Timeline: October 2025 - December 2025

Role: Product Management Extern (UX & Feature Design)

Disclaimer: This project was completed as part of a conceptual externship with BeReal, where students design and present ideas but do not modify the live app

Problem

Defining the Engagement Gap

BeReal encourages authenticity by prompting users to post once per day. While users can post more than once, engagement drops sharply after the daily prompt. The goal was to encourage authentic interactions beyond that peak moment

How might BeReal create additional moments of engagement without introducing addictive, competitive, or performative behaviors?

Immersing in the brand, mission & metrics

Getting Real with BeReal

Before conducting user research and engaging in the design process, I wanted to immerse myself in BeReal’s Brand Media Kit to establish clear design constraints

Non‑Negotiable Brand Principles:

• Authentic, unfiltered moments

• Intentional and meaningful social interaction

• No algorithms, streaks, or influencer culture

• Minimalist UI with low cognitive load

These principles served as guardrails for all product decisions

competitive analysis

Borrowing Without Becoming

I analyzed social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram to understand how they retain engagement. Snapchat and Instagram demonstrate strong performance in:

• Multiple content formats

• Continuous interaction loops

• Familiar social behaviors

Opportunity: BeReal doesn’t need more content. It needs more ways to express moments that preserve authenticity

user research

Listening Before Designing

Because ~43% of BeReal’s users are ages 16–25, the research focused on this demographic with 10 participants through surveys and interviews to identify engagement drop-off moments and understand what motivates low-effort participation

Key Insights

• Users value BeReal because it doesn’t feel competitive

• Minimal effort is essential for sustained engagement

• Users want ways to participate in other ways besides taking photos

This directly shaped the feature direction around reflection, storytelling, and casual check‑ins

user persona

Designing for the Heart of BeReal’s Audience

To ground design decisions, I created a persona based on research insights.This persona kept myself focused on low‑effort, emotionally flexible participation

paper Wireframes

Sketching the Possibilites

Before opening Figma, I explored multiple concepts using paper sketches. This phase helped identify high-potential concepts early, reducing wasted design time and ensuring alignment with BeReal’s user-first philosophy

I returned to the focus group to validate direction. Users overwhelmingly favored multiple content formats to share their moment in different ways, reinforcing alignment with real needs

Digital Wireframes

From Paper to Pixels: Catering to the Main Flow

I translated paper sketches into Figma wireframes, maintaining fidelity to both UX and BeReal’s visual identity. Every spacing, icon choice, and interaction flow was carefully considered to reflect BeReal’s minimalist and authentic aesthetic

Branding + UI Kit

Designing With the Brand in Mind

To support scalability and stakeholder clarity, I created a small UI kit outlining typography usage, iconography rules, and color and spacing guidelines. This ensured new features expanded engagement without compromising brand integrity

Usability Test + Iterations

Testing, Tweaking, and Perfections

To validate design choices, I gained feedback from the research focus group. Iterative testing helped ensure the features were aligned with real user behaviors and expectations.

Users suggested adding the option to share a text, if users don’t feel like sharing a video, photo, or image

Final screens

Bringing the Vision to Life: Key Screens

Stakeholder Presentation

Communicating the Story

I had the opportunity to present my findings to a PM and two designers at BeReal. To approach this, I synthesized my research findings, design rationale, and final concepts into a stakeholder-ready presentation

Stakeholders responded positively to brand immersion and attention to detail

impact + key takeaways

The Ripple Effect

Project Impact:

• Proposed features are lightweight, authentic, and encourage engagement without pressure

• Iterative research ensured features solved real user pain points

• Documentation included a branding kit and design rationale for smooth stakeholder presentation

If I had more time:

• Hand off interactions and designs with engineering

• Create flows for different content types

Key Takeaways:

• Early immersion in brand philosophy ensures design alignment

• Paper sketches and early iteration highlight high-value ideas

• User-centered design and attention to detail drive adoption