Brightspot: Designing a Complex Personal and Professional Development App

Brightspot offers bite-sized learning without sacrificing quality, and our designs are required to enable that. And that's only possible if the interface & flow are intuitive and easy to navigate. We wanted to keep the users engaged & focused while on Brightspot with an interface design that compliments the content and does not overshadow it.

I joined the Brightspot team in the early exploration phase, which allowed me to contribute at all stages of the app. We started with wireframing layouts and exploring flows before jumping into high-fidelity designs. The early design exploration followed the research the team conducted. Following that, we created a few low-fidelity screens to help us identify the visual aesthetic aligned with our design guidelines and principles (see design system case study).

At Brightspot, we worked in two-week sprints. We took on a couple of design projects per sprint, which allowed us to focus on specific screens, user interfaces, and flow designs. During those sprints, we transformed wireframes into high-fidelity development-ready designs. The design process, from the wireframe to the finished design, involved multiple review cycles with the Head of Design, Product Owner & Engineering team members. Those reviews provided valuable feedback that improved the user and developer experience.

Our designs gave the engineering team clear directions when building the app. Launching to private beta in August 2022 and receiving positive feedback from users and stakeholders, Brightspot closed a fundraising round with a $15M valuation. I believe the cohesive brand and elegant designs of the app were one of the contributors to the success of Brightspot.

Creating a brand-new app from vision to launch with a small team dedicated to their craft was a wonderful experience. I'm so glad I got to work with such a team that allowed me to be creative, challenge the status quo and deliver impactful work.