Friday.io
Overview
Friday.io was one of the briefs I chose during a 10k Designers cohort assignment, a two-week challenge to design a complete mobile experience from scratch.
I decided to explore a real-world problem many of us face. Although the website existed but i decided to deep dive into the problems that many of us face.
About Friday.io
Friday is an AI-powered email assistant that helps you focus on what actually matters — without the inbox anxiety.
It makes onboarding personal, trial flows smoother, and referrals feel more human.
This case study walks through how I designed Friday from scratch — with a mix of product thinking, UX clarity, and a little bit of emotional intent. Let’s dive in.
Role & Responsibilities
Product Designer
This was a solo sprint. I led the entire project end-to-end:
Defined the problem based on a mix of personal pain points and the cohort brief
Mapped out the onboarding, trial, and referral journey
Conducted rapid user research and competitor UX tear-downs
Sketched flows, built wireframes, and crafted a high-fidelity UI in Figma
Wrote microcopy to balance trust-building and clarity
Iterated based on feedback from design mentors and peers
What was the problem?
Every time I opened my inbox, I felt overwhelmed.
Important emails kept getting buried under spam, promotional blasts, and endless newsletters. I tried organizing things manually — creating folders, labeling threads — but it just didn’t stick.
At first, I thought I was the problem. Maybe I wasn’t using email the “right way.” So I spoke to a few people about their habits, and turns out — they felt the same.
Most of them described their inbox as “chaotic” and admitted to having 20,000+ unread emails.
The common thread? Important messages were getting lost, and no one had a reliable way to extract action items or stay on top of tasks.
How are we solving?
I wanted to design something that could cut through the chaos of email.
The idea was to build an AI-powered task manager that
Connect inbox to sync incoming emails.
AI scans emails for tasks and deadlines.
Users review and manage extracted tasks.
AI sends alerts for upcoming deadlines.
Basically, something that helps you stop living inside your inbox.
User Research
Tackling this issue required a broader understanding. I interviewed 7 people — 2 professionals, 2 businessmen, 2 freelancers, and 1 student.
Each one told me they hadn’t cleaned their inbox in ages. Most had more than one email ID — one personal, one for work — but even then, things were messy.
They had all tried maintaining their inbox at some point, but it quickly turned into a whole new task — too chaotic to keep up with.
Synthesising the most important points and observations (using empathy maps) revealed a few common themes.
Which led to some key insights:
6 out of 7 people said constant email overload due to which they miss the important stuff often
5 people said hours wasted sorting, replying, and following up manually especially for busy people like businessmen and professionals
4 people said there should be some automation to manage the inbox without wasting time on unwanted emails
2 people said there should be nudges or notifications timely for the reminders
Personas
We can see differing frustrations between those with professionals/businessman and Freelancers/students.
Personas are a useful way to keep these two groups with differing needs in mind going forward:
Ravi
“I don’t have time to clean my inbox — I just need to know what needs my attention.”
Ravi runs a small design agency with his co-founder. Between client briefs, internal feedback loops, and lead generation, his inbox is a mix of project updates, payment threads, and random newsletters.
He often misses key follow-ups or payment reminders buried under less important stuff. He tried folders, labels, and even hiring a VA once — but nothing really stuck.
GOALS
Quickly identify important emails without sorting through the noise
Automatically extract to-dos or follow-ups without manual effort
Keep client conversations, invoices, and updates in one easy view
FRUSTRATIONS
Feels like email is a second job — filtering, replying, following up
Misses invoices and deadline emails buried under clutter
Tried creating rules/folders, but it became too complex to maintain
Aanya
“I just need to find that one important email — not scroll through 200 college ads.”
Aanya is a final-year student juggling college work, internships, freelance gigs, and scholarship applications. She has two emails — personal and academic — but both are flooded with updates, ads, and course promotions.
She’s missed internship deadlines and client replies more than once, just because she didn’t see them in time. She’s tech-savvy but doesn’t want to spend time managing folder
GOALS
See important academic/employer emails without digging through noise
Never miss follow-ups for freelance payments or project tasks
Keep all critical action items in one place — like a to-do list pulled from mail
FRUSTRATIONS
Important emails get lost under irrelevant course ads and promotions
Can’t keep up with different threads across school, work, and freelance
Spends too much time searching her inbox for “that one mail”
Scope & Structure
I limited the initial scope to an iOS app.
Since this was a solo project, I wanted the designs to feel realistic — so I made decisions with development in mind: clean structure, simple components, and interactions that could actually be built.
While the user need was central, I also considered business goals — things like retention, trial experience, and referrals had to be part of the journey.
With a clear product goal in mind:
Friday will help users cut through inbox noise by surfacing action items and auto-managing low-value emails.
It should feel effortless — no setup, no tags — just clarity.
I planned to test effectiveness by validating the flow through both low- and high-fidelity prototypes.
