Expresso @ UC Davis
Expresso is a coffee chatting platform built to connect upperclassmen mentors and underclassmen tech students. Expresso serves 35,000+ UC Davis students.
cONTEXT // CONTRIBUTION
From September to November 2025, I worked in a cross functional product team to ideate and build a feature that would help users better connect with the platform’s mentors.
CONTEXT
After conducting interviews with 10+ users, our product team realized that Expresso’s landing interface caused too much friction with new users.
The solution
A home base, offering content exploration and a more impressionable landing interface.
DESIGN DECISIONS
The challenge to this feature was ideating a means to keep users on Expresso after logging onto the site, and designing an interface that would convey the value of Expresso mentorship.
Initial iterations were designed around content exploration
Initial iterations were designed to emulate quick and easy scrolling platforms that were designed with the hope of getting users addicted to the platform.
Why content exploration
Our product team’s research focused on who the few coffee chatters at Davis were, and what their motivations were for booking.
Content exploration would be able to introduce mentors to users before booking, and hopefully motivate them to book with mentors who they could relate to.
Designing to serve users, not problems
60% of users expressed that they preferred to see content in written format and 20% of users wished to see stronger call to actions on the home page.
User research provided a better understanding of what students wanted, and how content exploration could’ve been better designed to serve users, not necessarily to achieve user acquisition.
FINAL DESIGN
Expresso's home base
In the hope that content exploration could reduce the threshold of intimidation with booking, the homepage’s final iteration offered users more to do than just coffee chat.
Dual content exploration
New content model serves users who prefer written content, and users who prefer consumable short video content.
Optimizing user flow
Articles open into a half view, where users then have the option to open a full view, allowing for the quick consumption and navigation through our article selection.
A hero CTA
A hero call to action to remind users to book chats, implementing a suggestion algorithm personalized to the preferences they stated throughout onboarding.
Ready for handoff
Design system and mobile view built and ready to be shipped, developers are currently in the process of building the feature while our product team works to push Expresso’s current launch to market.
REFLECTION // TAKEAWAYS
Designing for user autonomy
Designs should be made to give users a sense of freedom, and invoke a sense of curiosity. I learned to create deeply considerate designs for users, not for product goals.
Designing to advocate for connection
Expresso challenges me to be highly empathetic and aware as a designer---people don’t recognize the value of connection. A big part of my role is visually and functionally advocating for the importance of connection and mentorship.
