Driving a 33% increase in DAU for a consumer-facing startup
InPress
YEAR
2025
TIMELINE
3 months
TOOLS
Figma
PLATFORM
iOS
INDUSTRY
Social
TEAM
1 Designer, 1 Product Lead, 1 CEO, 1 CTO
SUMMARY + IMPACT
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, and 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.
Investor Engagement
Boosted conversations and sparked investor interest
The feature was demo'd at pitch events, helping to secure many conversations with potential investors, notably The Atlantic.
User Retention
Increased Daily Active Users (DAU) by 33%
The company saw immediate impact in the number of users that were engaging with the product everyday.
THE PROBLEM
A significant amount of users weren't returning after their first week.
When demo'ing the app to investors and users, people were unsure of what to do when opening the app. There wasn't a clear action for users to take, which stunted the app's growth.
Answering "So what?" with an immediate hook and clear action item.
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.
Locking in the Gist card design.
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.
Creating incentives to make the engagement stick.
A big question was how might we make the product stick with users? I reworked InPress' trademark stat bar into taking on a casino bar effect for each time a user swiped on a Gist. I wanted for users to feel that their actions had an immediate reward.