Mobile
Strategy
UI Design
UX
Cutting through the noise of Match Day.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Match Makr set out to match medical students with their ideal residency. The starting point was a whiteboard full of ideas, chat, program rankings, interview scoring, calendar integration, pricing tiers, but no clear product yet.
I joined the team as the sole designer at the pre-seed stage and spent three weeks turning the whiteboard concepts into a working prototype ready for Seed stage validation. I scoped the feature set down to what the product actually needed first, then designed the ranking and matching logic that became the core of the experience.
CHALLENGES
Everything on the whiteboard was pitched as essential. Chat, program rankings, interview scoring, calendar integration, and a full pricing model all competed for the same limited timeline. I had to cut the list down to what would actually validate the product, not everything that could eventually live inside it
The core design problem came down to how we ranked programs. To build a system users could trust, we had to anchor our strategy around a scoring model that balanced personal student needs against automated program criteria.
PROCESS
Three weeks meant every phase had to move fast and build directly on the last. Week one was interviews and sketching. I talked to 20 medical students to map their tasks, tools, and timelines throughout the residency application journey. Systems ranged from pen and paper to complex spreadsheets, but every conversation revealed the same truth, applying to residency is a social effort. Students were consistently sharing updates, seeking advice, and comparing notes with peers, family, and mentors.
Week two moved into user journeys and design. I translated research into sketches, mapped the core screen flows, and gathered feedback. That feedback showed Interview Buddy was confusing , so the team decided to cut it to focus on what mattered. In the final week, I finished the UI across onboarding, the program dashboard, chat channels, and calendar scheduling, then built the working prototype and wrapped the whole experience in the brand's visual identity.
SUMMARY
I delivered a fully prototyped experience in under 30 days. It validated MatchMakr's core workflows with real medical students and helped the founders secure a funded seed round. The product is now in active development.
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