OK Neighbour is a hyperlocal social platform designed to help people connect with their immediate neighborhood. The product aimed to build real-world interactions through digital tools that enable local discovery, emergency alerts, lost pet reports, event coordination, and shared interests. My role was to design the full experience with a focus on onboarding engagement, daily active use, and long-term retention.
Role:
Lead Designer
Industry:
HR Tech, SaaS
Duration:
8 Weeks
Challenges
Early user drop-off after initial signup due to low initial content density and unclear feature discovery
Low recurring engagement as users struggled to find immediate value after account creation
Need to balance safety, trust, and openness to encourage both personal safety features and organic neighbor interaction
My Approach
Designed a fast and welcoming onboarding that allowed users to set location preferences and interests to personalize their local feed from first login
Structured the app into clear categories such as lost pets, events, emergencies, and services to give immediate utility across varied user needs
Built notification systems that encouraged passive users to re-engage based on hyperlocal updates relevant to their area
Simplified event creation and participation flows to support recurring community-driven engagement
Focused on creating a visual language that felt safe, friendly, and inclusive to encourage participation across age groups
Results
Increased initial onboarding completion and first content interaction by simplifying initial setup flows
Improved daily active usage as category-based content allowed users to self-discover relevant updates in their area
Strengthened retention through automated notifications tied to local events and real-time alerts
Designed scalable frameworks to allow city-level growth while keeping each user’s experience tightly localized
Conclusion
OK Neighbour was a growth challenge grounded in behavior change. The goal was not only to create a usable social app but to actively create habits of real-world connection. Every design decision focused on surfacing immediate relevance, driving recurring engagement, and balancing trust with local discovery. This project sharpened my ability to design for engagement loops that turn first-time users into retained community participants.
