MacadamApp
Project Spotlight: Macadam App
Role: Senior Product Designer, Senior UX Engingeer, Motion Designer, Brand Designer.
Platforms: iOS, Android, Web
From Unstructured
to Scalable
Built the full design foundation from scratch, including a production-ready atomic design system supported by design tokens and modular components for scalable product development. Contributed to the launch of 10+ features, and created motion assets for onboarding and marketing to enhance user engagement and brand visibility.
🚀 Impact highlights
- 3M→ 9M users in under a year.
- Overhauled core UX to align perfectly with business mechanics.
- Created a joyful and gamified product identity from scratch.
The Problem
Initial context:
• Product design was previously outsourced, with limited continuity or internal ownership
• No in-house design team or established design processes
• Absence of a centralized design system or up-to-date design files
• UX patterns lacked alignment with business logic and user behaviors
• Inconsistent visual identity with limited scalability or coherence across touchpoints.
The Solution
Built the Figma design system from the ground up—complete with design tokens mapped to dev environments for full production integration. Every component was documented, scalable, and aligned across mobile & web.
Created design workflows from scratch and established handoff procedures that made devs cry tears of joy.
🚀 Impact highlights
- Cross-platform tokenized Design System.
- Design Ops playbook.
- Dev-ready component library.
- Centralized source of truth.
- Brand Book.
UX Overhaul
The app is based on walking → earning coins → cashing out depending on your level (bronze/silver/gold). Except… users didn’t get it. So I rewired the entire UX to support:
• Daily rewards and steps logic
• Clear visual progression (crowns, rewards, user levels)
• Gamified interfaces that keep users on track
• Flows that adapt to crown resets every 6 months
The Challenge:
Explaining a complex gamified economy without making people feel like they’re reading IRS forms.
Motion Design & Delight
This app has personality. I created custom 2D/3D animations for onboarding, social, and in-app gamified moments. Tools: Rive, After Effects, Figma Smart Animate (for quick wins).
🚀 Impact highlights
- Increased onboarding retention.
- Massive boost in social shares through motion snippets.
- Made the app feel like a game without being a real game.
Features Launched
The app is based on walking → earning coins → cashing out depending on your level (bronze/silver/gold). Except… users didn’t get it. So I rewired the entire UX to support:
🚀 Features:
- Cash back Shop (with third-party integration for Bank Account connection)
- Seamless reward and step conversion flow.
- Enhanced Map UI with real-time location and gamification funcionalities.
- Crowns reward system UX overhaul
- Profile + Progress dashboards
- Community challenges & interactive features
Gamification Framework
After tons of research and behavioral testing, I rolled out a robust gamification system based on:
- Cognitive load balancing
- Seamless reward and step conversion flow.
- Reward loops with crown levels a d time decay
- Multiple “pathways” to gain coins (Walk, Shop, Play, …)
- Micro animations to reinforce progress & behavior
Result & Takeways
Impact Requires Ownership
Driving meaningful change in a low-maturity environment demanded full ownership—from strategy to execution—combined with proactive problem-solving and cross-functional influence.
Strategic Alignment is Foundational
Aligning product design with business logic was critical in creating a coherent and scalable user experience. Translating complex reward mechanics into intuitive UX required close collaboration across product, tech, and business teams.
Design Systems Drive Consistency and Velocity
Building a centralized, tokenized design system enabled consistent execution across platforms and accelerated feature delivery without compromising quality.
Motion Design Enhances Comprehension and Engagement
Purposeful use of motion—grounded in user goals and product behavior—proved essential in improving onboarding, feature discovery, and overall brand engagement.
The Results in Numbers
🧍♂️→👨👩👧👦 3M users → 9M in 12 months
🛠️ One scalable design system used across the org
💸 Boost in conversion from steps to rewards by over 40%
🤯 Retention increase thanks to better onboarding & delightful interactions
