Design Duration
Homepage Variants Explored
Product Designer
HerStories came from a former MuleSoft employee turned entrepreneur — a personal passion project he brought to me as a freelance client.
The vision: an interactive reading app designed specifically for young women, where stories feel personal, the reading experience is social, and users can insert themselves into the narrative through a customizable avatar.
Think Wattpad meets Webtoon — but with a stronger identity, a more considered UX, and a community layer built in from the start.
The project was paused after two weeks when the client moved to a new role. What exists is an honest exploration of the core experience — not final designs, but a clear design direction.
Safal AI is built around three core AI tools, each addressing a specific knowledge problem the firm faces daily:
Strong visual format, great for comics and illustrated stories. Community features work well but discovery is weak.
The dominant player for written fiction. Huge library but dated UI and weak personalization.
Good monetization model with episode unlocking. Community engagement is strong.
Clean reading experience but minimal social layer.
None of these gave users a sense of personal identity within the app. You're always a passive reader, never part of the story. HerStories would change that.
The most distinctive feature in HerStories is the customizable avatar — a character the user creates and owns, which then appears within their reading experience.
Users customize
Outfits · Tops · Bottoms · Hair · Face · Arms
Three starting styles
Casual · Casual Friday · Summer Look
This wasn't a cosmetic feature — it was a core UX decision. By giving users a character to invest in, the app creates emotional ownership. You're not just reading a story. You're in it.
The avatar also drives the coin economy — users earn coins through reading activity and spend them on character upgrades, early episode access, and customization items. It's a retention mechanic that feels like a reward rather than a paywall.
Personalized character display prominent, current reads section, featured stories slider, genre categories
Featured stories slider leads, genre categories below, no character display — cleaner, more content-first
Featured slider leads, selected stories highlighted, genre rows below
Character display prominent, featured slider, genre categories — similar to Variant 1 but different visual weight
Character display, featured slider, selected stories highlighted, genre rows — most content-rich variant
This exploration wasn't about finding one right answer — it was about understanding the tension between personalization (showing the user's avatar and reading history) and discovery (showing what's new and trending). Different users would respond differently to each approach.
A Tinder-style story discovery mechanic — Pass or I Like This. Reduces the paradox of choice in a large content library and makes discovery feel like play.
Trending and Popular tabs with numbered charts — giving users a social signal about what's worth reading. Genre filters: Drama, Fantasy, Comedy, Action, Slice of Life, Romance, Thriller, Mystery, Supernatural, Sports, Sci-Fi, Superhero.
Reading history with Recent, Subscribed, and My Comments tabs. Reading/Unread/Finished filters. Episode-level tracking — "1 episode unread", "You're caught up."
A social feed with text discussion posts, polls with countdown timers, and photo posts. Each with likes, comments, and view counts. Story-specific community spaces — "Dark Eyes Family", "Under the Stars" fan communities.
A complete settings system: image resolution, device management, download management with storage tracking, default view (Card vs Compact), text size override, comment sort preferences, display theme (Light/Dark/System), sleep mode with time settings.
Splash screen
Login
Avatar customization
Onboarding — coin earning
Homepage
Swipe to discover
Search Screen
Change Environment
My Stories library
Community feed
Settings overview
Community
HerStories was two weeks of genuine UX exploration — competitor research, avatar system, five homepage variants, community features, and a complete settings architecture. It didn't reach production. But it established a clear design direction: an app where reading feels personal, social, and yours.
The project is paused. The direction is solid.
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