Cue //Case study //04
Web Experience
//Role
Lead Designer
//Team
PM · 3 Engineers · 2 Visual Designers · Motion Designer · Marketing
//Platform
Web · iOS
//Company
44pixels
//01
Expanding beyond mobile
With each new platform came a new way of thinking. The whole team had to shift from building for mobile to thinking in cross-platform terms at all times.
Cue started on mobile and expanded from there. With each new platform came new complexity - and a new way of thinking. The whole team had to shift from a single-platform mindset to thinking in cross-platform terms at all times.
//02
The point where mobile logic stops working
The first version of the web app worked - but it was essentially a mobile app on a bigger screen. At some point, we had to stop carrying mobile across and start designing for the web.
How do you take a mobile app, carry across the features and changes you're constantly shipping, but also know when to separate - when to stop duplicating mobile and actually design for the web?
The first version of the web app was built for speed. It worked, and it translated reasonably well to a browser environment - but it didn't use the full potential of the platform. It was, essentially, a mobile app on a bigger screen.
When we started thinking about how users actually used the web app, a different picture emerged. The web is where people want space - to edit their summary, take notes during a meeting, share with their team. The larger canvas revealed a whole new potential to push Cue into a different kind of product for a different kind of use.
//03
The web revealed a different kind of user need
When we looked at how people actually used the web app, a different picture emerged. The web is where users wanted space - to edit, to take notes, to share. The larger canvas opened up a completely different kind of product potential.
The first step was the Cue marketing website - designed with a visual designer and built by me using Claude Code. It gave users a proper entry point to the product through the web.
From there, the focus shifted to the in-app web experience: new components that felt web-native rather than mobile-ported, a refined first login page, loader animations, and a rethought in-app onboarding flow. The goal was for the web app to feel like it belonged on the web - not like it was just passing through.
//04
Next Steps
The marketing website was the first step. From there, the focus shifted to making the in-app web experience feel web-native - and then to rethinking the full architecture to make the web a platform that stands on its own.
The next phase was rethinking the actual web app experience. Moving it from a mobile app in a browser to a web app that stands on its own and adds to the
mobile experience.
That meant revisiting the page architecture, taking advantage of the space the web gives you to make everything feel easier and more intuitive, and adding the features that were still missing to make the web experience whole.