Design Process
I followed the Double Diamond process — starting wide to explore the problem space, then narrowing in to define what really mattered.
After understanding inbox behaviors and user frustrations, I moved into ideation — sketching out flows, testing concepts, and refining interactions.
Each decision, from onboarding to referrals, went through the lens of:
“Is this reducing effort or adding more noise?”
Implementation
User Flow
Before jumping into screens, I mapped out the full user journey to make sure every interaction served a clear purpose.
From onboarding to permissions, surfacing action items, and even sending referrals — the goal was to make the flow feel intuitive and anxiety-free.
I used the AARRR framework to ground this in real product moments:
Acquisition → Quick value preview before sign-up
Activation → Smooth onboarding that sets up smart email access and expectations
Retention → Action-first inbox view and daily summaries to keep users coming back
Referral → A simple, human way to share Friday (with copy that doesn’t feel “growth-hacky”)
Revenue → A frictionless upgrade path after the 7-day free trial
Synthesizing everything I learned through empathy maps and user conversations helped me shape a journey that wasn’t just functional — it felt like relief.
Miro Link - User Flow
Wireframe
With a “no bad ideas” mindset, I started sketching rough concepts for Friday — just to get ideas out of my head and onto paper.
These early wireframes explored different ways to surface action items, manage inbox chaos, and make onboarding feel lighter.
Keeping it messy at this stage helped me explore things I might’ve overthought otherwise.
Shaping the Flow
After exploring rough ideas, I moved on to cleaner wireframes to define the core flow.
At this stage, I focused on structure, hierarchy, and clarity — especially around onboarding, extracting action items from emails, and making follow-ups feel effortless.
Each screen was designed to reduce friction and help users focus on what matters — even before the UI came in.
Kicking it up to high fidelity
Once the flow felt right, I started exploring the visual design.
I gathered references that felt calm, focused, and minimal — because Friday isn’t about shouting for attention, it’s about quiet clarity. The visual language had to reflect that: soft contrasts, subtle use of color, and a layout that helps users breathe, not rush.
Even the smallest UI choices were made with one question in mind — does this reduce anxiety or add to it?
Visual Exploration
I created space for loose exploration — trying things out without locking anything down too early.
I stuck to the same color palette as the website for consistency, but I experimented a lot with type pairings, component styles, and different layouts for key screens.
The process wasn’t linear. I’d try a few combinations, go back to my research, then adjust styles or head in a different direction entirely.
Throughout, I kept checking Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines to make sure the app would feel instantly familiar and easy to use.
A soft 4pt grid combined with columns structures screens in a way that’s flexible, yet logical to develop. Spacing is kept to defined intervals, and auto layout is used when needed for speed and flexibility.
Time to investigate
I set up a Figma prototype and sought another round of design critique. I presented my work in the feedback session in 10k sessions and i got some feedbacks from Abhinva and fellow designers.
Button placement: Move CTA buttons to the bottom for consistency and standard mobile UX.
Walkthrough screen: Replace video with an illustration — the small video size made the text unreadable.
Login carousel: Remove multiple buttons and stick to a single clear action (e.g., Login or Get Started).
Referral flow: "Copy link" felt unnecessary — removed the extra CTA.
Inbox connection: Added option to link another email account + improved next steps.
Email screen: Improve microcopy + add smart reply suggestions.
What they appreciated:
Using the home indicator below and positioning the status bar consistently across screens
Overall layout, color system, and the clean, assistant-style vibe felt intentional and on-brand
I made UI and flow adjustments, focusing on tightening clarity, improving onboarding, and reducing visual clutter in key moments.
Final Design: Friday, Brought to Life
With the strategy locked in, I translated everything into a clean, assistant-first interface — designed to reduce inbox stress, not add to it. Here’s how the final product came together across core flows:
Key Takeaways & Learnings
This project wasn’t just about designing a nice UI — it was about thinking like a product owner. From business models to user psychology, Friday helped me level up on multiple fronts.
I designed with business in mind. For the first time, I thought deeply about revenue — freemium vs trial models, upgrade nudges, and how product UX supports monetization.
Strategic > aesthetic. I spent more time on the “why” behind every flow — thinking about retention, trust, and feature discoverability instead of just visuals.
Massive jump from my last assignment. Compared to my previous project, I approached Friday with more structure, better UX decisions, and stronger storytelling.
Balancing AI power with control is tricky. Making Friday feel like a calm assistant (not an overwhelming one) was a constant design challenge.
Time pressure made me sharper. I had just 2 weeks — which forced me to focus, cut fluff, and move with clarity.
Iteration changed everything. The feedback I received helped me zoom in on the details that really mattered — from microcopy to button placement.
Overall, I grew not just as a designer — but as someone who can think in product loops, ship fast, and solve real user + business problems.