Driving Retention
Through Experience.

Readly

Experience Design Lead

My role

At Readly, I worked to reimagine how magazines live in a digital context. Together with my peers, I led deep explorations into customer journeys, uncovering pain points and unmet expectations in the reading experience.

Through mapping experiences, testing concepts, and iterating on ideas, we helped stakeholders define a future experience vision that balanced user needs with business opportunities. The work laid the foundation for more intuitive browsing, easier discovery, and a richer reading experience—positioning Readly to evolve from a digital magazine library into a platform that truly supports customer habits and long-term engagement.

DESIGN LEAD

DESIGN STRATEGY

RAPID GROWTH

DISCOVERY

PROTOTYPING

TEAM BUILDING

APP

VISUAL DESIGN

HANDS-ON

EXPERIENCE VISION

Opportunities

Increase Retention

How might we design experiences that keep readers coming back daily?

Increase Retention

How might we design experiences that keep readers coming back daily?

Personalized

How might we tailor the reading experience to each user’s interests without overwhelming them?

Personalized

How might we tailor the reading experience to each user’s interests without overwhelming them?

Simplify Onboarding

How might we make the first-time experience so clear that new users find something to read immediately?

Future Vision

How might we position Readly not just as a magazine library but as a daily habit platform and so readers spend less time searching and more time reading?

Future Vision

How might we position Readly not just as a magazine library but as a daily habit platform and so readers spend less time searching and more time reading?

Improve the Reading Experience

How might we improve readability across different devices and contexts (mobile, tablet, desktop)?

Pricing

How might we explore subscription tiers that better match different user needs but also drive revenue?

Pricing

How might we explore subscription tiers that better match different user needs but also drive revenue?

Reimagining the
Onboarding Experience.

Approach

User Research

Conduct user interviews with churned users to understand drivers of retention and drop-off. Ensure a delightful reading experience by identifying barriers throughout the user journey and mapping the current baseline.

E2E Experience

Map the end-to-end customer journey. Prototype and test simplified onboarding flows to reduce friction at signup. Experiment with personalized onboarding (interest selection, recommendations).

Personalization

Balance algorithmic personalization with editorial curation to support both relevance and serendipity. Develop recommendation concepts (personalized feeds, curated collections, trending reads).

Personalization

Balance algorithmic personalization with editorial curation to support both relevance and serendipity. Develop recommendation concepts (personalized feeds, curated collections, trending reads).

Improving the Reading Experience

Explore interaction models that make digital magazines more intuitive (e.g., continuous scroll, offline reading, audio integration). Improve navigation and search to reduce effort when finding specific titles or topics.

Future Vision

Build concept prototypes to test desirability and business viability before development. Create an experience vision map to guide long-term product evolution.

Alignment

Share findings with stakeholders through experience journey maps and story-driven insights. Use outcomes as alignment tools so all teams (product, design, marketing, tech) move in the same direction.

Alignment

Share findings with stakeholders through experience journey maps and story-driven insights. Use outcomes as alignment tools so all teams (product, design, marketing, tech) move in the same direction.

Reimagining Content Discovery.

Impact and Outcomes

Research

Through qualitative research methods, we uncovered how users experience the product today and could identified where to put our efforts - enabling us to design improvements that drive both adoption and long-term retention.

Research

Increased Engagement

We improved the onboarding process, made a more consistent page structure, reduced user friction in search, and made it easier to organize, discover, and find content. Led to deeper engagement with content.

Engaging Experience

We could provide more relevant and personalized content by extracting articles from magazines. Inspiring content for the right moment, based on interests and behavior, not just the magazine's name. See the concept video below.

Engaging Experience

Improved Reading Flow

Simplified onboarding reduced friction and helped new users get to their first read faster. Navigation improvements made it easier to find and return to favorite titles. Resulted in a richer, more enjoyable reading experience, driving loyalty.

Improved Reading Flow

Future Vision

Prototyped and tested new subscription tiers and audio features to explore new revenue streams. Defined a long-term experience vision that aligned stakeholders on where to take Readly beyond being just a digital magazine library. Resulting in a strategic foundation for evolving into a habit-forming content platform.

Organizational Alignment

Created experience journey maps and UX outcomes that aligned design, product, and business around the same goals. Led to a stronger cross-team collaboration and a shared north star for growth.

Organizational Alignment

Created experience journey maps and UX outcomes that aligned design, product, and business around the same goals. Led to a stronger cross-team collaboration and a shared north star for growth.