3 Screenshots of the Global Citizen app I worked on

Global Citizen

Global citizen is a social activism app focused on taking action on pressing global issues.

summary

I lead the redesign of the Global Citizen app, with the specific task to create an experience that encourages users to take daily action on issues that matter to them.

Role

Product Design Lead
Visual Design Support

Team

Created at L+R, Guy Fitzpatrick, Inbar Barak, Julia Keller, Chris Martinié, Trent Howell, Sonia Shah

Client

Global Citizen

2022

Mockup of the Global citizen app, 2 floating phones showing the homepage and an open collections page

Prompt

Global Citizen is a non-profit organization and action platform with a mission to end extreme poverty by 2030. I was tasked to redesign their mobile app to shift their overall product goal and value proposition.

It’s a lofty goal to end extreme poverty with an app. It's also difficult to successfully connect users to such a large global movement in a digital space. Our team wanted to shift and simplify the messaging of the Global Citizen app: a space where you can do small things every day that positively impact yourself, your community, and the world around you.

At the time, the GC app acted more as a passive content delivery system and less as a place to facilitate user action and journey. Our goal with this project was to redesign the app to encourage daily action on critical global issues.

An initial sketch of the Global Citizen app, 3 screens showing the homepage, explore page, and the rewards page

Constraints

This project did not include user interviewing or testing in order to keep to a tight timeline (~ 2 months), so I had to make some assumptions in the design process. Working at an agency, this is often the case, so I’ve learned to lean on other research techniques to help inform design choices. This includes stakeholder interviews, literary research, and market research.


With this product, I faced the question of what forms a habit in a digital space. Our team initially aligned that we value thoughtful consumption and intentional action from our users. I wanted to be mindful of what kinds of “rewards” we provided the user to fulfill the habit loop of doing one good thing daily through our activism platform.


In whatever form I reimagined the app, I had to ensure that Global Citizen’s existing content could successfully migrate to this new build and system. Global Citizen had several content types to consider (articles, petition actions, email actions, challenges, educational content, etc.)

shaping

To ensure the team was aligned on the core user experience and features, I gathered inspiration and market research, created wireframes, and built clickable prototypes to communicate a few different design paths we could take.

A birdseye view of research slides for the Global Citizen app redesign

A new home

Redesigning the app from the ground up meant rethinking the navigation, and more specifically, what we see immediately upon opening the app. The original homepage only housed a card carousel of mixed content, providing little context or personalization. We set out to transform the homepage into a more actionable starting point - assigning you a few actions a day to complete, curated just “for you”, and providing you immediate gratification upon completing them as you see your points increase and your to-dos checked off.


Rather than have the traditional tab bar down at the bottom where it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount and variety of content available on the app, we focused the experience by paring it down to just two top-level pages -  a” For You” page and a “Discovery” page. As a user, you can immediately engage with a relevant, manageable set of actions, while still having the option to explore for more.

Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page filtered to Collections
Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page
Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page
GIF of the global citizen homepage experience, going through the flow of completing all you tasks

homepage flow

GIF of the global citizen homepage experience, going through the flow of completing all you tasks

homepage flow

Celebrity Collections

As a team, we also brainstormed on new types of campaigns or content that would encourage enthusiastic user action. Global Citizen has unique access to people of influence, from government leaders to global activists to popular celebrities. We wanted to take advantage of their powerful network and pitch a concept where celebrity activists curate their own set of Global Citizen actions, called Collections, centered on issues they personally feel strongly about. Users can feel more empowered to take action when endorsed by a face they know and trust.


We designed two different types of Collections - one that is audio-based and the other being video-based. In both, we can hear directly from the celebrity activists why these actions matter. There is also an added gamification element of unlocking these actions and unique celebrity content section by section, motivating users to continue through an action spree.

GIF of the video collections experience on the Global Citizen app

video collection

GIF of the video collections experience on the Global Citizen app

video collection

GIF of the audio collection on the Global Citizen app

audio collection

GIF of the audio collection on the Global Citizen app

audio collection

design System

With this redesign, we created a scalable design system to accommodate new content and features, as well as those in the legacy design.


I collaborated closely with the development team as they also migrated the Global Citizen app to a new code base called Flutter, taking advantage of its cross-platform capabilities. I kept involved throughout the development process to ensure we were aligned on design system implementation. 

A birdseye view of the Global Citizen app design system
A birdseye view of the Global Citizen app design system

outcome

We successfully launched the app redesign and migrated the codebase to Flutter.

I had worked with the Global Citizen team on several previous feature sprints, but it was a personal joy to be able to take a step back to reimagine the product as a whole. The last time we built out their design system was in 2015 (and in Sketch!), so I was also thankful to get the chance to bring their official design system documentation into Figma.

