Skale

Skale is a community platform for people and influencers interested in food, health, wellness, cooking, and food production. Preliminary design research revealed a desire for a central place to discuss contemporary food topics, including honesty in ingredients, marketing, and food packaging.

A beta underwent three months of testing and the app launched publicly in March 2017. In the first four months, Skale acquired over 400 registered users through organic social media outreach. I led Skale’s design efforts that included conceptual phases, prototyping and user research, production, beta testing, launch, and iteration. This involved hands-on involvement in all aspects of the startup, from onboarding and managing developers, collaborators, and partners to product management, roadmapping, and strategy.

Roles: Co-founder, design research, conceptual development, planning and prototyping, user interface design, web design, development team oversight, business modeling and strategy.

Collaborator: Cabot Earle (Co-Founder and CEO)

Accolades: Finalist for the 2017 Pittsburgh Create Festival, Best of the Creative Industries Interactive Category


Skale includes users a virtual pantry, brought to life on its sign-in and splash screens.


Members are on-boarded through a set of simple orientation screens that prompt them to join communities and scan products.


Engaged participants earn badges and carrots for scanning new products, leading discussions, and inviting new members.







Aside from being a platform for discussing the foods that members already know and love, Skale is a place to discover new products.

A destination for food product reviews, the Skale review system revolves around Tastes. Taste scores are aggregated into a positivity score, bringing more nuance to consumer preferences.







Members are oriented toward lifestyle communities and interest groups, all of which share food discussion as a common denominator.

Shelves let users quickly see and share what they have, need, and love.

21,500 new food and beverage products come to market every year. Skale helps members discover what’s best, learn from the crowd, and get past product marketing.

USDA Economic Research Service, 2016 data

Exploring Design Languages

Explorations in animations and microinteractions.

Beta release with stacked index cards and image-rich experience.

Streamlined design with cleaner top-bar, standardized UX patterns, and flatter architecture.

Analytics Dashboard and CMS

Prototype of a content management system for food producers to upload product information, communicate with members, and monitor trends.

Dashboards were prototyped with D3.js visualizations providing interactive insights across products and brands. These dashboards were developed through months of co-design activities with small and large food producers.

Research

Early engagement model to shape the strategic plan and development roadmap.

Personas focused efforts on community members (users), and food producers from conglomerates to start-ups.