Remember Tamagotchi? Pixel Pals reinvents engagement by transforming static stickers into interactive digital companions that live within your stories. Just like Tamagotchi, these animated Pals respond to interactions—friends can play with them while watching your story, leaving behind playful moments that accumulate over time. This turns passive viewing into an evolving, shared experience, making social storytelling more dynamic, engaging, and fun.
YEAR
2024
ROLE
Product Designer
Design Technologist
SERVICES
Product Design
Illustration & Character Design
Animation & Interaction Design
Branding & Storytelling
About the project
The Play Opportunity
Delight isn’t just an add-on—it’s a growth driver. To make Instagram Stories more engaging, we needed to design for both utility and emotion.
We’ve seen how playful, interactive experiences fuel engagement. Take Instagram’s 10th anniversary app icon Easter egg—100 million icon changes in 24 hours. A simple, unexpected moment turned into massive participation.
How do we bring that kind of interaction into everyday Stories?
The Stories Opportunity
People post more when they feel seen. Reactions, feedback, and interactions aren’t just nice to have—they’re the reason people come back.
Key Insights:
71% of all daily Story interactions are Likes.
Boosting Story Likes by just 1% results in a 0.0345% increase in overall Story production.
A small lift in engagement can trigger a much bigger lift in content creation—proving that lightweight, interactive features can drive significant platform growth.
Hypothesis
If we introduce interactive elements like Pals into Stories, we will drive engagement, increase interactions, and encourage more Story creation.
Solution: Pals, a Sticker That Comes to Life
Remember Tamagotchi? Now there’s Pals.
Pals transforms a simple Story sticker into an interactive, evolving character, making Stories more playful, participatory, and habit-forming.
How It Works:
✅ Users add a Pal sticker to their Story, choosing from a range of animated Pixel Pals.
✅ Friends can interact with the Pal while watching the Story—tapping, playing, or reacting in real time.
✅ Pals collect interactions over time, tracking engagement across different Stories.
✅ Users see a history of interactions, fostering playful, ongoing connections between friends.
By gamifying interactions, Pals shifts Story engagement from passive to active, giving users a reason to come back and keeping interactions sticky, personal, and fun.
Building Pals: Product, Motion & Brand
Pals wasn’t just an animation—it was an entire feature that had to seamlessly integrate into Instagram Stories. I led product design, motion, illustration, branding, and content strategy to make Pals a reality.
Product Design: Making Pals Feel Effortless
📱 Feature UX/UI Design – Designed intuitive interactions, making Pals feel like a natural extension of Stories.
🔄 Interaction Loops – Created lightweight engagement mechanics that kept users coming back.
🎮 Gamification & Retention – Introduced rewards and social elements to encourage repeat use.
🛠 Prototyping & Testing – Ran A/B tests on engagement patterns, refining motion, placement, and feedback loops.
Pixel Pals: A Brand in Itself
Pals needed to be instantly recognizable, expressive, and universally appealing—so I designed a cohesive identity from scratch.
🎨 Illustration & Character Design – Built a pixel-art style that felt both nostalgic and fresh.
🎞️ Animation & Interaction Design – Designed fluid, dynamic motion that made Pals feel alive.
📦 Curation & Content Strategy – Developed a diverse range of Pals, ensuring broad appeal and sustained engagement.
🖋️ Branding & Storytelling – Crafted a visual identity that felt distinct within Instagram’s ecosystem.
Process & Execution
1. Research & Strategy
Analyzed Story engagement trends, identifying patterns in passive vs. active interactions.
Studied nostalgic digital pet mechanics (e.g., Tamagotchi) to inspire long-term interaction loops.
Tested lightweight interaction models to ensure Pals felt fun, rewarding, and frictionless.
2. UX/UI, Motion & Branding
Designed fluid, playful animations that made Pixel Pals feel dynamic and responsive.
Created a scalable, modular system so Pals could evolve over time.
Ensured seamless integration within Instagram’s design language and motion system.
3. Testing & Optimization
A/B tested Pals placement & interactions to measure engagement impact.
Iterated based on user behavior and feedback, optimizing tap response times, animation speed, and engagement hooks.
