UX/UI Design

Graphic Design

About

Freebites

Freebites

Internship

Internship

UX Design

Marketing

Graphic Design

Graphic Design

UX Design

Marketing

Design work for an award-winning student app that helps college students find free food on their campuses.

Overview

Overview

Freebites is an award winning app that helps university students find free food on their campuses before it’s thrown away. I’m currently a designer for this amazing student-run app and worked on updating the design system and the Freebites Garden. I collaborated with other designers and developers to improve the visual identity of the app.

Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer, Web Designer, Marketing Analyst

Collaborator: Leah Stewart

Timeline: June 2025-August 2025

Tools: Figma, Hotjar, Drupal, Hubspot, Google Sheets


My Role

UX Researcher

UX Designer

UI Designer

Illustrator


Team

Freebites Design &

Developer Teams


Timeline

October 2025 - Present

Tools

Figma

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe After Effects


The Challenge

The project introduced a unique challenge of creating an intuitive, gamified “achievements” system that encouraged user engagement with the app. The achievements pages and badges themselves would need to uphold our current visual branding and menu styles while also elevating the current design system. 

The Challenge

The project introduced a unique challenge of creating an intuitive, gamified “achievements” system that encouraged user engagement with the app. The achievements pages and badges themselves would need to uphold our current visual branding and menu styles while also elevating the current design system. 

The Challenge

The project introduced a unique challenge of creating an intuitive, gamified “achievements” system that encouraged user engagement with the app. The achievements pages and badges themselves would need to uphold our current visual branding and menu styles while also elevating the current design system. 

Problem Discovery

Upon completing a competitive analysis between Interlochen and other institutions in the market, I found the following issues:

Demo

Embracing the playful and organic theme in the app, I developed the Freebites Garden where “Bite Buddies” grow out of the ground based on how many times a user interacts with each achievement’s challenge through liking, commenting and posting a certain amount of times.

Demo

Demo

Design Phases

Sketches for Screens and Badges

After developing the new user flow, I went onto creating a design system with assets that are eye-catching and align more with Interlochen's creative, educational brand identity.

Design Phases

Sketches for Screens and Badges

Sketches for Screens and Badges

After developing the new user flow, I went onto creating a design system with assets that are eye-catching and align more with Interlochen's creative, educational brand identity.

After developing the new user flow, I went onto creating a design system with assets that are eye-catching and align more with Interlochen's creative, educational brand identity.

Designing Bite Buddies

Designing Bite Buddies

For the Freebites Badges, I needed them to not only be adorable enough for users to want them, but also to elevate Freebites’ current branding style. I completed four badges called Bite Buddies for the final launch – Freebie, Yapper, Influencer, and Bestie, all of which have their own personalities and infectious Gen-Z humored  mottos. Utilizing clean, round shape building and adding some depth in value, I pushed the branding style to stay true to Freebites’ playful palettes while making the design system more intentional as well. 

UX Screen Designs

I then moved onto designing the screens. To attract users to engage with the garden, we needed to include a level of transparency and promotional pop-ups to our users. We implemented a garden preview into the profile page including the Garden Buddies in their respective stages of growth. Within the garden page, users can see the question tags and their progress next to the Buddies themselves. Upon achieving the bite buddy, the new bite buddy is revealed on the Bite Buddies board. make a mock-up of the screen.

User Flow

I then moved onto designing the screens. To attract users to engage with the garden, we needed to include a level of transparency and promotional pop-ups to our users. We implemented a garden preview into the profile page including the Garden Buddies in their respective stages of growth. Within the garden page, users can see the question tags and their progress next to the Buddies themselves. Upon achieving the bite buddy, the new bite buddy is revealed on the Bite Buddies board. make a mock-up of the screen.

Earning a Bite Buddy 🏅

My fellow designers and I discussed how we could introduce the new Garden to app users. I created a pop-up with a slide that first promotes the feature and their first Bite Buddy, Freebie, and then instructs users how to engage with it. For the first slide, I challenged myself to create a motion graphic of Freebie popping out of the dirt to really surprise users. 

My fellow designers and I discussed how we could introduce the new Garden to app users.

I created a pop-up with a slide that first promotes the feature and their first Bite Buddy, Freebie, and then instructs users how to engage with it. For the first slide, I challenged myself to create a motion graphic of Freebie popping out of the dirt to really surprise users. 

The Pop-Up 🍿

My fellow designers and I discussed how we could introduce the new Garden to app users. I created a pop-up with a slide that first promotes the feature and their first Bite Buddy, Freebie, and then instructs users how to engage with it. For the first slide, I challenged myself to create a motion graphic of Freebie popping out of the dirt to really surprise users. 

Badge Design

For the Freebites Badges, I needed them to not only be adorable enough for users to want them, but also to elevate Freebites’ current branding style. I completed four badges called Bite Buddies for the final launch – Freebie, Yapper, Influencer, and Bestie, all of which have their own personalities and infectious Gen-Z humored  mottos. Utilizing clean, round shape building and adding some depth in value, I pushed the branding style to stay true to Freebites’ playful palettes while making the design system more intentional as well. 

What's Next?

What's Next?

What I Learned and Feature Reception

What I Learned and Feature Reception

This project has been such an amazing experience where I synthesized my graphic design and UX skills for a live app. I learned a lot about gamified features, generating motion graphics as well and advocating for my designs. The Freebites team absolutely loves the Bite Buddies and can't wait for our users to start earning them via engagement!

Developing the Garden Feature!

I've been collaborating with the team Developers while they work hard to bring the Garden feature, Bite Buddies, and some cool growth animations to life for the live launch.

Updating Freebites' Design System

Updating Freebites' Design System

The Freebites Founder and Design Lead really enjoyed my Bite Buddies graphics and I'll be tasked with updating the design systems for my next projects. It's been rewarding to utilize Freebites' current branding colors and elevating it with the Garden pages. I look forward to update it.

Other Projects

Equiballot

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Other Projects

Equiballot

Future Histories

Resume available upon request (´｡• ◡ •｡`)

Resume available upon request (´｡• ◡ •｡`)

Resume available upon request (´｡• ◡ •｡`)

UX/UI Design

Graphic Design

About

UX/UI Design

Graphic Design

About

Other Projects

Future Histories

Equiballot