Flashlight PLUS
⭐️ 4.7 App Store Rating | 5 Million+ Users | Android
Company: Digitalchemy LLC
Team: PLUS Design Team
My Role: UI / UX Designer
Case Study: Turn On The Lights
Bringing personality to utility with Flashlight PLUS—the world’s first flashlight app featuring a 3D animated flashlight in the camera view.
Overview
Yeah, I know—another flashlight app. But hear me out.
One of the most fun early projects of my career was designing Flashlight PLUS, a sleek, animated flashlight app built in a sea of tired, bare-bones utility clones. Why make one? Because back then, I worked for Digitalchemy LLC, a bold little startup with big creative energy—and a founder who saw an opportunity.
Knowing I had a background in 3D animation, the founder challenged me: What if we made a flashlight app, but stylish? Delightful? Maybe even... fun?
So I did it. I concepted, designed, and animated the entire experience—end to end. From UX flows to custom lighting effects, this was one of my first full product journeys. And it lit the way into more exciting projects.
This is the story of Flashlight PLUS.
Problem Solving
Thrown into the deep end—learning fast, designing faster.
This project kicked off as a mountain of unknowns—complex problems stacked high for a junior UX designer in a fast-paced startup. Every question came with new software, new tools, and no handbook:
- How do I animate a flashlight?
- What the hell is Keyshot?
- Oh no… Maya’s back.
- How do I prep animated 3D assets for devs?
- What kind of flashlight even makes sense?
- And how do we stand out from 300+ other apps already out there?
No small task—but like crafting the perfect pizza, I took time to prep, plan, and break each problem down one ingredient at a time.
Lighting The Way To Great UX
My core role: Designing, animating, and learning at lightning speed.
As a junior UX designer, I owned the end-to-end design of Flashlight PLUS—a sleek app born in a sea of forgettable flashlight clones. It was one of my first real product design challenges, and I went all in—learning fast, working late, and constantly pushing for polish. Under the sharp eye of our Art Director Julia (who taught me the gospel of pixel-perfection), I focused on:
- Research, ideation, and early concept development
- Rapid prototyping and user testing
- 3D modeling and animation (in Maya, Keyshot, and Illustrator)
- Developing a new animation-to-dev workflow
- Designing the full UX for Flashlight PLUS
- Multiple design iterations and high-fidelity polish
- Creating localized app store assets for 40+ languages
I showed up early, stayed late, and lived in Maya tutorials. The goal? Ship something that stood out. And we did.
The Work
Fueled by coffee, chaos, and “I’ll figure it out.”
From first sketch to final release, this is the full scope of my design work on Flashlight PLUS.
So Anyway—I Sketched a Flashlight
Early concepts & design discovery
After downloading and studying way too many flashlight apps, the idea of a 3D flashlight on-screen started to feel both familiar and totally fresh. I explored wireframes focused on layout, positioning, and scale—then jumped into some fast 3D modeling. Using my old Android phone and photos of the office, I mocked up early renders to test how it might feel in real life.
A Simple UX Flow
Minimal controls. Maximum clarity.
The goal was a clean, focused experience: just three zoom levels as the main UI settings, plus the ability to save any image directly to your phone’s gallery.
Once the UX flow and screen layout were mapped out, I shifted focus to the 3D visuals—polishing the interaction and elevating the overall feel.
Finding the Right Look
Flashlight PLUS was part of Digitalchemy’s “PLUS” app family—known for its skeuomorphic style and brushed metal aesthetic.
I kicked things off with rapid 3D concept renders, testing materials, lighting, and angles. Through user testing and iteration, I refined the visuals until we landed on a look that felt just right.
⬆️ Above - Example of the many rapid mock ups for user testing.
The first pass
This one as a HUGE failure. No test user liked the dark color. It tested POORLY.
The saucy second test
This one was liked more better the black version. But not by much.
The 3rd Strike
Another user test failure- but some good info. Test Users DID like the metal look.
4th times a charm
The lighter brushed was liked far more than the prior tests. But too “Busy”.
Almost there!
Test users rated this one the highest. But was also seen as “too shiny”.
Done!
Small edit to the materials and lighting and it was ready for Devs.
The Final UI
With a little polish here and there, the final UI for Flashlight PLUS was ready to go!
Animation Render Test
After modeling the flashlight in Maya, I moved everything into Keyshot for realistic lighting and simple keyframe animations.
From there, I rendered out image sequences frame-by-frame and prepared them for dev integration.
Multiple animation variations were delivered to the dev team for reference. Here’s one example:
The PLUS Menu
A Side Quest Worth Shining
As part of the Flashlight PLUS project, I was also tasked with designing the new universal PLUS menu—used across all of Digitalchemy’s “PLUS” branded apps.
I quickly prototyped a clean, functional side menu layout that could scale across different apps. I also designed custom icons to match the brand’s sleek, original aesthetic and ensured it was dev-ready from day one.
Hear Me Out — Candle Time
Designing themes for future updates
After the app’s release, a question flickered in the dark:
If a 3D flashlight made users smile… what about themes?
I quickly mocked up a concept for a future update—an elegant candle resting on a polished metal tray.
Old-timey? Maybe.
Delightful? Absolutely.
Launcher Icon
Every little detail
Below are the concepts created to find the perfect launcher icon. Icons were tested to find the best impact.
Amazing Results
Global Success
5+ million global users.
4.7 stars on Google Play.
Over 110,000 glowing reviews across multiple languages.
People loved the tactile experience and satisfying animations.
A skeuomorphic 3D UI… for a flashlight app.
Wild, huh?
Disclaimer:
The work shown here was created during my time at Digitalchemy LLC and is presented solely for personal portfolio use. All visuals reflect my role and contributions, and are shared respectfully to highlight process and craft—not for public or commercial use.
Reflections
Lighting the Path as a Young Designer
Flashlight PLUS was one of my earliest full end-to-end design projects—and honestly, it lit a fire in me. I was just a new UX designer at a small but mighty startup, learning fast, modeling 3D assets by night, and iterating flows by day.
From figuring out Keyshot rendering pipelines to exporting animation sequences—every moment was hands-on, chaotic, and full of growth. I had amazing mentorship, and I poured everything I had into making a flashlight app that felt genuinely delightful.
Sure, it was “just” a flashlight app. But 5 Million happy users later, it was one of the really fun projects in my journey in the world of UX.
And to me? It was proof I could take on any challenge—one screen at a time.
Here’s what teammates had to say…
"...Always tries to self-educate and improve his skills..."
Ihar — Developer, Digitalchemy LLC
October 7, 2019