✨ Impact Statement

We reimagined how people connect on birthdays, turning forgetful moments into thoughtful gestures with automation, generative design, and joyful UX. Shine Birthdays grew from a simple reminder tool into a celebration platform powered by AI, helping users send personalized messages and one-of-a-kind cards in seconds.

The product has maintained a 4.8+ App Store rating and continues to expand its emotional reach through features like AI-generated visuals, scheduled greetings, and integrated gifting—making it the go-to app for showing up on someone’s special day.

👩‍🎨 My Role

As the Founding and Lead Designer, I defined the product vision and led end-to-end design from inception to scale across mobile UX, interaction design, and generative AI integration. I worked closely with Sunshine’s cross-functional team, including front-end, backend, and server-side engineers, and partnered directly with co-founders Marissa Mayer and Enrique Muñoz Torres to align user needs with business priorities and technical feasibility.

My responsibilities included:

• Driving the core interaction models and product flows from 0 to 2

• Leading design across all surfaces including onboarding, reminders, card creation, and gifting

• Evolving the experience to include LLM-guided personalization and AI-generated image cards

• Establishing a modular visual system and motion language that reinforced celebration and delight

• Collaborating with engineering on implementation details and long-term scalability

🔍 The Challenge

How might we help people celebrate birthdays meaningfully without relying on memory, social media, or generic messages?

In early research, users expressed frustration with:

• Forgetting birthdays despite best intentions

• Sending last-minute texts that felt impersonal

• Not knowing what to say or struggling to make it feel special

We saw an opportunity to design a lightweight, intelligent assistant that surfaced timely reminders and helped people celebrate with more heart.

🧠 Insights & Research

I conducted early user interviews and surveys, revealing key needs:

• Timeliness: "I always forget until it's too late."

• Ease: "I don’t want to open a whole app just to say happy birthday."

• Emotion: "A message means more when it feels personal."

We also ran a competitive audit of adjacent tools across contacts, reminders, and greeting cards. Key takeaways:

Product	Strengths	Weaknesses	Opportunities
Facebook	Built-in notifications	Feels impersonal, lacks delivery control	Layer in warmth, privacy, and modern UX
Apple iOS Contacts & Calendar	Native and reliable	Hidden UX, no celebration flow	Surface birthdays more intentionally with suggested actions
Hip	Clean UI, customizable alerts	No card or gifting	Extend into lightweight celebration flows
Hallmark / 123Greetings	Wide variety of cards	Outdated UX, high friction	Streamline design and integrate automation
Group Texts / Google Calendar	Familiar platforms	Manual effort, zero delight	Blend automation with personalization

👤 Personas

Salmah – The Connector	Jordan – The Thoughtful Forgetter	Ava – The Expressive Optimizer (2025 Update)
Age: 32 Occupation: Project Manager Needs: Quick, personal ways to stay in touch with her wide network Pain Points: Forgets birthdays, hates sending dry texts Goal: Send something thoughtful that still feels like her “I want to send something meaningful that reflects me, even if I’m short on time.”	Age: 41 Occupation: Busy Parent & Engineer Needs: Help remembering important dates and easy follow-through Pain Points: Calendar clutter, forgets even close friends’ birthdays Goal: Never miss a birthday again without managing another app “I don’t want to drop the ball—but I can’t add another tool to juggle.”	Age: 28 Occupation: Digital Marketer Needs: Custom, creative ways to show up for friends with minimal effort Pain Points: Generic birthday cards, decision fatigue, limited time Goal: Use AI to co-create fun, unique messages that feel personal and on-brand “I love that Shine Birthdays gives me ideas and designs that feel so me, without having to think too hard.”

🔄 Evolution Timeline

• 2020– early 2024

  Built and matured the core experience: curated stock image cards, intuitive reminder flows, basic gifting, refined visuals, modular UI, and a redesigned home screen with support for scheduled sends.

• 2024 - 2025

  Introduced LLM-powered personalization: smart message prompts, AI-generated card designs, and enhanced emotional tone—elevating the experience from helpful to truly expressive.

  

✏️ Design Process

• Built early wireframes in Sketch and tested flows using InVision

  

  
  

• Developed a modular UI kit with rounded edges and playful color schemes for warmth

  

  
  

• Conducted usability testing on card creation, reminders, and gifting

• Introduced AI-generated cards with prompt-to-image tools (Dall-E, custom LLM prompt integration)

• Focused on clarity, emotion, and delight as key visual principles

🌟 Final Experience Highlights

• A home screen that surfaces who to celebrate, when, and how

• Instant or scheduled messages with AI-generated cards

• Personalized prompts to reduce friction and boost emotional quality

• Built-in gifting options (flowers, donations, gift cards)

🌚 Outcomes & Impact

• ⭐️ 4.8+ rating on the App Store

  

• Increased user engagement with the addition of AI-generated cards

• Users reported higher emotional satisfaction and lower friction

• Became one of the most used and loved modules in the Shine app

🪐 Reflection & What I Learned

• Emotionally intelligent features like birthday reminders can drive habit loops and brand love

• Personalization needs to feel human; AI worked best when it enhanced, not replaced, connection

• Design systems grounded in delight scale better across emotionally charged experiences

• Usability testing needs to include emotional tone testing in addition to functional success