About Public App
Public is India’s largest hyperlocal social platform with over 100M+ active users. Its core proposition has always been hyperlocal content, but the earlier product experience was anchored in news and updates, with limited appeal and outdated design.
I led the major redesign and design strategy that supported Public’s repositioning into a modern, creator-first social platform. My work focused on modernizing the app’s visual identity, enabling creators with growth tools, and reducing operational bottlenecks — while keeping hyperlocal relevance at the heart of the experience.
Problem Statement
Perception problem: Users saw Public as a news aggregator, not a social platform.
Wider audience appeal: The design felt outdated and failed to attract a broader, younger demographic.
Creator challenges: Creators lacked analytics, incentives, and growth tools.
Operational bottleneck: Ads were created manually by ops teams, making scaling difficult.
Goal
Modernize Public’s experience and reposition it as a hyperlocal social platform with stronger creator focus and scalable tools.
My Role
Directed design strategy for the app’s modernization and repositioning.
Led the app redesign to make the experience more engaging and social-first.
Designed creator-first features (analytics, incentives, self-serve ads).
Collaborated with PMs, ops, growth, and marketing teams to ensure business and user goals aligned.
While final product decisions were business-driven, I influenced the design direction and delivery, ensuring hyperlocal remained the core anchor.
Key Initiatives
Full App Redesign
Revamped branding and visual language to be more minimal and youthful, updating colors, typography, and iconography.
Introduced vertical video format and text-only posts, aligning with emerging social media trends.
Overhauled navigation to highlight both hyperlocal feeds and creator-driven content, balancing the DNA with new positioning.
Creator Analytics & Incentives
Designed analytics dashboards surfacing views, reach, engagement, top-performing and worst-performing posts.
Helped creators make data-driven decisions to grow their audience.
Introduced credit-based rewards and growth incentives to motivate consistent posting, shifting perception to a creator-first platform.
Self-Serve Ads
Built a self-serve ad platform inside the app, replacing manual ops-heavy workflows.
Enabled creators to select ad formats, budgets, and geo-targeting.
Designed performance tracking dashboards so creators could monitor reach and effectiveness.
Reduced operational overhead while enabling scalable monetization.
Hyperlocal Anchoring
Reinforced location-based feeds as the foundation of Public’s identity.
Introduced trending modules tailored to hyperlocal communities.
Added utility features (panchang, rashifal, loan calculator, mandi prices, local election updates) that tied users to the app through daily, locally relevant touchpoints.
Made Public not just a content platform, but a daily-use hyperlocal companion.
Additional Experiments
Gamification experiments such as reading streaks, badges, and daily rituals were tested to encourage habit formation.
These were supported with micro-interactions like smooth swipe transitions, animated save/share, and subtle progress indicators that rewarded users in tiny moments. Together they helped drive delight and reinforce return behavior.
Ran numerous other prototypes and experiments around discovery, notifications, and content exploration.
Many were sunset after testing, but each contributed critical insights into user behavior and preferences.
Process & Collaboration
Research synthesis:
Partnered with the ops team to leverage user studies in Tier 2/3 cities, extracting actionable insights on user behavior and perception gaps.
Design validation:
Facilitated usability testing and UAT sessions to validate new design directions, ensuring solutions worked across diverse user groups.
Cross-functional alignment:
Closely collaborated with ops (ads workflows), growth (creator strategy), and marketing (localization and copy) to balance business goals with user needs.
Design operations:
Championed scalable design practices, streamlined dev handoffs, and mentored designers, ensuring delivery quality and consistency across teams.
Impact
Expanded audience appeal:
The modernization and redesign contributed to a noticeable increase in new user sign-ups and app ratings.
Creator growth:
Rollout of analytics dashboards and incentives led to higher creator retention and a measurable lift in posting frequency.
Operational efficiency:
Self-serve ad tools reduced ops workload by an estimated 30–40%, freeing resources and enabling creators to independently manage campaigns.
Increased engagement:
Introduction of vertical video and hyperlocal utilities drove a rise in session depth, with users spending more time exploring both content and local features.
Product repositioning:
Public successfully shifted from a hyperlocal news/update app into a social-first platform, strengthening its position in Tier 2/3 markets.
Reflection and Learning
Learned how to modernize a product’s identity without losing its DNA (hyperlocal).
Understood the importance of ecosystem design — solving simultaneously for creators, users, and internal ops.
Transitioned from pure design execution to influencing product strategy and cross-functional alignment.
Gained experience in designing monetization and incentive systems for creators.
Reinforced belief that design leadership is about balancing vision, execution, and collaboration.
