Totim is an immersive mobile platform for documentary journalism and photography, built to help sustain the future of the free press and local storytelling. In a rapidly growing, algorithm-driven, news era, the need for on-the-ground human storytelling is more important than ever.

As the Lead Product Designer, I spearheaded the end-to-end UX/UI overhaul of the web and mobile platform, successfully transitioning the product into an investor-ready state. Collaborating directly with the CEO, I helped drive core product strategy and feature ideation while partnering with engineering to conduct feasibility reviews and maintain realistic delivery timelines.

To bridge the gap between static design and production engineering, I translated Figma design systems directly into front-end mobile code using Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP). Leveraging Claude AI, I wrote, tested, and iterated on functional code—deploying live, on-device iOS and Android prototypes (via Xcode and Android Studio) to verify interactions and accelerate feature implementation.

I began by wireframing a user journey that prioritized large-scale photography without sacrificing intuitive navigation.

Because stories are the core of the app, I utilized full-bleed photography and a vertical swiping system that snaps to individual articles. This minimizes the steps between the homepage and the content, allowing users to fluidly scan global narratives.

Once inside a story, the user retains total control – panning, zooming and exploring the images, whether the article text or photographer bio is visible.

As a visual-forward platform, establishing an editorial tone on the home page was my first priority. The original Totim app featured more text than imagery and drew attention away from these visuals.

The redesign required multiple iterations to solve the UX challenge of balancing crucial article metadata, along with maximum image real estate. By collaborating with the team we stripped the UI down to its absolute essentials – photographer name, project title, and location – ensuring the photography itself remains front and center.

The stories themselves are multi-layered, consisting of high-resolution images, audio narration from the photographer, captions and a long-form text article. We iterated extensively to find a way to access all these components without breaking visual immersion.

Crucially, my design fit right into the existing database structure, allowing us to link to legacy assets without requiring a massive backend overhaul.

To protect the visual space, I designed a minimal, persistent navigation anchor at the bottom of the screen. The user can swipe laterally on this anchor to change images – preventing accidentally switching photos as the user is exploring the image – or tap it to reveal a dynamic overlay panel.

This panel allows the user to swipe through the long-form text or view the photographer’s bio while the core image remains visible and interactive in the background.

While Totim is currently limited to a 2D screen, the. ultimate goal is to allow users to step inside global narratives. Leveraging my background in 3D spatial design, I modeled a concerpt of how Totim would translate into Apple Vision Pro.

As the web moves into a more interactive 3D world, I am eager to design dimensional interfaces that turn global storytelling into spatial experiences.

Totim is an ongoing project, this page will be updated as progress is made and when the updated app is live!

Totim website can be found here