Design complete | Not developed | 3-week engagement
My Role: Lead Visual Designer — User Flows, Wireframing, Interface Design, Prototyping, Companion App (Web and Mobile)
Platform: Companion web app, companion mobile app, master admin panel, physical device design direction
Timeline: 3-week engagement
Status: Design complete. Not developed.
Context
Retriew was an ambitious dual-product concept: a physical device styled like a vintage radio with a 3-row LED display showing live crypto and stock data, paired with a companion app for web and mobile that allowed users to configure, manage, and track their portfolios in full detail. The device had three physical knobs for switching modes, cycling through data sets, and navigating categories. The companion app was where the real portfolio management happened: tracking holdings, recording transactions, creating custom data sets, and monitoring via a master admin panel.
The Problem
Portfolio tracking apps (CoinMarketCap, CoinStats, Investing.com) require active engagement: you open the app, navigate to your portfolio, check the numbers. Retriew's insight was that ambient data display (always visible, glanceable, physical) is more valuable for active traders and enthusiasts than on-demand app engagement. The physical device provided ambient awareness. The companion app provided the depth, analysis, and control that ambient displays cannot offer.
My Role and Constraints
I was the lead visual designer on Retriew within the Little Studio team. The primary constraint was the physical device's display limitation: a 3-row LED system that could only show three rows of data simultaneously. The companion app had to be designed around what the device could and could not show, with the app serving as the configuration layer for what appeared on those three rows.
Research and Discovery
I studied CoinMarketCap, CoinStats, CoinGekco for crypto, Investing.com and TradingView for stocks, and AccuWeather for weather to understand how data density and display conventions varied per asset class. I also conducted a survey of intended users (ranging from young first-time investors to experienced finance professionals) to prioritise which features mattered most per user type. The finding: young investors wanted simplicity and visual appeal. Experienced users wanted customisation depth and transaction history. The companion app needed to serve both without forcing compromise.
Key Design Decision
The Sets system. With a 3-row LED display, the device could only show three data points simultaneously. "Sets" were configurable groups of three data inputs that users could cycle through using the device's knob. The companion app's primary configuration interface was the Sets manager: create a set (e.g. Bitcoin price, Ethereum price, S&P 500), label it, and assign it to a device slot. This design solution converted a hardware limitation into a feature: the intentional curation of exactly three data points per view became the product's signature interaction rather than a constraint.
The Solution
The Retriew companion app covers portfolio creation with manual transaction entry (buy, sell, transfer), portfolio performance tracking across crypto and stocks, the Sets configuration interface for the physical device, and a weather module for device display. The master admin panel tracks user accounts, active devices, bug reports, and the most-tracked holdings across all users. The physical device design direction established the vintage-radio aesthetic with 3-row LED display and three-knob interface.
Outcome and Impact
Retriew was delivered as a complete design system for both the companion web and mobile app and the master admin panel within a 3-week engagement. The physical device design direction was produced as a concept for client reference. The product was not developed. The case study demonstrates rapid multi-surface design delivery and the ability to work from a hardware constraint backwards to a digital interface solution.
Disclaimer: The project discussed herein was undertaken as a part of the Little Studio team. The rights to this project are jointly owned by the client and the studio. This case study is presented solely to showcase my individual contributions to the project.