User Case: Tribe
Redesigning Tribe from scratch: From basic MVP to release the Market.
Tribe is a private group chat app built for people who share specific interests, whether it’s gaming, geopolitics, or football...whatever.
The team consisted of the CEO, 10 developers, a Head of Design, and 2 designers.
But while the idea is great, the current design is not. Poor UX and unclear navigation make it hard to engage and retain users. Some cool features are not clear enough.
That’s why Tribe urgently needs a redesign, one that improves usability, clarity, and aesthetics to create a smoother, more engaging experience.
Old Tribe Design
Before jumping into the redesign, I put on my detective hat and did some serious research on other closed-community apps and niche forums. I wasn’t just looking at what they did well—I wanted to see where they struggled so Tribe could fill the gaps. So, I dove deep into Discord, Reddit, Geneva, and WhatsApp to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Discord – Originally built for gamers, Discord is a real-time chat app where communities (servers) have different channels for discussions, voice chats, and bots. It’s highly interactive and keeps users engaged.
✅ High engagement, feels alive
❌ Overwhelming UI, too chaotic
Reddit – A massive forum platform where communities (subreddits) are organized by topics. Users upvote or downvote posts, keeping the best discussions visible.
✅ Great discussion quality, strong moderation
❌ Not private, some toxic communities
Geneva – A newer platform designed specifically for private communities. It offers structured discussions in a clean, modern interface, positioned as a more organized alternative to Discord.
✅ Clean design, built for communities
❌ Low user activity, feels empty
WhatsApp – A messaging app that people often repurpose for group discussions, even though it wasn’t designed for that.
✅ Familiar, easy to use
❌ No structure, messages get lost
Here’s a spoiler: Tribe’s design already existed. Well… kind of. It was there, but with a flawed design that made it harder to use and didn’t showcase its full potential. In fact, some basic design principles weren’t even followed.
The challenge is clear: upgrading Tribe’s entire look and feel. Not just with a new branding or design system, but by crafting a whole new experience. Challenge accepted.
What do I mean? Well… let me show you.
As you can see in the image below, the old design didn’t have a proper hierarchy.
What’s the most important part of a text field? Exactly, the text field itself (point for you).
But here, the “Hold to talk” feature gets all the attention because it’s highlighted in purple—yet it’s a feature that’s barely used. It doesn’t make sense to give it that much importance. A better approach is to move the “talk” icon inside the button, saving space.
Once the user starts typing, that icon disappears and turns into an "X," allowing them to quickly clear the text.
Also the send button is too small, so we’re going to scale it up for better visibility and to improve visual harmony.
The "+" button for adding media will also be placed inside the text field. This way, we create a sense of space and reinforce that users can type long messages without issues.In short, you can see the difference in shape and hierarchy between the two versions: one with poor visual organization and another that’s much simpler and more functional.
ithout using numbers like Slack or Discord. The goal is to make chats feel dynamic and joyful.
The current design feels too chaotic. Alternating and overlapping emojis makes everything unclear, not scalable, and discourages users from using them as CTAs—meaning they don’t naturally think, "I want to add that emoji too".
How do I fix this? By grouping emojis to organize them better. What do we gain?:
· Each emoji has its own group, improving visual hierarchy.
· Tapping a group lets you add a new reaction.
· Emojis you’ve added turn purple, making them easily distinguishable.
This is where users explore and find new Tribes (groups). Initially, the PM’s idea was to keep it super simple—just a search bar, Google-style, where users would type what they were looking for.
But here’s the thing: users don’t want to think—they want to discover! They want to browse, get recommendations, and stumble upon interesting groups without effort. Netflix does this brilliantly, curating content so users don’t have to search manually.
Here’s a glimpse into the creative process: The founder would send me sketches of what he had in mind. I’d design exactly what he asked for—because, let’s be honest, ideas always seem perfect in our heads. But once you see them on the screen, reality kicks in.
With that design in place, I added elements that I believed would enhance the experience—like filters. Over time, the idea evolved into showcasing the most relevant groups upfront, so users could focus entirely on discovering instead of searching.
This is where users explore and find new Tribes (groups). Initially, the PM’s idea was to keep it super simple—just a search bar, Google-style, where users would type what they were looking for.
But here’s the thing: users don’t want to think—they want to discover! They want to browse, get recommendations, and stumble upon interesting groups without effort. Netflix does this brilliantly, curating content so users don’t have to search manually.
Here’s a glimpse into the creative process: The founder would send me sketches of what he had in mind. I’d design exactly what he asked for—because, let’s be honest, ideas always seem perfect in our heads. But once you see them on the screen, reality kicks in.
With that design in place, I added elements that I believed would enhance the experience—like filters. Over time, the idea evolved into showcasing the most relevant groups upfront, so users could focus entirely on discovering instead of searching.
And what about data-heavy screens? They’re usually a usability nightmare. How did you handle them?
Super easy. The design system follows clear guidelines that ensure every screen looks good, no matter how much data it holds.
This is the group host’s screen, where they can see members, track activity, access settings… you know, all the important stuff.
But the current design? Not great. The image doesn’t integrate well, and there’s basically an endless scroll just to reach the management options. If there were 50 members, you’d need an entire afternoon just to scroll through them.
I fixed this by adding a dedicated “Members” section, where a “See more” button takes you to a separate page with the full list. No need to cram everything into the main screen. I also improved the activity graph by adding time filters and reorganized the Manage Group options to create a clearer hierarchy.
Much better. 🚀
