Fae Ai 

Case Study – Designing an AI-powered storytelling companion for fantasy roleplay and real-life motivation | iOS Concept

Company:  Stealth Ai Startup
Duration:  September 2023 – January 2024
Team:  Core Product Team
My Role:  Senior UX Designer - Lead

Perfecting The Journey 

Our story begins — as all great ones do — in that distant, shimmering land known as 2023.

As part of a stealth project in the AI and storytelling space, I led a redesign transforming a flat tool into an immersive, emotionally intelligent AI companion app.

I was brought on as a freelance Senior UX Designer by a passionate dev team halfway across the globe. Their early concept aimed to blend AI with storytelling, offering users a magical companion to co-create quests and manage real-life journeys. But while the heart was there, their prototype lacked clear structure, user empathy, and accessible design. The experience was clunky, complex, and failed to delight.

I stepped in to bring clarity to the chaos—translating their high-concept vision into something enchanting and usable. What started as an AI storytelling tool for tabletop creators was reimagined into a dual-purpose fantasy companion app: one that helps users craft epic tales and also navigate the everyday grind with whimsical support.

This project was equal parts UX challenge and creative playground. From flow architecture to playful microcopy, I crafted a user-centered experience that balanced narrative joy with daily utility. The result? A concept product that blends AI interaction with visual storytelling—and brings a bit of magic to your pocket.

Layers of Design 

In just five months, I transformed the early concept—originally designed by developers, for developers—into a polished MVP with global potential.

By 2024, the ambitious startup was moving into early development with a clearer vision and stronger UX foundation.

Before my involvement, the original product struggled to find traction in the competitive startup ecosystem. Usability was lacking, core features were muddled by scope creep, and the user experience was anything but intuitive. The MVP was overburdened with a wishlist of complex features that fought for attention, leaving users overwhelmed and confused.

Through a full end-to-end review, I mapped and tested the existing flows, identifying reliability gaps, usability blockers, and edge-case errors that needed refinement. To organize the findings, I moved into Miro—sorting through mismatched features, incomplete UX paths, and developer-driven decisions to create a clearer, more user-centered structure.

To breathe new life (and fantasy flair) into the project, I gave it a cheeky codename: Fae AI. This wasn’t just an assistant—it was a companion. A gentle, magical guide. The redesign effort itself? I named it: Project Phantasma.

⬆️ Above – From Past to Future.
I studied the original developer-led prototype, zeroing in on problematic flows and unclear features. To better audit the experience without bias, I recreated key screens as grayscale wireframes—capturing the raw structure while stripping away visual noise.

⬆️  Above - This is one of the remapped user flows I created based on their existing prototype. This simplified version allowed me to annotate key moments and provide high-level feedback on the overall end-to-end experience.

A Challenging Glow

Building The Magic

My task in the product redesign was clear: help this young startup refine its MVP, cutting away the excess and focusing on a polished, streamlined vision. The new goal was simple—ditch the broken, over-complicated features and focus on making the core functionality seamless and intuitive.

With the updated vision in place, my role was to establish a solid foundation. I worked to define the experience and set goals that would guide us toward a more cohesive and magical product.

My Role

A Magical Foundation

I spearheaded the redesign and UX overhaul from September 2023 to January 2024, driving the vision from chaos to clarity.

When the project hit its final phase, I wrapped up my time due to scope and budget limits, but not without leaving my mark. My focus was laser-sharp: refining the experience, eliminating usability nightmares, and putting everything back on track.

I took the reins on the redesign of key areas like onboarding, the home screen, and the AI companion interactions—basically, giving the whole product a fresh coat of magic. To help make the product ready for updates, I developed a clean, cohesive design system that could evolve with the product.  The company pivoted into a new direction after my time there.

⬆️ Above – The value of the product is shown immediately after app launch. A gentle, magical invitation into a world where your dreams, emotions, and adventures matter — guided by an AI that grows with you. The focus: emotional benefits first, not just features.

Defining Product

Sacred Scroll of Product Goals

Before diving into pixel-perfect flows and polished UI, I had to define what "success" actually meant. The MVP experience needed clarity, purpose, and most importantly, some serious magic.

I kicked off by establishing focused goals for the product, making sure we only tackled what was realistic within our fast-paced sprint cycles and ever-evolving product vision.

My first task was exploring what would make the user value proposition resonate emotionally. I also set out to craft an onboarding flow that felt like an enchanting experience—not a boring intro. From there, I mapped out the initial information architecture and started sketching out user flows that would make sense in the real world.

To keep everything grounded, I worked closely with the founder and lead developer, diving into the backend and AI model capabilities. This collaboration helped me design around technical limitations, ensuring we hit the sweet spot between ambition and achievability.

Early Insights

After Reviews & Testing

Once I dug into the tangled UX flows, it became painfully clear why things weren’t sticking. The product had fundamental usability issues that were preventing it from gaining traction—and leaving users questioning its value. Early user journeys felt like a maze, messaging was vague, and onboarding was a puzzle rather than a smooth welcome.

