Locomoco Space, Simplify
Browsing Navigation Patterns

Design

Indigo Design Award

C2A Design Award

Challenges

Why isn’t there a platform that bridges learning with practical experience for aspiring early-career creatives?

My Vision

In an era where society is drawn to flashy end results and superficial achievements, I started Locomoco with a vision to create a safe space where designers and developers can explore ideas, grow their skills, and build meaningful connections.

"How might we design a simple starting point to help users move beyond mindless scrolling and easily discover content through shared values and common goals?"

HOW DID I GET HERE?

INTRODUCING LOCOMOCO SPACE

The space is the heart of the Locomoco. It moves away from traditional portfolio-driven browsing metrics and introduces a simplified discovery experience with an organized Bento layout.

FINAL DESIGN

Users enter the platform with specific goals. To design an effective landing page, it’s essential to understand the key actions that drive users to the platform. Through research, I identified three most common daily activities:

Explore

Relevant projects and partners in an intuitive way

Access

All spaces with smooth navigation patterns

Sync

With existing contacts and engage with ease

Intuitive Way to Explore Relevant Projects and Seek Partners

USER SCENARIO

Users need an easy and efficient way to find and connect with projects and individuals that align with their interests.

SOLUTION

Users simply describe what they are looking for, and our Moco AI Engine will provide personalized project and profile recommendations.

Smooth Navigation Between Spaces

USER SCENARIO

Users need to access resources efficiently without disrupting their original flow within the platform.

SOLUTION

The tab-based navigation system allows users to switch seamlessly between pages without losing context or progress, ensuring they can access resources whenever needed.

HOW DID I MAKE THESE DESIGN DECISIONS?

How to design a dashboard that decentralizes the focus on visual aesthetics and polished experiences.

SKIP TO DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

SKIP TO DESIGN

To Identify user needs
and motivations

User Research

User

Surveys

SME Interviews

Surveys and Interviews

To guide the initial design direction of the platform, I conducted 24 surveys and 6 key SME interviews targeting:

Emerging designers
Early career developers
Senior creative professionals.

Approach

While the dashboard is just one of the features within the broader system for the platform, it draws upon these key findings from the research to address user needs effectively and streamline the collaborative experience. And here is what we found.

INSIGHT 01

Motivation driven by learning goals and interests

Users are driven by hands-on projects that help them develop new skills. However, many struggle to find projects that can match their learning goals and personal interests.

User’s Challenge

Fear of public judgment discourages sharing early ideas or experiments.

Users often feel pressured to present polished work, limiting opportunities for open collaboration.

Platform’s Issue

Low-visibility projects struggle to gain traction and thus remain unseen.

Algorithms promote already popular content making it difficult for new ideas to surface.

Unfortunate Reality

Relevant projects are buried and hard to find. Thus users miss opportunities that maybe aligned with their learning goals.

INSIGHT 02

Social Media -> Tool

Many users feel overwhelmed by the inefficiency of existing platforms like Behance, Dribbble, or LinkedIn for their social media-like experiences.

These platforms often lead users down a distracting path when browsing endlessly. Users are looking for practical tools for project discovery.

INSIGHT 03

Strong Desire for Collaboration

Users expressed a strong need for collaborative projects. Additionally, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) emphasized that more collaboration opportunities would significantly enhance their professional growth in the early years.

However, both groups currently lack the necessary connections to collaborate effectively.

"Finding the right resources to start a project is challenging if you don't have much experience. Passion projects are hard to manage because there is no one to keep you accountable if you're working on your own."

Guan.A - Early Career Developer

To Understand Users

Secondary Research

Personas

Through a combination of survey data, secondary research, and exploratory interviews with 8 participants — designers and developers across various roles and career stages — it became clear that users share common motivations and needs. Despite their diverse backgrounds, their feedback highlighted overlapping ways they would engage with the platform.

Skill Seeker

Needs Practical Experience