Bubble is a hyper-local iOS app for community and events, currently in beta, built on a simple premise: get people off their phones and into real connection with the people around them, rather than feeding them another algorithmic scroll.
ROLE
PRODUCT DESIGNER
OVERVIEW
I was the sole designer on a five-person team, working directly with the founder and developers, and I joined early mid-project. The app centers on interest-based groups called Bubbles, each with its own events, and group chat.
Team
5
Timeline
IP
PROBLEM
People are more digitally connected than ever, but increasingly disconnected from the neighbors and communities right around them. Bubble set out to solve this directly, positioning itself as a local town square reimagined for your phone.
INHERITED WORK
Since I joined mid-project, part of my research was reviewing and validating the previous designer's work alongside the founder, identifying what to keep and what to rebuild. The founder communicated that they desired more visual assets to liven the screens. This mix of inherited research, competitive context, and founder signal shaped where I focused design effort first.
WIREFRAMES
I then wireframed an updated look for each, working out structure and hierarchy before committing to visual styling. Keeping these flows consistent mattered because every new feature, including later verticals, would need to feel native to the same patterns.
DESIGN SYSTEM
I built a design system covering icons, headers, navigation, buttons, form inputs, text areas, selects, and selection controls like radios and checkboxes. Most components include their real states (default, active, error, disabled), so developers and AI-assisted tools had clear patterns to build from instead of screens to interpret. The system also flexes as the product grows. The Explore header, for example, has variants with and without a Campus tab (a future feature), so the campus vertical slotted in without a redesign.
HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
I moved into higher-fidelity screens built on that library. The work I'm proudest of is the Upcoming Events redesign, which I took from a passive list of RSVPs into a surface that helps users easily access their events and find what to do next.
TAKE AWAY
At Bubble, the handoff happened directly in Replit, with my design files serving as the build spec for AI-assisted development. That created deviations between what I designed and what shipped, so QA became a core part of my role, and I had to weigh each discrepancy against the team's timeline and goals to decide what was worth fixing now and what could wait. It taught me that design work in a startup doesn't end at the file. It continues through the build, and part of the job is knowing which gaps matter. Joining mid-project also showed me the value of aligning with the founder's vision before designing, since reviewing the inherited work together kept us from rebuilding in the wrong direction.
Status
Contact
Looking for an entry level role as a designer!
mehmamand99@gmail.com