossFit content.
Introduced social features—including comments, likes, and groups—to help members connect, share, and engage with the CrossFit community.
Designed a flexible notification center for personalized updates, keeping users informed and engaged.
Role
Sole Product Designer — led end-to-end, from stakeholder workshop through prototype to dev handoff, over 6 weeks.
Impact
User problem
The existing "Courses Near You" page was a static list with no sorting or filtering, and course cards lacked key details like location or cost. Coaches were abandoning the page before discovering a course that fit their needs.
Business problem
CrossFit needed to grow Level 1 course attendance, a key EDU revenue driver, but a poor discovery flow was causing drop-off before purchase.
Design features
I was responsible for designing the following features in the experience:
*This is a high-level overview, feel free to reach out if you'd like to dive deeper.
Before & After: Redesigned the Courses Near You landing page from a static list into an interactive map with location-based search, filters, and sorting.
Responsive mobile and desktop designs for the interactive map experience.
Designed and built an interactive prototype in Cursor to secure stakeholder buy-in, validate concepts through user testing, and collaborate with developers.
Walkthrough of the location search experience, allowing users to use their current location or search for a new one.
Extended the redesign by moving the Courses Near You entry point earlier in the user journey, making it easier for users to discover their nearest course directly from the Level 1 landing page.
Role
Product Designer. Sole designer, end-to-end from concept through dev handoff, 2-week sprint.
Impact
User problem
The Progress tab was a static list of 120 workouts with no sorting or filtering, and no way to log a date, notes, or multiple scores over time. This made the tab feel overwhelming while offering little value beyond entering a single score.
Business problem
Benchmark logging was growing organically with zero promotion. The app still lacked a structured way to support it, especially for "Murph," the most recognized CrossFit workout in the U.S. and a major seasonal traffic driver. Without better discovery, filtering, and tracking for benchmarks like 1-rep maxes and hero workouts, the app was leaving retention value on the table.
Hypothesis
By redesigning the benchmark tab and shipping before Murph, we could meet users where they already were, while surfacing more benchmarks through search and filtering. This would drive more score logging and turn a seasonal spike into a habitual, year-round use case.
Design features
I was responsible for designing the following, end-to-end as the sole designer:
*This is a high-level overview, feel free to reach out if you'd like to dive deeper.
Before & After: Redesigned the Progress tab from a static list of 120 workouts into a searchable, filterable Benchmarks hub.
The redesigned workout detail page, combining description, score history, and movement standards in one view.
Prototyped the Benchmarks tab in Xcode using SwiftUI to move quickly and validate interactions early.
The redesigned Murph landing page, surfacing the workout as a featured benchmark during its seasonal peak.
