Native Mobile Apps Highlights

Hello Polarstep Team!

I created this page to highlight my experience designing native mobile apps that are both intuitive and impactful.

Hopefully, it gives you a good feel for my approach
and attention to visual detail.

#1: Elevating the bol.com app experience

At bol.com, I led design efforts on key parts of the mobile app. From campaign pages to checkout and product detail pages, always focused on improving usability, visual quality, and performance.

What I worked on

  • Introduced flexible content design through reusable design system components, powered by a headless CMS (Contentstack).

  • Refined the Checkout Flow through customer feedback and AB-testing.

  • Redesigned Product Pages with attention to accessibility and customer behavior

  • Designed an AI-powered review summary feature for the Product Page

  • Collaborated closely with engineers, PMs, and brand designers to ensure a cohesive product experience

Native App Features

  • Used push notifications to improve communication around order status and delivery updates.

  • Designed deep link flows to support personalized offers and in-app campaign navigation.

  • Considered native gestures and transitions to make navigation feel faster and more fluid on both iOS and Android.

Checkout Experience Concept (Looping animation)

Redesign concept for the Product Page

Campaign pages with a countdown component, powered by the headless CMS GraphQL API

Early concept for a personalised checkout flow

#2: Supporting farmers with crop scouting app

The Koppert Scouting App helps growers collect and analyze crop data directly in the field. My goal was to make data entry and insights effortless on outdoors mobile, with bright sunlight or spotty connectivity.

What I worked on

  • Observed real users in the field to understand their workflow and challenges.

  • Designed app-first flows for scouting, dashboards, and notifications.

  • Focused on clarity, contrast, and simplicity to ensure usability in real-world conditions.

  • Created interactive prototypes and aligned the mobile experience with the desktop analytics platform.

Native App Features

  • Integrated camera access for fast image capture and annotation of plant samples.

  • Used offline mode and data sync to handle low connectivity in greenhouses and fields.

  • Implemented push notifications to alert users when new analysis results were available.

  • Optimized GPS tracking to automatically tag observations by location.

Field research (literally) during the discovery phase

A few screens of the v1 of the app

Scanning of trap cards for automatic identification and registration of pest insects


#3: Experimental App Concepts

In my free time, I enjoy experimenting with other app concepts. Here are some examples of designs I made in the last few months.

Watch Here, Go There

What if you could pause a movie, hit info, and instantly see everything happening on screen, from the soundtrack to the filming location? You’d tap the location and get more details, plus a link to Google Maps.

Basically Shazam for movies, but with directions.

So when Forrest stops running on that desert highway you’d see that Tom Hanks is on screen, Bob Seger’s song is playing and the exact spot in Utah, with a link straight to the map

Imagine a streaming service with a travel guide. What would that look like?

Pizza Dough Calculator App

A pizza making app that helps you choose, edit and save recipes and when you’re happy with the results you can even share a picture with the recipe on top, like those popular fitness apps.

Pizza Making App concept

Movie Scene Location App

This app will help people discover and explore real-world filming locations. Inspired by the thoughtful design of apps like Sequel and Letterboxd, I’m experimenting with:

  • Map-based exploration

  • User-generated content

  • And cinematic transitions and smooth animations

Exploring typefaces for UI design

I sketched some cards and stories for a (fictional) travel app that includes food stops in DC, Philly, and Brooklyn. It was a nice way of trying out some fonts and see what works best, in context of a mobile app design.

Should the typography change based on the location?

And how would that look in a more type heavy layout?

Log Here, Explore There

And finally, what would happen if you’re favorite travel app could be synced with all the other stuff you already track?

  • 🎵 Spotify: you land in Berlin and it dares you to recreate that Billie Eilish wall pic.

  • 📚 Goodreads: you’re near Lyme Park House, and it says, “Welcome to Pemberley.”

  • 🦉 Duolingo: Duo nudges you to visit the Biblioteca Nacional.

  • 📌 Pinterest: reminds you of that cortado you pinned three years ago.

  • 🚴 Strava: logs your climb and adds, “Featured in the Tour de France”

  • 🎬 Letterboxd: you stop at a house and the app whispers, “Yep, The Goonies was filmed here.”

Probably not feasible (or even remotely practical)…but I’d totally use it.

Thank you for your time.

I’d be happy to walk you through these projects and
share more about my work in person.

All the best,
Jan-Paul