© 2025 Saawan Ebe. All Rights Reserved.
This project taught me how deeply design decisions can influence business outcomes. For me, it’s a reminder that great UX is not just about pixels—it’s about people and growth.
Results & Impact
The results spoke for themselves:
⭐ App Store ratings in Japan jumped from 2.5 → 4.6
📈 User base doubled after launch
📝 Mobile signups surged, proving the app was no longer a liability but a growth driver
The redesign didn’t just improve usability—it shifted perception of the product, showing users that Backlog was investing in their mobile experience.
Key Strategic Takeaways
Design is strategy: UX isn’t just aesthetics—it’s a lever for growth, retention, and trust.
Evidence beats assumption: Research uncovered the real problems, not just surface complaints.
Consistency with flexibility: Respecting platform norms while maintaining brand coherence built user trust.
Small wins, big impact: Navigation tweaks, ergonomic layouts, and information hierarchy drove outsized results.
Strategy in Action
I approached the redesign as a strategic balancing act: stay consistent across iOS and Android, while respecting each platform’s unique patterns.
Navigation with Purpose
I made multiple iterations with the navigation bar and tested them with our users. Eventually, we replaced Home with “My Issues”, which the users felt was more useful to see once they open the app.
Ergonomic Layout
I placed popup dialogs, menus and buttons on the lower part of the screen so that the users find it easy to use one hand when using bigger screens.
Scannable Cards
I redesigned issue cards around what users cared about most, making them scannable at a glance. Applying this system across 50+ components created clarity and scalability.
Tabbed Pages
Instead of overwhelming screens, I split complex data into tabs—clean, focused, and easy to digest.
Simplified Issue Creation
During user testing, one of the glaring feedback was that creating issue takes time as the users are shown a lot of options that they need to select. I reimagined as a three-step process, surfacing the most common options first. This reduced cognitive load and sped up workflows.
Previous app design on Android and iOS.
Finding the Right Problems
I conducted interviews with free and paid users of Backlog to discover users’ pain points. I collected insights from Customer Support team and user behavior data from Mixpanel.
As I sifted through the research data, these three common themes emerged as problem areas.
1. Unclear information hierarchy
Information was not laid out logically and users couldn’t distinguish what’s important.
Outdated interface design
The apps looked visually outdated and weren’t following the mobile platform guidelines.
3. Cumbersome task flows
The user flows were complicated which made the apps hard to use for the users.
Designing for Growth
These insights reframed our challenge: this wasn’t just a design refresh. It was a strategic opportunity to rebuild trust, reduce friction, and reestablish mobile as a first-class experience.
Why Mobile Was Broken
Backlog’s web platform thrived, but its mobile apps lagged behind. With a 2.5-star App Store rating in Japan and low engagement, mobile risked becoming a liability rather than an asset. Core tasks like creating or browsing issues were frustrating.
Our strategic objective was to elevate mobile from a weak point to a growth driver, aligning experience with the web app’s success. We set out with a business goal to grow the users by at least 25%.
Backlog Mobile Redesign: Turning UX into a Growth Strategy
How I helped transform Backlog’s mobile apps from underperforming tools into a strategic growth channel used by thousands.
Outcome: App Store ratings jumped from 2.5 → 4.6, users grew 2x, mobile signups surged.
© 2025 Saawan Ebe. All Rights Reserved.
This project taught me how deeply design decisions can influence business outcomes. For me, it’s a reminder that great UX is not just about pixels—it’s about people and growth.
Results & Impact
The results spoke for themselves:
⭐ App Store ratings in Japan jumped from 2.5 → 4.6
📈 User base doubled after launch
📝 Mobile signups surged, proving the app was no longer a liability but a growth driver
The redesign didn’t just improve usability—it shifted perception of the product, showing users that Backlog was investing in their mobile experience.
Key Strategic Takeaways
Design is strategy: UX isn’t just aesthetics—it’s a lever for growth, retention, and trust.
Evidence beats assumption: Research uncovered the real problems, not just surface complaints.
Consistency with flexibility: Respecting platform norms while maintaining brand coherence built user trust.
Small wins, big impact: Navigation tweaks, ergonomic layouts, and information hierarchy drove outsized results.
Strategy in Action
I approached the redesign as a strategic balancing act: stay consistent across iOS and Android, while respecting each platform’s unique patterns.
Navigation with Purpose
I made multiple iterations with the navigation bar and tested them with our users. Eventually, we replaced Home with “My Issues”, which the users felt was more useful to see once they open the app.
Ergonomic Layout
I placed popup dialogs, menus and buttons on the lower part of the screen so that the users find it easy to use one hand when using bigger screens.
Scannable Cards
I redesigned issue cards around what users cared about most, making them scannable at a glance. Applying this system across 50+ components created clarity and scalability.
Tabbed Pages
Instead of overwhelming screens, I split complex data into tabs—clean, focused, and easy to digest.
