ASK AI FEATURES and UX IMPROVEMENTS

Project Overview
At Ask AI, I led a strategic UX overhaul of our product navigation and designed a new AI-powered Writing Tool aimed at Gen Z students. These initiatives were part of a broader effort to increase usability, drive engagement, and scale our feature set for future growth. Working closely with product and engineering, I defined user flows, shipped high-fidelity designs, and supported implementation through launch.

Role: Principal Product Designer

 

PROJECTS

Scaling Navigation and Enhancing Voice Search:

As iAsk grew its feature set, the existing navigation struggled to support new additions, leading to a cluttered and inconsistent user experience. I led a design initiative to consolidate and restructure the navigation for scalability, ensuring users could easily discover and access key tools as the product evolved. In parallel, we redesigned the main search bar to highlight voice input as a primary interaction method. This not only aligned with user preferences but also resulted in a measurable increase in engagement with the core search experience.

New Writing Tool:

Design and deliver a built-in writing assistant to help Gen Z students craft essays, reports, and messages more effectively—bridging AI with their everyday academic and personal communication tasks. The interface featured split-screen version control, allowing users to easily compare edits and revert to earlier drafts without losing momentum. This approach balanced creative flow with clarity and control, supporting more confident, iterative writing.

New Tutoring Tool:

I designed a tutoring tool that adapted dynamically to each student's responses, using contextual pivots to assess understanding and guide learning based on individual aptitude. To inform the experience, I conducted deep competitive analysis of platforms like Perplexity, Claude, and Khan Academy, identifying gaps in adaptability, feedback quality, and engagement. These insights shaped a more responsive and personalized tutoring experience that balanced effective assessment with real-time support.

 

Outcomes

  1. The redesigned navigation increased user discoverability of Pro features, supporting clearer upgrade pathways.

  2. The Writing Tool became a key feature in Pro subscriptions, driving a measurable uptick in account upgrades within the first month of launch.

  3. Collectively, these updates contributed to a sustained increase in signups and user retention, validating the design and product direction.