A mockup of the Global Citizen app, hand holding phone in a crowd of people
3 Screenshots of the Global Citizen app I worked on

Global Citizen

Global citizen is a social activism app focused on taking action on pressing global issues.

summary

I lead the redesign of the Global Citizen app, with the specific task to create an experience that encourages users to take daily action on issues that matter to them.

Role

Product Design Lead
Visual Design Support

Team

Created at L+R, Guy Fitzpatrick, Inbar Barak, Julia Keller, Chris Martinié, Trent Howell, Sonia Shah

Client

Global Citizen

2022

Mockup of the Global citizen app, 2 floating phones showing the homepage and an open collections page

Prompt

Global Citizen is a non-profit organization and action platform with a mission to end extreme poverty by 2030. I was tasked to redesign their mobile app to shift their overall product goal and value proposition.

It’s a lofty goal to end extreme poverty with an app. It's also difficult to successfully connect users to such a large global movement in a digital space. Our team wanted to shift and simplify the messaging of the Global Citizen app: a space where you can do small things every day that positively impact yourself, your community, and the world around you.

At the time, the GC app acted more as a passive content delivery system and less as a place to facilitate user action and journey. Our goal with this project was to redesign the app to encourage daily action on critical global issues.

An initial sketch of the Global Citizen app, 3 screens showing the homepage, explore page, and the rewards page

Constraints

This project did not include user interviewing or testing in order to keep to a tight timeline (~ 2 months), so I had to make some assumptions in the design process. Working at an agency, this is often the case, so I’ve learned to lean on other research techniques to help inform design choices. This includes stakeholder interviews, literary research, and market research.


With this product, I faced the question of what forms a habit in a digital space. Our team initially aligned that we value thoughtful consumption and intentional action from our users. I wanted to be mindful of what kinds of “rewards” we provided the user to fulfill the habit loop of doing one good thing daily through our activism platform.


In whatever form I reimagined the app, I had to ensure that Global Citizen’s existing content could successfully migrate to this new build and system. Global Citizen had several content types to consider (articles, petition actions, email actions, challenges, educational content, etc.)

shaping

To ensure the team was aligned on the core user experience and features, I gathered inspiration and market research, created wireframes, and built clickable prototypes to communicate a few different design paths we could take.

A birdseye view of research slides for the Global Citizen app redesign

A new home

Redesigning the app from the ground up meant rethinking the navigation, and more specifically, what we see immediately upon opening the app. The original homepage only housed a card carousel of mixed content, providing little context or personalization. We set out to transform the homepage into a more actionable starting point - assigning you a few actions a day to complete, curated just “for you”, and providing you immediate gratification upon completing them as you see your points increase and your to-dos checked off.


Rather than have the traditional tab bar down at the bottom where it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount and variety of content available on the app, we focused the experience by paring it down to just two top-level pages -  a” For You” page and a “Discovery” page. As a user, you can immediately engage with a relevant, manageable set of actions, while still having the option to explore for more.

Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page filtered to Collections
Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page
Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page
GIF of the global citizen homepage experience, going through the flow of completing all you tasks

homepage flow

GIF of the global citizen homepage experience, going through the flow of completing all you tasks

homepage flow

Celebrity Collections

As a team, we also brainstormed on new types of campaigns or content that would encourage enthusiastic user action. Global Citizen has unique access to people of influence, from government leaders to global activists to popular celebrities. We wanted to take advantage of their powerful network and pitch a concept where celebrity activists curate their own set of Global Citizen actions, called Collections, centered on issues they personally feel strongly about. Users can feel more empowered to take action when endorsed by a face they know and trust.


We designed two different types of Collections - one that is audio-based and the other being video-based. In both, we can hear directly from the celebrity activists why these actions matter. There is also an added gamification element of unlocking these actions and unique celebrity content section by section, motivating users to continue through an action spree.

GIF of the video collections experience on the Global Citizen app

video collection

GIF of the video collections experience on the Global Citizen app

video collection

GIF of the audio collection on the Global Citizen app

audio collection

GIF of the audio collection on the Global Citizen app

audio collection

design System

With this redesign, we created a scalable design system to accommodate new content and features, as well as those in the legacy design.


I collaborated closely with the development team as they also migrated the Global Citizen app to a new code base called Flutter, taking advantage of its cross-platform capabilities. I kept involved throughout the development process to ensure we were aligned on design system implementation. 

A birdseye view of the Global Citizen app design system
A birdseye view of the Global Citizen app design system

outcome

We successfully launched the app redesign and migrated the codebase to Flutter.

I had worked with the Global Citizen team on several previous feature sprints, but it was a personal joy to be able to take a step back to reimagine the product as a whole. The last time we built out their design system was in 2015 (and in Sketch!), so I was also thankful to get the chance to bring their official design system documentation into Figma.

