Mobile App Homepage Redesign

Industry

Marine

Company

Mercury Marine

Duration

May-Aug 2026

Role

UX/UI Design Intern

Mercury Marine gave me the opportunity to take ownership of redesigning the Home and Vessel experience within their mobile app. As the only UX/UI Design Intern, I was trusted to lead the project from research through validation, creating a simpler and more effective experience for boat owners.

What did I do?

I conducted user research, analyzed previous usability findings, interviewed stakeholders, explored concepts, created wireframes and high-fidelity designs, and validated solutions through testing. My work focused on improving navigation, discoverability, customization, and access to critical vessel information.

imagine you're trying to find information about your vessel and keep getting lost in pages on pages within the app...

What is the Mercury Marine App?

The Mercury Marine app helps boat owners monitor and manage their vessel through connected features like engine data, maintenance tracking, device management, and vessel insights.

Who did I work with?

I collaborated with designers, engineers, product managers, and stakeholders across multiple departments while continuously incorporating feedback from Mercury customers and usability testing participants.

the process

Simplifying a data-heavy experience without sacrificing functionality.

Research showed that users struggled to quickly access critical vessel information due to complex navigation, poor information hierarchy, and low feature discoverability. The challenge was finding a way to surface the information users care about most while maintaining the app's extensive capabilities.

how might we create a more intuitive and customizable experience that helps users access critical vessel information with less effort?

Key Focus

My primary focus was identifying what boat owners truly needed at a glance and building the experience around those priorities. Through research, I found that users cared most about fuel, engine health, maintenance status, vessel information, and connected devices, yet these features often required multiple steps to access. Rather than adding more functionality, I focused on bringing critical information forward, reducing cognitive load, and creating a more customizable experience that could adapt to different ownership scenarios and boating behaviors.

How did I solve the problem?

I began by analyzing research findings, previous usability studies, competitor experiences, and stakeholder feedback to identify recurring themes and opportunities. From there, I explored multiple directions for the Home experience, ranging from status-driven dashboards to task-oriented and personalized layouts. Through wireframing, prototyping, and iterative feedback, I refined these concepts into a more modular experience that prioritized critical boating information and streamlined navigation. Every major design decision was validated against user needs to ensure the solution solved real problems rather than introducing new complexity.

What stands out about my design process here?

Rather than improving individual screens, I rethought the relationship between Home and Vessel entirely. This led to the consolidation of the Vessel experience into a more powerful Home screen that serves as a central hub for vessel management.

but, why?

Boating environments are unique. Whether users are preparing for a trip, troubleshooting an issue, or quickly checking vessel status while on the water, they often need information immediately and with minimal distraction. Every design decision was grounded in helping users find answers faster and make confident decisions without searching through the app. By improving information hierarchy, discoverability, and customization, the redesign aimed to create an experience that supported boat owners in real-world situations, not just within the app itself.

throughout the design process, being able to answer the "why" is very important.

My Impact

100%

Previous Usability Issues Resolved

85%

New Designs Validated Through User Testing

7

Recommendations Given to Enhance Experience Beyond Vessel Management

What did I learn?

Design Beyond the Screen

This project completely changed the way I think about designing digital experiences. For the first time, I was creating solutions for products that existed beyond the screen and into the physical world. Seeing engines, boats, and connected devices firsthand, and even experiencing them through on-water product testing, gave me a much deeper appreciation for designing within a real environment. It reinforced that great experiences don't start and end with an interface; they need to support users wherever they interact with the product.

Trust the Process

As the only UX/UI Design Intern working on the project, I had a lot of ownership and freedom in shaping the final experience. One of my biggest takeaways was learning to trust research and user feedback, even when it challenged my initial assumptions. The strongest design decisions consistently came from listening, asking questions, testing ideas, and iterating based on what I learned. This experience strengthened my confidence in both my design process and my ability to solve complex problems through user-centered thinking.

For more context

Please feel free to reference this link for more information. Unfortunately, I cannot get into anymore detail about the work I did at blank, as it is under NDA. If you would like to learn more, feel free to reach out to me!

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