ZiggieWorld
Redesigning online interactions to create an engaging fan community.
Timeline
Jun 2025 - Dec 2025
Webpage
Platform
UI/UX Designer
Role
Introduction
Ziggie is a cross-functional platform that aspires to revolutionise the way fans interact and engage online with people of the same interest. Many ACG (Anime, Comics and Games) fans are passionate about their fandoms and wear that identity as a source of pride. They find belonging in meeting other fans. Ziggie’s vision is hence to become the platform to allow fans across the globe to discover creators, artists as well as each other.
For this project, I contributed by redesigning the interface of the beta version of Ziggie to give it a distinctive voice, as well as revamping the user experience for the projected audiences of Ziggie.
My Role
I am the UI/UX designer for this project, and worked with Ziggie’s founder as well as beta users to develop and refine the usability, accessibility and appeal of this product’s features.
The PROBLEM
Most mainstream social media sites of today are highly driven by engagement farming, and hence it became a struggle to be seen and find real, meaningful connection when a huge percentage of the users are mere audiences who only consume content and rarely interact with each other.
“How can we give our users a sense of belonging and identity to the site?”
Goals
Business goals
Ensure strong user retention and traffic to secure collaborations and partnerships
1
Intuitive features for users to find value in subscribing to what Ziggie can offer.
2
User goals
Reduce posting fatigue for creators who have to already post of multiple platforms
1
Create avenues and features that allow non-creators feel engaged and welcomed
2
Our Core Users
We identified 3 groups of core users for Ziggie:
The Creator, users who create their own content and
The Fan, users who are passionate about viewing additional content of their fandoms and contribute to discussions
The Event Organisers, users who host gatherings ranging from small interest parties to larger scale conventions
The Creator
An online artist that has been active in fandom scenes. They made many friends and amassed a sizeable number of followers by posting their art on popular social media sites such as Tumblr and Twitter. But as the algorithm changes for those sites, they realized that their content is no longer reaching people who might be interested in their work.
What they want:
To share art authentically, build supporter relationships, and sustain their creative passion with less burnout and popularity concern.
The Fan
As a passionate consumer of narrative based games and popular anime, they enjoy reading up discussion and theories for their favorite content. They also love perusing artworks of their favourite characters and would go to events to purchase fan-made merchandise of them.
What they want:
A place to geek out about their favorite character with people who truly get it without feeling out of place or judged, and possibly make some long-lasting friendship along the way.
The Event Organiser
They seek to create easily discoverable, well-attended events. Motivated by the ability to quickly set up events, reach their niche audiences, and iterate based on real-time responses.
What they want:
Tools that simplify registration, enchance visibility, and streamline attendee management.
Ideation Process
After identifying our main target audiences, we set out to analyse the user flow of each party of users. This helps in figuring out the important main features Ziggie needs to have.
With the user flow nailed down, we came up with 3 main pillars of Ziggie site, which are the Events discovery, Posts discovery and Shop. The 3 pillars should be seamlessly linked to optimise discovery and engagement for the users.
Design Process
Defining the Style
Originally white, Ziggie received feedbacks that it was too “corporate” and generic. Since fostering a sense of identity among users is an important aspect of Ziggie’s goal, we decided to revamp the site for a flashier site with cyberpunk asesthetics, all while maintaining readability and accessibility.
Earlier colour tests for Ziggie’s site
Brand Colours and Typography
00D9FF
Ziggie Blue
16181D
Black
Ziggie Yellow
DEFF00
16181D
00D9FF
Reject Red
Pending Orange
Approval Green
DEFF00
Final Designs
Homepage
Homepage
Creators’ Dashboard - Shop Orders Management
User Profile
Homepage
Creators’ Dashboard - Post Management
Event Details
Takeaways
Features don’t exist in isolation
Whenever we brainstorm a new feature for the site, it inevitably affects a string of other existing features. For example, introducing a direct link from Events to participating sellers’ merchandise would require us to consider how to implement the corresponding UI in the user’s shop interface as well as product listing process.
Balancing user’s needs
As a site that caters to multiple user types, we have to identify and prioritise features that will benefit each groups without neglecting one party too much, since the success of the site is dependent on having a vibrant and lively ecosystem. Close communication with key users and understanding their pain points is an extremely important step.
ZHU TINGYU CHARLOTTE
Copyright
2025 Zhu Tingyu