Driving a 170% increase in WAU for a consumer-facing startup
InPress
YEAR
2025
TIMELINE
2 months
TOOLS
Figma
PLATFORM
iOS
INDUSTRY
Social
TEAM
1 Designer, 1 PM, 1 Engineer, 1 CEO, 1 CTO
SUMMARY
InPress is the first news platform where factual engagement powers both learning and community.
InPress allows users to read the news while rating the content, leveraging those reactions to form interest-driven relationships. I was the sole designer for Gists, InPress' flagship feature on making news consumption more low-friction and digestible in order to attract new users while retaining existing ones.
IMPACT
Making a difference across the board.
Weekly Active Users
Increased Weekly Active Users (WAU) by 170%
Upon release, daily growth rate peaked at 5.7% (the typical daily growth seen in early-stage social and news apps is 0.4%).
Data Collection
Collected 47% of InPress' total lifetime ratings in one month
That number is roughly half of InPress' all-time survey submissions in only 4% of the app's actual existence.
User Engagement
Users sent in 5x more ratings than pre-launch
It's become core to how people consume news on InPress, and in fact, seems to be preferred by most users.
Investor Engagement
Boosted conversations and sparked investor interest
The feature was demo'd at pitch events, securing conversations with potential investors, notably The Atlantic.
THE PROBLEM
A significant amount of users weren't returning after their first week.
People were unsure of what to do when opening the app. There wasn't a clear action for users to take, which led to confusion and stunted app growth.
CONTEXT
Too much effort was required by users to experience the app's value.
When demo'ing the app to investors, the question of "So what's next?" came up often. In order to experience the app's value, users had to spend time and effort to actually read and engage with full articles. We needed something simpler, and I took a deep look into other social apps for inspiration.
IMG
Old article rating flow that required too much manual effort
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
The core principles that grounded my design direction.
Make it game-like and glossy. Reading the news should feel fun for users.
Have multiple ways to consume the news - give users optionality.
Keep it concise so that users can quickly understand the news.
SOLUTION
Create an immediate hook and clear action item to answer "So what?"
After internal discussion, the team concluded that we needed something a feature that would be simple, fun and engaging to aid in retaining users. I took a deep look into other social apps for inspiration.
Making engagement feel game-like and not like a chore.
Gists reduces the manual effort it took for users to rate articles and earn points. It would be a swipe-based interaction model that would leverage AI to make the news digestible and fun to interact with.
IMG
New Gist rating flow that focuses on quick, digestible information and interactions
Gists are a bite-sized way for users to quickly stay informed while interacting to earn points and cultivate interest-driven relationships.
With a swipe-based interaction model, Gists allow for users to experience the value of the app without having to go through the hurdles of reading full articles and rating them to earn knowledge points.
VIDEO
Swiping on Gists to earn knowledge points
EXPLORATION
Designing the Gist card to feel polished and glossy.
I held internal discussions to find the best direction for the Gist card. As the sole design voice in the room, I advocated for an approach that would be easily digestible, polished and friendly for engineering.
VIDEO
Final Gist Card
IMG
Gist Cards in action
Balancing the Gist feed layout with the design principles.
The goal was to create something that would be game-like while also offering an entry point to the existing, long-form News view. It had to be flexible while allowing users to see their progress.
VIDEO
Vertical-based swiping
No room to see progress / stat bar
I (along with leadership) wanted for InPress' stat bar to always be visible for Gists. We wanted for users to feel the payoff.
Vertical cards for quick consumption
This TikTok-styled approach could be beneficial for longer user sessions and engagement metrics.
VIDEO
Card stack swiping
Swiping promotes engagement
The existing app felt stale and monotonous. A big product ask was for there to be some interaction.
Card stack reveal builds excitement
Trading cards, sports betting, etc., the team and I wanted to build some anticipation for users.
Not the perfect solution, yet
One of the future goals for Gists is to incorporate short-form video. As an MVP, this format would help us better understand user behavior and inform how we'd later design for images and video.
ITERATIONS
Consolidating to shine more light on Gists and to invite more swiping.
Priorities included: ensuring flexibility for users in the type of content they want to see, clear entry points for navigation and a clear indicator of their in-app stats.
IMG
Original Gist Feed
IMG
Final Gist Feed
Building excitement for a new feature.
Existing users only knew of InPress' newsfeed as the only way to engage. I designed some features to help market the feature when it launched. Since Gists are AI-summarized, it was key to emphasize that.
VIDEO
Notification for Gist launch
RETROSPECTIVE
A few things that I learned
The team had been looking to implement their most ambitious feature since launching nationwide, and gave me a ton of autonomy in designing. As a result, I had two core takeaways for this project:
Conviction drives products forward
"Strong opinions loosely held" is how I had approached this feature. As a sole designer, it was on me to push design as a driver.
Err on the Side of Over-Communicating
I was part of a lean team, and prioritized communicating what I was always working on. It helped to reduce any major setbacks.
