Marcelo Varanda - Crafting Experiences

ActNew

Mobile App
Native
Problem Solving
UX Design
UI Design
Figma

An interactive and engaging mobile journal designed to help understand the real-world efficacy of one of the client’s acne treatments.

By combining gamification with daily tracking, the app encouraged consistent participation from a younger audience already deeply familiar with mobile experiences and game mechanics. What began as a relatively focused initiative quickly expanded in scope after a very positive initial response, ultimately turning the collaboration into a long-term partnership.

The challenge Why it matters?

Patient data is rarely missing because patients don’t care. It’s missing because the process asks too much from them.

Understanding how treatments perform in real-life conditions is essential, but collecting consistent data from patients can be surprisingly difficult. Traditional reporting methods often rely on sporadic feedback, making it hard to capture accurate and continuous insights.

For this project, the goal was to create a mobile experience that would encourage patients — particularly a younger audience — to actively track their treatment progress over time. This meant designing a system that could transform what might otherwise feel like a repetitive medical task into something simple, engaging, and ultimately fun.

At the same time, the platform needed to balance engagement with reliability. The data collected had to remain meaningful and structured enough to support real-world analysis of the treatment’s efficacy.

The challenge, therefore, was not only to design a pleasant user experience, but to create an environment where patients would willingly return every day, consistently contributing valuable information without feeling burdened by the process.

The solution The role of branding

With the challenge clearly defined, our mission shifted toward creating a brand that could truly resonate with the audience — something fresh, intriguing, and expressive.

To achieve this, I created AI-generated avatars that allowed users to visually express how they were feeling. These avatars could be collected and shared with friends within the platform, transforming personal reflection into a social experience and subtly fostering a sense of community.

The visual identity needed to support that balance.

On one hand, the platform handles sensitive personal information, meaning the brand had to feel trustworthy, professional, and safe. On the other, it needed to remain engaging and emotionally expressive to align with the playful nature of the experience.

We approached this through a combination of thoughtful design choices:
A highly readable typeface that feels modern without becoming sterile
A palette of cool, calming colors to reinforce trust and clarity
A fluorescent purple accent used strategically to break the otherwise clinical tone and inject energy into the interface

To further bridge the gap between professionalism and playfulness, we incorporated emojis and game-like iconography throughout the system. These elements helped soften the experience and reinforce the platform’s interactive nature without compromising clarity or credibility.

The result is a brand that feels safe but not distant, playful but not childish—a visual language that supports both emotional expression and user trust.

Designing the interface (UI)

Because we had limited time to secure the project, we needed to move fast and demonstrate value quickly.

Instead of investing heavily in a full wireframing phase, we took a more pragmatic approach. We created a few quick interface sketches in Photoshop to explore layout directions, then moved directly into high-fidelity mockups in Figma. This allowed us to quickly produce something tangible that could be turned into a lightweight prototype and shown to the client.

The goal was simple: make the vision easy to understand and easy to believe in.

Once the concept was clear, we could gather early feedback from initial users and stakeholders. That feedback would later help expand the scope of the project — something I’ll discuss in the final section, Delighting the client and the audience.

This approach required a certain level of confidence. In tightly constrained timelines, design sometimes demands measured risk-taking. Rather than optimizing every detail before presenting anything, we focused on delivering a compelling concept quickly — something that could secure buy-in first, and refinement later. Once the idea was validated, we knew we would have the time to revisit and polish the experience before moving into full development.

From a UI perspective, the experience needed to be extremely simple and enjoyable to use.

The platform relied heavily on user participation, so long and traditional questionnaires would have created unnecessary friction. Instead, we transformed them into quick, interactive prompts with one-tap responses and the option to add extra comments when desired.

To further encourage participation, daily interactions were gamified through a points system, rewarding users for consistent engagement.

As the UI design lead for this initial phase of the project, my focus was ensuring that every interaction felt: Fast, Intuitive, Lightweight, Slightly playful.

Delighting the client and the audience

The early prototype quickly proved its value. Initial feedback from users was overwhelmingly positive, validating the core ideas behind the experience and demonstrating that the concept resonated with the intended audience.

Seeing how much had been achieved in just a few days of work, the client decided to move forward with us on a far more ambitious version of the project. What started as a fast proposal evolved into a long-term collaboration, leading to additional projects and a lasting professional relationship built on trust and results.