Skype features – animated

During a design update of Skype.com, features was one of the subpages to receive a major overhaul. The best way to showcase Skype’s most valuable features was to create animations that reflect the functionality.

I was in charge of creating storyboards and writing the content to match the scenarios. Once the initial groundwork was established I created a series of 6 delightful and easy to follow animations.

Updating app stores with new visuals

The goal was to create new localized visuals that would increase the download numbers in app stores. I was in charge of analyzing our competitors, figuring out where we were failing and applying the findings to create new designs that would be more engaging and compelling.

Wanderwork

Wanderwork.com - a platform for students and recent grads to find internships and exciting job opportunities anywhere in the world.

I am one of the founders of Wanderwork.com and it was my responsibility to develop the company’s brand and design language, assist in marketing work and create presentation documents.

Why Wanderwork

From the get-go we were very passionate about the name Wanderwork, as it signified the digital nomad lifestyle, work without borders. We wanted to create a platform that would bring work and wanderlust together, creating endless career options. Paired with our spirit animal corgi we have created a brand that is playful and inviting, like a four-legged friend waiting for you to come home.

On top of company branding my design expertise was applied to web design. I had to make the user flow consistent and make sure that our UI was striking and coherent. This included main landing page for the job seeker, landing page for the employer, sign up and log in flows, profiles and job search.

I also assisted marketing with visuals and email templates, and made sure that our pitch decks were beautifully constructed and easy to understand.

Skype iconfont rework

Skype’s 2017 new icon set received mixed/poor feedback from users, both internal and external. It performed poorly compared to our older sets. Main complaint was that it was too abstract and thus difficult to understand.

After a detailed review comparing MDL, Punchcut, old Skype (Teams) and Updated Skype (UWP), the best and most clear icons were selected for cleanup, grid alignment and line weight unification.

Principles

We were looking for a naturally human, glanceable and universal icon set that is part of the MS family.

The verdict was that the current and old iconset’s bold monoline design felt forceful and artificial, abstract shapes generated confusion, angular sharp corners were too clean and corporate and too much roundness felt playful but also a bit too childish.

The solution

We took the best from all sets while leaning on UWP, reduced the roundness but still kept enough for it to feel human, made sure that symbols as ideas are very easily understandable and reduced monoline from Bold to Semibold.