UX / UI case study
Whalecopedia
Mobile app concept and high-fidelity interactive prototype, built for the Harvard Extension UX/UI credential.
- Role
- UX research, UI design, prototyping
- Context
- Harvard Extension — UX/UI Design
- Tools
- Figma, user research, wireframing
- Type
- Mobile app concept
Try the prototype
The full interactive prototype is below — click through it just like the real app.
The challenge
Whalecopedia set out to make marine-life knowledge genuinely enjoyable on a phone — an app where curious users could browse, search, and learn about whale species through a clean, friendly interface. The design challenge was to organize a lot of reference content without it feeling like a textbook, and to make exploration feel effortless on a small screen.
Process
I worked through the full UX/UI cycle: research into comparable reference and education apps, defining the information architecture and core user flows, sketching and wireframing the key screens, then building up to a high-fidelity, fully interactive prototype in Figma. Each round was checked against the core question — can a first-time user find and learn about a species without instructions?
Outcome
The result is the clickable prototype above: a cohesive visual system, intuitive navigation, and content laid out for quick scanning and deeper reading. The project was completed toward my Harvard Extension UX/UI Design micro-certificate, and it's a clear demonstration of taking an idea from research all the way to a polished, testable design.