A Design Overhaul of Mizaru’s Mobile App

Maintaining consistency and accessibility across all Mizaru products

Context

Team

Design: Emily Huang, Parth Bhakta

Eng: Dimple Sharma

Founder, CEO: JC Corning

Co-founder: JH Corning

My Role

UX/ UI Designer

Timeline

4 weeks

Overview

Company

Mizaru is a pre-seed health-tech start-up that matches people with disabilities with freelance support providers based on qualifications and personalized needs.

Problem

  • Support service providers are assigned to jobs that they are not qualified or a good fit for.

  • The provider-facing designs no longer matched the updated styles of the web app.

  • Products designed for people with disabilities need to be optimized for accessibility.

Outcomes

  • Synthesized user research provided and redesigned UI of 150 screens in Figma to create a unified user experience between the mobile and web applications

  • Executed an accessibility audit and provided actionable recommendations for improvements to ensure WCAG AA compliance and improve product reach

*This case study, which has been subject to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), has received approval from the company's leadership team for public dissemination

“Many times I have walked into an assignment with a new client to realize that I’m not qualified for the job.”

Support service providers want to feel confident that they are a good fit for the client and the requested assignment.

Balancing communication and workload across multiple agencies introduced significant challenges.

My design affords service providers the freedom to choose assignments with confidence, streamlines communication between providers and clients, and relieves the frustrations in dealing with multiple agencies.

Next, I identified redundancy that would have added to the user’s cognitive load and create friction when learning the app.

I brought it up during a team meeting. Collaboratively, our team determined the best way to restructure the sitemap isolating the primary app function to minimizing distractions.

Original Design

My Redesign

Mizaru’s mission is to help the deaf and deaf-blind people access communication support without barriers.

Thus, inclusive design is a priority.

The previous designs were not fully accessible to deaf-blind or low vision users.

This is particularly problematic because the app is intended for users who are part of the deaf-blind, low hearing, and low vision communities! People in these communities may have a hard time seeing elements or use screen readers to navigate the app. A good onboarding experience will improve conversion rates.

Original Design

My Re-Design

Users with color blindness or lower vision may struggle with the existing navigation bar.

I brought this concern up with the co-founders with proposed color-alternative options, which was well received. I drafted a few options then consulted the other designer on my team and we agreed on a final re-design. A more inclusive design will improve customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Original Design

My Proposed Designs

Final Re-Design

Next steps

To identify weakness in the user flows and designs, I have recommended that user testing for the next step.

Unfortunately, we did not get to perform usability testing during our internship due to company's request to limit the scope of work to just UI design.

Key Takeaways

My communication and collaboration skills contributed to successful teamwork.

  1. How to effectively communicate design decisions and present my work to non-designers during client demos

  2. How to take in feedback and have thoughtful discussions with other stakeholders about design decisions and business strategy

  3. I also gained expertise in optimizing accessibility by ensuring WCAG compliance and designing for users who use screen readers.

Thank you!

[Prototype] redacted to protect company information.