Users spent more time scratching their heads than actually using the product. They couldn’t get to the magic fast enough, and that’s where the product was failing. These friction points pointed to a golden opportunity: streamline core flows, clarify messaging, and inject some much-needed excitement into the first impression.

System Flow Mapping

Designing Beyond the Surface

This isn’t just lines and boxes—it’s precision choreography. From user intent to backend magic, I mapped the full interaction pipeline to improve clarity, boost performance, and create seamless experiences.

Each touchpoint—from daily logs to AI prompts to backend logic—was intentionally crafted to support scalable, high-functioning UX.

Because good UX isn’t just about pretty screens—it’s about designing what happens under the hood too.

⬆️  Above - Information Architecture created to define the vision.

⬇️ Below - To fully understand platform limitations and design constraints, I created this systems map to outline the backend architecture and interaction flows powering the AI’s core features and user experience.
Confidential data has been intentionally omitted here.

The Work

Rebuilding the Experience from the Ground Up

After identifying and synthesizing friction points through extensive user testing and research, I mapped out a new, clear information architecture to serve as the foundation for improved UX flows. Using post-it storms in Miro, I uncovered gaps in the experience and reframed them into actionable insights.

From there, I led the full redesign process—starting with low-fidelity sketches and concept explorations, then progressing to structured wireframes and final high-fidelity screens. Every stage was driven by feedback, thoughtful iteration, and a focus on user clarity and delight.

⬆️  Above - From abstract to intentional. These grayscale screens mark the transition from concept to clarity—refining structure, layout consistency, and user logic across the app experience.  Clean focused wire frames helped ground the app’s architecture in smooth thinking—focusing on user flow and content placement rather than pixel perfection early on.

⬆️  Above - Bringing the magic to life. The final UI reflects a playful but elegant visual system—balancing modern UX standards with a fresh, whimsical personality.

⬆️  Above -  A guided journey with clarity. Every interaction mapped with purpose—connecting user intent with seamless outcomes through detailed UX flow logic. 

Welcome Home - Your galaxy of curiosity, calm, and connection.

This screen’s evolution—from rough ink sketch to structured wireframe to final polished UI—captures the spirit of the redesign: creative, iterative, and unapologetically user-first.

The home screen is designed to feel calm, intuitive, and imaginative — a personalized space where peace and curiosity meet. Greeting messages shift dynamically based on the user’s activity and relationship with the AI, creating a sense of familiarity and presence.

Interactive cards surface content the user loves most while gently nudging them toward features they’ve yet to explore. These cards evolve with every session, acting as a quiet guide through the app’s experience. The background features a subtle, animated cosmic sky — stars twinkling and drifting softly — to reinforce the app’s meditative, magical mood.

A minimal burger menu gives access to deeper layers of features and settings, intentionally placed to keep the core experience uncluttered and focused.

The Gate of Creation -Where imagination begins.

Here, users can summon everything they need for their fantasy adventures — from enchanted items to magical character scrolls. Whether choosing from curated presets or crafting custom prompts, the experience adapts to each user’s journey and preferences.

Selections evolve based on the user’s activity across the app, unlocking scrolls and artifacts that reflect their story progression and feature engagement.

The system runs on a unique emotional currency:
Memory Fragments, earned by participating in fantasy quests or by building trust through honest, meaningful conversations with the Fae AI companion.

This deepens emotional connection, turning everyday interactions into moments of joy, reflection, and personal growth.

Users can also spend Core Fragments — rare, powerful resources — to upgrade their items or enhance the Fae AI’s abilities, unlocking new layers of depth, support, and magic.

Evolving Results

Design Work That Outlived the Product

Like many early-stage ventures, the product’s direction shifted—more than once. While the original concept never fully launched, the UX and design work laid a strong foundation and influenced the product’s evolution in meaningful ways.

In fast-moving teams, success isn't always defined by what ships—sometimes it's about revealing what's truly worth building. Through deep research, restructured flows, and a system-wide rethink, my work helped bring clarity to the team’s ambitions and exposed challenges before they became costly mistakes.

Although the final product pivoted (and ultimately paused), this project remains a case study in thoughtful design strategy, user-centered thinking, and the kind of foundational work that stands, even when the vision changes.

Disclaimer:
Fae AI and Stealth Company logos and app visuals are the property of their respective owners. This case study highlights my personal design contributions during the early phases of this startup project, which was ultimately never released. All trademarks and product images are used solely for informational and portfolio purposes.

What I Learned from the Experience:

Building in the Eye of the Startup Storm

Working on this project provided me with invaluable lessons about adaptability, resilience, and the fast-paced nature of startups. Despite facing tight budgets and fluctuating expectations, I was able to stay focused on the goal: creating an innovative, user-centered experience.

Collaborating with a diverse, international team across different time zones forced me to think outside the box, balancing rapid iterations with long-term vision. This project taught me how to navigate challenges with grace—whether that meant adjusting to last-minute pivots or adapting my design process to fit evolving needs.

At the heart of it all, I learned the importance of embracing uncertainty. In a startup environment, things are constantly changing, and it’s essential to remain agile while still pushing forward to create impactful, meaningful user experiences.