Brief
Project at a Glance
Enabling local businesses tell their story and let the end users lean back and get a comprehensive overview of the expected experience, through better, easier, and emotional UX.
Role
Led end-to-end product
Current Status
Partners in Crime
Partner in Crime
Abel Sinshaw
Tools
Figma
ProtoPie
ProtoPie
Behind the Craft
Design Thinking
01
Define the problem, together!
Created shared clarity across design, product, engineering, and cross-functional partners through a structured framing workshop — a 90–120 minute session designed to align teams on goals, constraints, and success metrics.
02
Explore, Test, Refine
A progressive fidelity approach, evolving designs from early wireframes to mid-fidelity concepts and motion-rich high-fidelity prototypes. Throughout the process, I collaborated closely with cross-functional partners through weekly design reviews, integrated UX research findings, and ran A/B tests on early variants.
Regular UX critique decks and structured feedback rituals helped gather broad input and ensure alignment across teams. Using Figma-based explorations, I rapidly iterated on solutions, validating ideas with both users and data to arrive at a high-confidence, user-validated design direction supported by clear rationale.
03
Packaging and Delivery
As part of the final delivery phase, I ensured every design was polished, consistent, and cross-surface ready for production. This included collaborating closely with engineers and PMs during implementation, conducting design QA reviews, and navigating Google’s approval and launch readiness process to ensure quality, accessibility, and brand alignment across all surfaces.
Behind the Craft
Heart to heart with the User
A qualitative research initiative to uncover emotional and practical barriers SMBs face when creating local story ads. Using a mix of 1:1 interviews and concept validation, I identified three core pain points that informed design priorities.
Tough to connect the dots.
A lot of mental quilting to understand what the experience will be like.
Quantitative discovery with 150 ad consumers revealed that early Local Story prototypes required too much cognitive effort to understand. Only 56% of users recognized the ad’s intent, reducing action likelihood by 2.5×. Insights informed new design principles—context-first framing, visual continuity, and integrated CTA flow—forming the foundation of the Local Story interaction model for Google Local Ads.
Grace Johnson
~ Pet care near me, Maps
I was looking for a place with consistent ratings, clear pricing, and clean-looking interiors. I don’t have time to guess or jump between apps. The more I can tell from the preview, the better.
Grace Johnson
~ Pet care near me, Maps
I was looking for a place with consistent ratings, clear pricing, and clean-looking interiors. I don’t have time to guess or jump between apps. The more I can tell from the preview, the better.
Evolved rich content expectations.
Regular UX critique decks and structured feedback rituals helped gather broad input and ensure alignment across teams. Using Figma-based explorations, I rapidly iterated on solutions, validating ideas with both users and data to arrive at a high-confidence, user-validated design direction supported by clear rationale.
Grace Johnson
~ Pet care near me, Maps
I decide in seconds. If I can’t quickly see the space or what they offer, I lose interest.
Design Hypothesis
By presenting AI-summarized review insights upfront, users will spend less time “figuring out” the business, increasing comprehension, engagement, and intent to act.
Uncertainty about what to trust
Users seek subjective information and social proof that is required to find places that are a good fit for their individual needs
Behind the Craft
Result
Crafting a structured narrative helped streamline the user experience and reduce cognitive load. By designing story flows that reflect real-life user journeys, I boosted engagement and create more immersive, relatable experiences.
Story Completion
5 Frame Viewed
Click-Through Rate
Shares
Behind the Craft
Result
Story Flow
Focusing on the vibe, aesthetic, and personality of the brand. Emphasizing user-generated content helped make the storytelling feel more authentic, local, and emotionally engaging throughout the journey.
Title Frame
Focusing on the vibe, aesthetic, and personality of the brand. Emphasizing user-generated content helped make the storytelling feel more authentic, local, and emotionally engaging throughout the journey.
Story Flow
Focusing on the vibe, aesthetic, and personality of the brand. Emphasizing user-generated content helped make the storytelling feel more authentic, local, and emotionally engaging throughout the journey.
Story Flow
Focusing on the vibe, aesthetic, and personality of the brand. Emphasizing user-generated content helped make the storytelling feel more authentic, local, and emotionally engaging throughout the journey.
Motion as a design element
Micro-interactions
Story Flow
Focusing on the vibe, aesthetic, and personality of the brand. Emphasizing user-generated content helped make the storytelling feel more authentic, local, and emotionally engaging throughout the journey.
Title Frame
Focusing on the vibe, aesthetic, and personality of the brand. Emphasizing user-generated content helped make the storytelling feel more authentic, local, and emotionally engaging throughout the journey.
Story Flow
Focusing on the vibe, aesthetic, and personality of the brand. Emphasizing user-generated content helped make the storytelling feel more authentic, local, and emotionally engaging throughout the journey.
Story Flow
Focusing on the vibe, aesthetic, and personality of the brand. Emphasizing user-generated content helped make the storytelling feel more authentic, local, and emotionally engaging throughout the journey.
Local stories resonated with users. In our latest UX test with 800 participants, local stories proved valuable for user experience. They provided context for features, offered a structured narrative for complex tasks, added a human touch that fostered user connection, and were especially engaging when presented as moving images.
Bouncing rate decreased by 38% in both food and service verticals.
Conversion rate increased ( Can not share the actual number here)
NPS & CSAT increased significantly.
Time-on-Task decreased specifically on food verticals.
Real local user testimonials
Eva H.
~ Survey Participant, Google Maps
What I mostly liked was the ability to see the location and details in visual form. Since this business was a restaurant, I appreciated the fact that you can see the reviews of the food along with a photo of the food itself.
Daniel Zeru
~ Survey Participant, Google Search
If I want to eat out then I usually do research on Yelp, Google, Facebook, and Instagram to check out restaurants that appeal to me.This feature is helpful because it will consolidate my research and make it much easier.
© 2024 Abel X
Made with care and plenty of coffee