Simplified Issue Creation
During user testing, one of the glaring feedback was that creating issue takes time as the users are shown a lot of options that they need to select. I reimagined as a three-step process, surfacing the most common options first. This reduced cognitive load and sped up workflows.
Previous app design on Android and iOS.
Finding the Right Problems
I conducted interviews with free and paid users of Backlog to discover users’ pain points. I collected insights from Customer Support team and user behavior data from Mixpanel.
As I sifted through the research data, these three common themes emerged as problem areas.
1. Unclear information hierarchy
Information was not laid out logically and users couldn’t distinguish what’s important.
Outdated interface design
The apps looked visually outdated and weren’t following the mobile platform guidelines.
3. Cumbersome task flows
The user flows were complicated which made the apps hard to use for the users.
Designing for Growth
These insights reframed our challenge: this wasn’t just a design refresh. It was a strategic opportunity to rebuild trust, reduce friction, and reestablish mobile as a first-class experience.
Why Mobile Was Broken
Backlog’s web platform thrived, but its mobile apps lagged behind. With a 2.5-star App Store rating in Japan and low engagement, mobile risked becoming a liability rather than an asset. Core tasks like creating or browsing issues were frustrating.
Our strategic objective was to elevate mobile from a weak point to a growth driver, aligning experience with the web app’s success. We set out with a business goal to grow the users by at least 25%.
Backlog Mobile Redesign: Turning UX into a Growth Strategy
How I helped transform Backlog’s mobile apps from underperforming tools into a strategic growth channel used by thousands.
Outcome: App Store ratings jumped from 2.5 → 4.6, users grew 2x, mobile signups surged.
© 2025 Saawan Ebe. All Rights Reserved.
This project taught me how deeply design decisions can influence business outcomes. For me, it’s a reminder that great UX is not just about pixels—it’s about people and growth.
Results & Impact
The results spoke for themselves:
⭐ App Store ratings in Japan jumped from 2.5 → 4.6
📈 User base doubled after launch
📝 Mobile signups surged, proving the app was no longer a liability but a growth driver
The redesign didn’t just improve usability—it shifted perception of the product, showing users that Backlog was investing in their mobile experience.
Key Strategic Takeaways
Design is strategy: UX isn’t just aesthetics—it’s a lever for growth, retention, and trust.
Evidence beats assumption: Research uncovered the real problems, not just surface complaints.
Consistency with flexibility: Respecting platform norms while maintaining brand coherence built user trust.
Small wins, big impact: Navigation tweaks, ergonomic layouts, and information hierarchy drove outsized results.
Strategy in Action
I approached the redesign as a strategic balancing act: stay consistent across iOS and Android, while respecting each platform’s unique patterns.
Navigation with Purpose
I made multiple iterations with the navigation bar and tested them with our users. Eventually, we replaced Home with “My Issues”, which the users felt was more useful to see once they open the app.
Ergonomic Layout
I placed popup dialogs, menus and buttons on the lower part of the screen so that the users find it easy to use one hand when using bigger screens.
Scannable Cards
I redesigned issue cards around what users cared about most, making them scannable at a glance. Applying this system across 50+ components created clarity and scalability.
Tabbed Pages
Instead of overwhelming screens, I split complex data into tabs—clean, focused, and easy to digest.
Simplified Issue Creation
During user testing, one of the glaring feedback was that creating issue takes time as the users are shown a lot of options that they need to select. I reimagined as a three-step process, surfacing the most common options first. This reduced cognitive load and sped up workflows.
Previous app design on Android and iOS.
Finding the Right Problems
I conducted interviews with free and paid users of Backlog to discover users’ pain points. I collected insights from Customer Support team and user behavior data from Mixpanel.
As I sifted through the research data, these three common themes emerged as problem areas.
1. Unclear information hierarchy
Information was not laid out logically and users couldn’t distinguish what’s important.
Outdated interface design
The apps looked visually outdated and weren’t following the mobile platform guidelines.
3. Cumbersome task flows
The user flows were complicated which made the apps hard to use for the users.
Designing for Growth
These insights reframed our challenge: this wasn’t just a design refresh. It was a strategic opportunity to rebuild trust, reduce friction, and reestablish mobile as a first-class experience.
Why Mobile Was Broken
Backlog’s web platform thrived, but its mobile apps lagged behind. With a 2.5-star App Store rating in Japan and low engagement, mobile risked becoming a liability rather than an asset. Core tasks like creating or browsing issues were frustrating.
Our strategic objective was to elevate mobile from a weak point to a growth driver, aligning experience with the web app’s success. We set out with a business goal to grow the users by at least 25%.
Backlog Mobile Redesign: Turning UX into a Growth Strategy
How I helped transform Backlog’s mobile apps from underperforming tools into a strategic growth channel used by thousands.
Outcome: App Store ratings jumped from 2.5 → 4.6, users grew 2x, mobile signups surged.