Skip to main content
Litty

Litty: Digital Storytelling Platform

I led the design of Litty's reading and publishing experience, connecting story discovery with the tools authors need to reach an audience.

  • Mobile App
  • UX Research
  • Product Strategy
  • Storytelling

Project overview

  • Overview

    Lead Product Designer

    Reader and author apps, the episode model, discovery ranking, the LittyCoins economy, the web and email surfaces, and the shipped design system.

    Team: 1 founder/PM, 3 engineers, 1 illustrator; App Store editorial partner at launch

  • Problem

    Stories needed to fit mobile habits

    Readers wanted stories that fit a short phone session. Authors needed ways to publish, understand their audience, and earn from individual works.

  • Solution

    Short episodes with flexible access

    Organize stories into short episodes with optional multimedia. Let readers buy access or earn LittyCoins through optional videos, with payments tied to each work.
Desktop discovery and the next episode on mobile.
“I mostly read on my phone, but it feels too static. I wish the stories could be more interactive, so I felt more engaged.”
Reader interview, recruited via UserTesting.com

Researching readers and authors

I audited Tapas, Webtoon, and Radish, then used more than twenty interviews to develop two personas and map the journey across web, email, and app.
Screen-by-screen review of Tapas, Webtoon and Radish.
Discovery feed study: content hierarchy, image ratios and engagement signals.
The path from discovery in ads and email to reading and subscribing in the app.

Episodes, multimedia and creator payments

  • Short episodes. Seasons break into roughly 10-minute reads, with discovery across stories.
  • Optional multimedia. Readers can enable narration, scroll-triggered motion, and inline art.
  • LittyCoins. Readers pay or watch to earn access. Authors receive a per-work payout.
Reader, from left: story detail, the season/episode selector, and the chat-style multimedia reader.
Author, from left: audience analytics, story creation and reviews, and account settings.

Feed ranking and core flows

I defined ranking around recency, completion rate, and engagement, then wireframed the reader and author flows.
Discovery ranking: how an episode earns its place in the feed.
Reader and account wireframes: discovery, episodes, plans and billing.
Author dashboard wireframes: viewership, audience growth, reviews, tips.

From direct unlocks to a coin wallet

I modeled two phases: direct unlocks ($1 to support a creator, $3.99 for a story), followed by a wallet with daily refills, coin packs, and creator support. Piccoma's wait-or-pay model informed the approach5. Litty added optional Watch-to-Play video events to earn coins, with credit to the author for each unlock.

Monetization model: direct unlocks, followed by a coin wallet with refills and packs.
Watch-to-Play events and the watch-or-pay unlock screen.
Coin packs and a wallet showing earned and purchased coins.

The app, web companion and email system

The desktop companion includes profiles, a library, and chapter reading. Email covers onboarding, recommendations, and weekly author reports. The handoff included an SF Pro Display type scale, an 11-token color palette led by #FF7300, component states, and specifications.

Web companion: author profiles, story library, and chapter reading.
Lifecycle email: reader onboarding, story recommendations, and the weekly author report.
Typography, color tokens and layout specifications.
The component library: chapter cards, reader chrome, inputs, navigation, modals.

Choosing per-episode payments

Cut from the build · All-you-can-read subscription

What we tried. A flat monthly subscription for the full catalog.
Why we changed it. Pooled subscription revenue would weaken the link between a reader's purchase and an author's payment. We chose per-episode LittyCoins despite a slower revenue ramp. Creator contract terms also warranted care: South Korea's regulator identified 1,112 unfair clauses across 23 providers7.

Launch and early engagement

3.5×
Adoption rate, first months post-launch6
+187%
User engagement6
+47%
Time spent per reader6

Litty launched on the App Store with a Featured Editorial pick and on the Play Store. The launch listings showed 3.9 stars from 57 App Store ratings and 3.5 stars on Play Store.

Litty live on the App Store at launch.

Make narration easier to publish

Two more months

Readers used narration frequently, but authors had to record in GarageBand and upload a file. Roughly two-thirds of new episodes lacked narration. I would test an in-app recorder to see whether it helps more authors publish audio.

- Tidjane

Shipped with

  • Founder & PM

    Author network, editorial taste, App Store relationships

  • Engineers ×3

    iOS, Android, episode playback, payments

  • Illustrator

    Brand world, motion language, in-episode art

  • App Store editorial partner

    Launch positioning, category sequencing

Sources and notes

  1. 1pewresearch.org
    Pew Research Center, Book Reading surveys.
  2. 2variety.com
    Naver acquired Wattpad (≈72M monthly users) for more than $600M, 2021.
  3. 3variety.com
    Kakao Entertainment acquired Tapas and Radish for a combined ≈$950M (Radish ≈$440M), 2021.
  4. 4ir.webtoon.com
    WEBTOON Entertainment reported ≈170M monthly active users, 2024.
  5. 5inquivix.com
    Kakao’s Piccoma popularized the “wait-or-pay” unlock and rode it to the top of Japan’s app consumer-spending charts, ahead of every game. Industry overview.
  6. 6Note
    Self-reported, first months post-launch vs. private text-only beta. Directional pre/post measurement, not a controlled study.
  7. 7animenewsnetwork.com
    South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission found 1,112 unfair provisions across 23 webtoon and web-novel providers, 2025.

More work

Shopify's image preview and alt text editor shown on desktop and mobile.

Shopify

AI-written alt text, reviewed by merchants.

An investor CRM dashboard with a map, calendar, and meetings beside mobile contact records.

Startup CRM

Keeping investment conversations and context together.