Results & Impact (Projected & Measured Outcomes)
1. Increased Story Engagement
📈 12% increase in Story interactions, as users engaged with Pals beyond Likes.
⏳ Higher time spent per Story, as users actively interacted instead of passively scrolling.
2. More Stories Created
🚀 6% increase in Story creation, driven by users returning to see how their Pals evolved.
3. Strengthened Social Connections
🔗 Higher engagement between friends, as Pals created ongoing, interactive moments within Stories.
💬 Encouraged repeat interactions, increasing social stickiness across the platform.
Why It Matters
Pals redefined how people interact with Stories, moving beyond passive Likes to dynamic, shared experiences. By making engagement playful, lightweight, and rewarding, we not only increased interaction rates but also motivated more Story creation, reinforcing Instagram as a delightful, interactive space.
This project showcased my ability to:
✅ Design & launch a full-scale product from scratch—from UX to branding to motion.
✅ Turn passive engagement into active participation, driving measurable platform growth.
✅ Create scalable interaction loops that increase retention and user delight.
✅ Blend motion, branding, and UX seamlessly, proving that play is a powerful engagement tool.
Pals wasn’t just a sticker—it was a behavior shift, turning Stories into a place where people don’t just watch—they play.
Smooth Scroll
This will hide itself!
This will hide itself!
Pixel Pals: Bringing Stories to Life with Playful, Interactive Stickers
OVERVIEW
Remember Tamagotchi? Pixel Pals reinvents engagement by transforming static stickers into interactive digital companions that live within your stories. Just like Tamagotchi, these animated Pals respond to interactions—friends can play with them while watching your story, leaving behind playful moments that accumulate over time. This turns passive viewing into an evolving, shared experience, making social storytelling more dynamic, engaging, and fun.
YEAR
2024
ROLE
Product Designer
Design Technologist
SERVICES
Product Design
Illustration & Character Design
Animation & Interaction Design
Branding & Storytelling
About the project
The Play Opportunity
Delight isn’t just an add-on—it’s a growth driver. To make Instagram Stories more engaging, we needed to design for both utility and emotion.
We’ve seen how playful, interactive experiences fuel engagement. Take Instagram’s 10th anniversary app icon Easter egg—100 million icon changes in 24 hours. A simple, unexpected moment turned into massive participation.
How do we bring that kind of interaction into everyday Stories?
The Stories Opportunity
People post more when they feel seen. Reactions, feedback, and interactions aren’t just nice to have—they’re the reason people come back.
Key Insights:
71% of all daily Story interactions are Likes.
Boosting Story Likes by just 1% results in a 0.0345% increase in overall Story production.
A small lift in engagement can trigger a much bigger lift in content creation—proving that lightweight, interactive features can drive significant platform growth.
Hypothesis
If we introduce interactive elements like Pals into Stories, we will drive engagement, increase interactions, and encourage more Story creation.
Solution: Pals, a Sticker That Comes to Life
Remember Tamagotchi? Now there’s Pals.
Pals transforms a simple Story sticker into an interactive, evolving character, making Stories more playful, participatory, and habit-forming.
How It Works:
✅ Users add a Pal sticker to their Story, choosing from a range of animated Pixel Pals.
✅ Friends can interact with the Pal while watching the Story—tapping, playing, or reacting in real time.
✅ Pals collect interactions over time, tracking engagement across different Stories.
✅ Users see a history of interactions, fostering playful, ongoing connections between friends.
By gamifying interactions, Pals shifts Story engagement from passive to active, giving users a reason to come back and keeping interactions sticky, personal, and fun.
Building Pals: Product, Motion & Brand
Pals wasn’t just an animation—it was an entire feature that had to seamlessly integrate into Instagram Stories. I led product design, motion, illustration, branding, and content strategy to make Pals a reality.
Product Design: Making Pals Feel Effortless
📱 Feature UX/UI Design – Designed intuitive interactions, making Pals feel like a natural extension of Stories.
🔄 Interaction Loops – Created lightweight engagement mechanics that kept users coming back.
🎮 Gamification & Retention – Introduced rewards and social elements to encourage repeat use.
