Title | Company

Duration

July–Sept 2026

Responsibility

Visual Designer

Tools Used

Figma

Designing the Getting Started experience for a SaaS product

New Mailmodo users were signing up and going quiet. No clear path, no sense of progress, no reason to return. I designed a contextual onboarding checklist that guided users to their first “aha moment.”

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CONTEXT

Context statement

Description

The Core Problem

Description

PRODUCT GOALS

Product Goals

We established four guiding goals before beginning design:

  • Reduce food waste by helping users make better use of existing ingredients.

  • Minimize manual inventory management through AI-powered ingredient recognition.

  • Simplify recipe discovery based on what's already available.

  • Increase long-term engagement by introducing a social cooking community.

RESEARCH

Understanding how students shop, cook, and waste food.

  • User interviews

  • Competitive analysis

  • Journey map

Users explore the product but hesitate before taking action, unsure where to begin.

Users don’t struggle with features — they struggle with what to do first.

DEFINING THE PRODUCT

Structure first. Polish second.

The design challenge was figuring out how to present seven distinct setup steps without overwhelming users or cluttering the interface. The winning direction was a persistent nav tab with accordion detail.

ML Ingredient Scanner

Reduce manual inventory management.

Recipe Recommendations

Suggest meals using available ingredients.

CHOSEN DIRECTION

Persistent nav tab with accordion: accessible without being in the way, with each step expanding into context, preview, and a direct CTA.

DESIGN SYSTEM

What I reused, what I built, and what I left behind for the team.

Reused from system • Sidebar navigation slots • Typography tokens • Success green state • Primary CTA treatment

New contributions • Accordion component • Seven custom illustrations • Edge cases for empty, partial, and complete states

DEVELOPMENT

What I reused, what I built, and what I left behind for the team.

Reused from system • Sidebar navigation slots • Typography tokens • Success green state • Primary CTA treatment

New contributions • Accordion component • Seven custom illustrations • Edge cases for empty, partial, and complete states

OUTCOME

Measurable movement on the metrics that matter.

34% increase in domain verification rate

41% more users sent their first campaign

65% opened Getting Started within 24 hours

REFLECTIONS

Designing Vision Fridge taught me that solving a technical problem doesn't automatically solve a user problem. While the machine learning model reduced the effort of tracking ingredients, the overall experience depended just as much on making recipe discovery feel fast, approachable, and motivating for busy college students.

More of my work

A Cricbuzz UI Overhaul

Catalina Philips-li

Product designer creating thoughtful experiences through research, collaboration, and curiosity.


2026 ® Catalina Philips-li

Let’s connect!


Catalina Philips-li

Product designer creating thoughtful experiences through research, collaboration, and curiosity.


2026 ® Catalina Philips-li

Let’s connect!