A mockup of the Global Citizen app, hand holding phone in a crowd of people
3 Screenshots of the Global Citizen app I worked on

Global Citizen

Global citizen is a social activism app focused on taking action on pressing global issues.

summary

I lead the redesign of the Global Citizen app, with the specific task to create an experience that encourages users to take daily action on issues that matter to them.

Role

Product Design Lead
Visual Design Support

Team

Created at L+R, Guy Fitzpatrick, Inbar Barak, Julia Keller, Chris Martinié, Trent Howell, Sonia Shah

Client

Global Citizen

2022

Mockup of the Global citizen app, 2 floating phones showing the homepage and an open collections page

Prompt

Global Citizen is a non-profit organization and action platform with a mission to end extreme poverty by 2030. I was tasked to redesign their mobile app to shift their overall product goal and value proposition.

It’s a lofty goal to end extreme poverty with an app. It's also difficult to successfully connect users to such a large global movement in a digital space. Our team wanted to shift and simplify the messaging of the Global Citizen app: a space where you can do small things every day that positively impact yourself, your community, and the world around you.

At the time, the GC app acted more as a passive content delivery system and less as a place to facilitate user action and journey. Our goal with this project was to redesign the app to encourage daily action on critical global issues.

An initial sketch of the Global Citizen app, 3 screens showing the homepage, explore page, and the rewards page

Constraints

This project did not include user interviewing or testing in order to keep to a tight timeline (~ 2 months), so I had to make some assumptions in the design process. Working at an agency, this is often the case, so I’ve learned to lean on other research techniques to help inform design choices. This includes stakeholder interviews, literary research, and market research.


With this product, I faced the question of what forms a habit in a digital space. Our team initially aligned that we value thoughtful consumption and intentional action from our users. I wanted to be mindful of what kinds of “rewards” we provided the user to fulfill the habit loop of doing one good thing daily through our activism platform.


In whatever form I reimagined the app, I had to ensure that Global Citizen’s existing content could successfully migrate to this new build and system. Global Citizen had several content types to consider (articles, petition actions, email actions, challenges, educational content, etc.)

shaping

To ensure the team was aligned on the core user experience and features, I gathered inspiration and market research, created wireframes, and built clickable prototypes to communicate a few different design paths we could take.

A birdseye view of research slides for the Global Citizen app redesign

A new home

Redesigning the app from the ground up meant rethinking the navigation, and more specifically, what we see immediately upon opening the app. The original homepage only housed a card carousel of mixed content, providing little context or personalization. We set out to transform the homepage into a more actionable starting point - assigning you a few actions a day to complete, curated just “for you”, and providing you immediate gratification upon completing them as you see your points increase and your to-dos checked off.


Rather than have the traditional tab bar down at the bottom where it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount and variety of content available on the app, we focused the experience by paring it down to just two top-level pages -  a” For You” page and a “Discovery” page. As a user, you can immediately engage with a relevant, manageable set of actions, while still having the option to explore for more.

Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page filtered to Collections
Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page
Screenshot of the Global Citizen explore page
GIF of the global citizen homepage experience, going through the flow of completing all you tasks

homepage flow

GIF of the global citizen homepage experience, going through the flow of completing all you tasks

homepage flow

Celebrity Collections

As a team, we also brainstormed on new types of campaigns or content that would encourage enthusiastic user action. Global Citizen has unique access to people of influence, from government leaders to global activists to popular celebrities. We wanted to take advantage of their powerful network and pitch a concept where celebrity activists curate their own set of Global Citizen actions, called Collections, centered on issues they personally feel strongly about. Users can feel more empowered to take action when endorsed by a face they know and trust.


We designed two different types of Collections - one that is audio-based and the other being video-based. In both, we can hear directly from the celebrity activists why these actions matter. There is also an added gamification element of unlocking these actions and unique celebrity content section by section, motivating users to continue through an action spree.

GIF of the video collections experience on the Global Citizen app

video collection

GIF of the video collections experience on the Global Citizen app

video collection

GIF of the audio collection on the Global Citizen app

audio collection

GIF of the audio collection on the Global Citizen app

audio collection

design System

With this redesign, we created a scalable design system to accommodate new content and features, as well as those in the legacy design.


I collaborated closely with the development team as they also migrated the Global Citizen app to a new code base called Flutter, taking advantage of its cross-platform capabilities. I kept involved throughout the development process to ensure we were aligned on design system implementation. 

A birdseye view of the Global Citizen app design system
A birdseye view of the Global Citizen app design system

outcome

We successfully launched the app redesign and migrated the codebase to Flutter.

I had worked with the Global Citizen team on several previous feature sprints, but it was a personal joy to be able to take a step back to reimagine the product as a whole. The last time we built out their design system was in 2015 (and in Sketch!), so I was also thankful to get the chance to bring their official design system documentation into Figma.

A mockup of the Global Citizen app, hand holding phone in a crowd of people

©2023 sharon lee

©2023 sharon lee

©2023 sharon lee