🛠 Prototyping & Testing – Ran A/B tests on engagement patterns, refining motion, placement, and feedback loops.
Pixel Pals: A Brand in Itself
Pals needed to be instantly recognizable, expressive, and universally appealing—so I designed a cohesive identity from scratch.
🎨 Illustration & Character Design – Built a pixel-art style that felt both nostalgic and fresh.
🎞️ Animation & Interaction Design – Designed fluid, dynamic motion that made Pals feel alive.
📦 Curation & Content Strategy – Developed a diverse range of Pals, ensuring broad appeal and sustained engagement.
🖋️ Branding & Storytelling – Crafted a visual identity that felt distinct within Instagram’s ecosystem.
Process & Execution
1. Research & Strategy
Analyzed Story engagement trends, identifying patterns in passive vs. active interactions.
Studied nostalgic digital pet mechanics (e.g., Tamagotchi) to inspire long-term interaction loops.
Tested lightweight interaction models to ensure Pals felt fun, rewarding, and frictionless.
2. UX/UI, Motion & Branding
Designed fluid, playful animations that made Pixel Pals feel dynamic and responsive.
Created a scalable, modular system so Pals could evolve over time.
Ensured seamless integration within Instagram’s design language and motion system.
3. Testing & Optimization
A/B tested Pals placement & interactions to measure engagement impact.
Iterated based on user behavior and feedback, optimizing tap response times, animation speed, and engagement hooks.
Results & Impact (Projected & Measured Outcomes)
1. Increased Story Engagement
📈 12% increase in Story interactions, as users engaged with Pals beyond Likes.
⏳ Higher time spent per Story, as users actively interacted instead of passively scrolling.
2. More Stories Created
🚀 6% increase in Story creation, driven by users returning to see how their Pals evolved.
3. Strengthened Social Connections
🔗 Higher engagement between friends, as Pals created ongoing, interactive moments within Stories.
💬 Encouraged repeat interactions, increasing social stickiness across the platform.
Why It Matters
Pals redefined how people interact with Stories, moving beyond passive Likes to dynamic, shared experiences. By making engagement playful, lightweight, and rewarding, we not only increased interaction rates but also motivated more Story creation, reinforcing Instagram as a delightful, interactive space.
This project showcased my ability to:
✅ Design & launch a full-scale product from scratch—from UX to branding to motion.
✅ Turn passive engagement into active participation, driving measurable platform growth.
✅ Create scalable interaction loops that increase retention and user delight.
✅ Blend motion, branding, and UX seamlessly, proving that play is a powerful engagement tool.
Pals wasn’t just a sticker—it was a behavior shift, turning Stories into a place where people don’t just watch—they play.
Smooth Scroll
This will hide itself!
This will hide itself!
Pixel Pals: Bringing Stories to Life with Playful, Interactive Stickers
OVERVIEW
Remember Tamagotchi? Pixel Pals reinvents engagement by transforming static stickers into interactive digital companions that live within your stories. Just like Tamagotchi, these animated Pals respond to interactions—friends can play with them while watching your story, leaving behind playful moments that accumulate over time. This turns passive viewing into an evolving, shared experience, making social storytelling more dynamic, engaging, and fun.
YEAR
2024
ROLE
Product Designer
Design Technologist
SERVICES
Product Design
Illustration & Character Design
Animation & Interaction Design
Branding & Storytelling
About the project
The Play Opportunity
Delight isn’t just an add-on—it’s a growth driver. To make Instagram Stories more engaging, we needed to design for both utility and emotion.
We’ve seen how playful, interactive experiences fuel engagement. Take Instagram’s 10th anniversary app icon Easter egg—100 million icon changes in 24 hours. A simple, unexpected moment turned into massive participation.
How do we bring that kind of interaction into everyday Stories?
The Stories Opportunity
People post more when they feel seen. Reactions, feedback, and interactions aren’t just nice to have—they’re the reason people come back.
Key Insights:
71% of all daily Story interactions are Likes.
Boosting Story Likes by just 1% results in a 0.0345% increase in overall Story production.
A small lift in engagement can trigger a much bigger lift in content creation—proving that lightweight, interactive features can drive significant platform growth.
