ANIFORUM, 2024
Creating a specialized mobile application for anime-watchers to connect and socialize
Team
Sole Designer & Developer
My Role
UX/UI Design
User Research
Interaction & Visual Design
Prototyping
Implementation
Duration
Nov 2023 – Feb 2024
Don't have time to read?
Here is a TL;dR version!
Anime fans deserved a space that felt welcoming and actually helped them discover new shows. As sole designer, I took Aniforum from an early personal project through a full research-driven redesign.
Result: a cleaner, more intuitive mobile app that users found more engaging, easier to navigate, and worth coming back to. It was built around community and personalized discovery.
Background and Problem
Why was Liking anime controversial?
Anime has grown from niche fandom to mainstream entertainment, yet stigma around the community persists often fueled by cultural misunderstandings and media misrepresentation.
Fans are frequently stereotyped as socially awkward or obsessive, creating barriers to engagement and community-building.
Aniforum was designed to create a safe, welcoming space for anime enthusiasts to connect, discover new shows, and share recommendations: destigmatizing fandom while embracing the genre’s diversity.
To understand the community and its challenges, I conducted:
20+ user surveys and interviews with anime fans of varying experience
Quantitative analysis using aniDB to track trending titles and preferences
Competitive review of platforms like MyAnimeList
Key Findings:
1.
Fans wanted accurate, personalized recommendations
2.
Existing platforms lacked community focus or approachable interfaces
3.
Misrepresentation of fans contributes to social stigma
Problem Statement:
How can we build a reliable, intuitive platform that fosters discussion, community, and accurate anime discovery?
User Journeys
WHo was the app for?
I created three personas representing different fan types from casual viewers to long-time enthusiasts. From there I mapped their journeys to highlight pain points in discovering shows and engaging with communities.
User flows focused on guiding users toward:
1.
Finding new anime recommendations
Joining discussions and forums
3.
Engaging with community-driven content
To ensure that all core user flows were both functional and goal-oriented, each journey was designed to guide users toward discovering a new anime recommendation.
Whether they were browsing community discussions, filling out their preferences, or exploring trending shows, every path led to a personalized and rewarding discovery moment.
I used the user journey map as a way to ensure that each use case was able to lead back to the user accomplishing the main goal of finding a new show
LEgacy App
Not starting off with nothing
Aniforum began as my first ever Figma project (2021) and was reimagined in 2023-2024 to reflect my evolution as a designer.
This redesign includes:
Brand overhaul
UX/UI enhancements
Implementation of user feedback
❌
Bad Design Overall
... Moving on
New Wireframes
I took light inspiration from the previous version and decided to start from the beginning again and made sketches of what each page's layout would look like and began adding new iterations.
❌
USERS DID NOT LIKE THE AMOUNT OF BORDERS WITHIN THE PAGE
❌
users felt that the activity tracker would deter them more from wanting to use the app consistently
✅
new hero section tested well with users, some stating it felt much more welcoming and the design felt cleaner
Explore Page:
❌
USERS FELT THAT THE BORDERS STRAINED THEIR EYES MORE AND MADE THE APP FEEL DATED
✅
DESIGN DISPLAYS ANIMES AS SOLE FOCUS AND CONTAINS UPDATED
Profile Page:
❌
REMOVED ACTIVITY TRACKER AND INCREASED WEIGHT OF FONT FOR LEGIBILITY REASONS
✅
USERS LIKED BEING ABLE TO SEE THEIR WATCHLIST AS MANY STATED IT WOULD BE THEIR MAIN REASON FOR USING THE APP
Post Page:
❌
CELL BASED FORUM POST TESTED NEGATIVELY WITH LEGIBILITY
✅
USERS LIKED the design based on the reddit formatting for long posts for easy skimming
Final Frames
That's all!
Reflections
This project represents the full arc of my growth as a designer—from initial curiosity to research synthesis, visual refinement, and now, technical implementation.
Next Steps:
Integrate features like community creation, threaded replies, and anime recommendations powered by user preferences
Launch usability tests on the live app and gather feedback from early adopters
Add future capabilities like real-time chat, push notifications, and moderation tools
Deploy the app on TestFlight and Google Play Internal Testing for initial rollout
