Cuckoo

PROBLEM /

Users couldn't find how to take a break from the homepage. “Take a break” and “Start break” sat near each other, used the same icon, and meant different things.

DECISION /

Rename the homepage action to “Choose a break” and give it its own icon, so choosing and starting are visibly different verbs.

OUTCOME /

Feedback turned noticeably more positive, and people started breaks straight from the homepage instead of going through the video library to find one.

PROBLEM /

Browsing videos was slow. Two of the three filters overlapped, every thumbnail carried a play icon in a library that was nothing but videos, and once you confirmed your tags they disappeared, so removing one meant reopening the filter to find it.

DECISION /

Cut the redundant filter and keep Tags and Categories. Drop the play icon. Show selected tags as chips that can be removed inline.

OUTCOME /

Faster filtering and less visual noise. People could manage their tags without reopening menus.

PROBLEM /

No way to save a video, no history, and no personalised way in. Finding the right two-minute video meant filtering every time.

DECISION /

Add Favourites with a “My favourites” entry point, and three sections on the library page: Previously watched, Most viewed, Recommended for you.

OUTCOME /

Users can save a video, rewatch something familiar in one tap, and find new ones without touching a filter.

PROBLEM /

In the leaderboard view, people couldn't tell ongoing challenges from completed ones. Am I done? Should I join another? They opened detail pages just to find out.

CONSTRAINT /

Challenge avatars are sometimes sponsor logos, and we couldn't cover them. Visual complexity also had to stay minimal: the product serves a wide range of people, with more than forty working personas.

DECISION /

A purple tick in a circle, placed at the top-right edge of the avatar rather than centred on it. Visible, and clear of the logo.

OUTCOME /

State reads at a glance. Fewer detail pages opened just to check.

PROBLEM /

Interviews showed two kinds of people: some want self-paced personal goals, others are motivated by competition. And creating any challenge took so much coordination that many never got made.

DECISION /

Two new formats and a shortcut. Most Points: competitive, ends when time runs out. Set a Goal: self-paced, ends when you hit your own target. Quick Challenge: one tap from a friend's profile, no group setup.

OUTCOME /

The formats map to different motivations: achievement, competition, autonomy, relatedness. We expected more challenges created, more friend-to-friend activity, and less drop-off at the setup step.

PROBLEM /

Participation lived inside each group page, so there was nowhere to see what was happening right now. People missed things and contributed less. Research put it plainly: users don't think in groups, they think in activity. They wanted to “see what others are doing without opening every group”.

CONSTRAINT /

Groups still had to exist. Invitations, membership and who manages what couldn't disappear into a feed.

DECISION /

One unified activity feed for posts, breaks and challenges across all groups. Each item labelled with its group for context. Invitations and My groups as collapsible side sections. A key icon on the groups the user manages.

OUTCOME /

Users see community activity at a glance and join in without drilling through layers.

PROBLEM /

The Invite participants modal was a long checkbox list. Your selections scrolled out of view, so you had to remember who you'd already added. People got it wrong.

DECISION /

Reuse the chip-based selection pattern from the video library filters. Selected people appear as chips above the list, removable in one tap, with inline search for long lists.

OUTCOME /

Selection state is visible instead of memorised. Adding and removing participants got faster and surer, and the product gained one more place where the same pattern means the same thing.