Hypothesis
If we introduce interactive elements like Pals into Stories, we will drive engagement, increase interactions, and encourage more Story creation.
Solution: Pals, a Sticker That Comes to Life
Remember Tamagotchi? Now there’s Pals.
Pals transforms a simple Story sticker into an interactive, evolving character, making Stories more playful, participatory, and habit-forming.
How It Works:
✅ Users add a Pal sticker to their Story, choosing from a range of animated Pixel Pals.
✅ Friends can interact with the Pal while watching the Story—tapping, playing, or reacting in real time.
✅ Pals collect interactions over time, tracking engagement across different Stories.
✅ Users see a history of interactions, fostering playful, ongoing connections between friends.
By gamifying interactions, Pals shifts Story engagement from passive to active, giving users a reason to come back and keeping interactions sticky, personal, and fun.
Building Pals: Product, Motion & Brand
Pals wasn’t just an animation—it was an entire feature that had to seamlessly integrate into Instagram Stories. I led product design, motion, illustration, branding, and content strategy to make Pals a reality.
Product Design: Making Pals Feel Effortless
📱 Feature UX/UI Design – Designed intuitive interactions, making Pals feel like a natural extension of Stories.
🔄 Interaction Loops – Created lightweight engagement mechanics that kept users coming back.
🎮 Gamification & Retention – Introduced rewards and social elements to encourage repeat use.
🛠 Prototyping & Testing – Ran A/B tests on engagement patterns, refining motion, placement, and feedback loops.
Pixel Pals: A Brand in Itself
Pals needed to be instantly recognizable, expressive, and universally appealing—so I designed a cohesive identity from scratch.
🎨 Illustration & Character Design – Built a pixel-art style that felt both nostalgic and fresh.
🎞️ Animation & Interaction Design – Designed fluid, dynamic motion that made Pals feel alive.
📦 Curation & Content Strategy – Developed a diverse range of Pals, ensuring broad appeal and sustained engagement.
🖋️ Branding & Storytelling – Crafted a visual identity that felt distinct within Instagram’s ecosystem.
Process & Execution
1. Research & Strategy
Analyzed Story engagement trends, identifying patterns in passive vs. active interactions.
Studied nostalgic digital pet mechanics (e.g., Tamagotchi) to inspire long-term interaction loops.
Tested lightweight interaction models to ensure Pals felt fun, rewarding, and frictionless.
2. UX/UI, Motion & Branding
Designed fluid, playful animations that made Pixel Pals feel dynamic and responsive.
Created a scalable, modular system so Pals could evolve over time.
Ensured seamless integration within Instagram’s design language and motion system.
3. Testing & Optimization
A/B tested Pals placement & interactions to measure engagement impact.
Iterated based on user behavior and feedback, optimizing tap response times, animation speed, and engagement hooks.
Results & Impact (Projected & Measured Outcomes)
1. Increased Story Engagement
📈 12% increase in Story interactions, as users engaged with Pals beyond Likes.
⏳ Higher time spent per Story, as users actively interacted instead of passively scrolling.
2. More Stories Created
🚀 6% increase in Story creation, driven by users returning to see how their Pals evolved.
3. Strengthened Social Connections
🔗 Higher engagement between friends, as Pals created ongoing, interactive moments within Stories.
💬 Encouraged repeat interactions, increasing social stickiness across the platform.
Why It Matters
Pals redefined how people interact with Stories, moving beyond passive Likes to dynamic, shared experiences. By making engagement playful, lightweight, and rewarding, we not only increased interaction rates but also motivated more Story creation, reinforcing Instagram as a delightful, interactive space.
This project showcased my ability to:
✅ Design & launch a full-scale product from scratch—from UX to branding to motion.
✅ Turn passive engagement into active participation, driving measurable platform growth.
✅ Create scalable interaction loops that increase retention and user delight.
✅ Blend motion, branding, and UX seamlessly, proving that play is a powerful engagement tool.
Pals wasn’t just a sticker—it was a behavior shift, turning Stories into a place where people don’t just watch—they play.
Smooth Scroll
This will hide itself!
This will hide itself!