This is where I built Port UI from the ground-up
How do you get someone to download yet another app — and change how they think about messaging?
Part-1: Leadership
Designing Clarity for the Team
Context
Port was a privacy-first messenger that helped people connect without sharing phone numbers. As Head of Design, I wasn’t just designing the product — I was designing how our team thought, built, and communicated. We were a small, high-stakes team trying to do something very new in a very crowded space.
India was our litmus test — because if you can convey value to an Indian user, you’ve nailed true clarity.
What Leadership looked like
Turning chaos into systems
We were deep in startup chaos — shifting priorities, new hypotheses every week.
My job was to turn that noise into repeatable clarity:
Built a design system from scratch to bring speed and consistency
Created naming conventions and review rituals that engineers actually liked
Aligned weekly with founders to translate vision → shippable flows
Cross-functional translation
Startups are bilingual environments — product talks in numbers, design talks in empathy. I learned to translate between both: pitching user logic to investors and investor logic to designers.
Building confidence in a new category
We were inventing “numberless messaging,” and that meant lots of blank stares.
I had to design the narrative as much as the interface — building conviction inside the team before expecting it from users.
Outcomes
A team that shipped with clarity and rhythm, not chaos
A design system that outlived two major pivots
A culture of visual consistency and intentionality
And the numbers: 4.1★ on Play Store, 5★ on App Store, 2000 MAUs, 300 DAUs
Reflections
Leading design at Port taught me that clarity is a design deliverable, not just an outcome. Sometimes your real design work happens in FigJam, not Figma.
Part-2 : Design
Navigating Mental Models
The core challenge
People already have WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal — all free, all functional.
We weren’t competing on features; we were competing on mental models.
Users had to learn that:
You can connect with someone without knowing their number, and that can actually be safer and simpler.
Changing that default assumption meant designing familiarity inside novelty.
How we approached it
Anchor in Familiar Patterns
We borrowed experiences from existing messengers to reduce friction — chat bubbles, avatar clusters, connection confirmations. Familiar on the outside, new under the hood.
Make Privacy Visible
Invisible safety isn’t believable.
We made every privacy action visible: confirmation steps, handshakes, and clear end states. If you shared something, you saw it happen — no background magic.
Speak Human, Not Technical
We ditched jargon like encrypted or anonymous and instead said: “Only people you connect with can reach you.”
Simple > Scary.
Local Relevance
Designing for India means designing for sharp attention and zero patience.
People don’t read; they notice.
We used microcopy, iconography, and local cues to show safety, not explain it.
Highlights
Unified “Ports” and “Superports” into one clear model
Connection Flow Redesign → faster onboarding, 30% higher completion rate
Design System Tokens for colors, spacing, and motion → scalable consistency
Trust cues baked into every state — from QR scans to chat previews
Reflections
Designing Port wasn’t about pixels — it was about rewiring assumptions.
We weren’t teaching users a new app; we were teaching them a new way to think about connecting. And if you can make that click in India, you’ve achieved something real.
Part - 3 : Designing for diversity
“Anytime you’re trying to change people’s behavior, you need to start them off with a lot of structure, so they don’t have to think. A lot of what we do is habit, and it’s hard to change those habits, but having clear guardrails can help us”
Kaaren Hanson
One of the key things we realized at Port was that creating a product that caters to diverse user groups is both a necessity and a challenge. Diverse user groups encompass a wide range of demographics, including varying ages, cultural backgrounds, abilities, and personal preferences. As a product that aims to reach out globally, it became imperative to meet these diverse needs, but we realized the journey was not going to be straightforward. This article explores the challenges and strategies we seek to follow to address the needs of diverse user groups.
How we approached it
Empathy in Design: Building Relatable Use Cases
When we went about designing for different user groups, we came up with many use cases that are relatable in various social contexts. This exercise helped us gain a deeper understanding of how the product can resonate with different users.
Behavioral Diversity: Balancing Comprehension and Accessibility
Different user groups often have distinct and sometimes opposing needs. For instance, while younger users might prefer more dynamic and visually engaging interfaces, older users might prioritize simplicity and ease of use. Balancing these requirements without compromising on the user experience was a complex task.
Balancing Diversity and Usability
To effectively design for diverse user groups, prioritization is key. We identified the core needs that are shared across most user groups and focused on those first.
IOS vs Android
As a globally distributed product, we designed Port to adapt seamlessly across iOS and Android by combining behaviors from both platforms. We primarily led our efforts towards bridging the gap between the two platforms.This required extensive study of platform guidelines to create an inclusive design.
