Loam

UIUX Design - Product Design - Brand Design

Overview

Loam is a social sharing app that creates an ideal foundation for growing and maintaining meaningful relationships. Instead of optimizing for algorithms, likes, follower counts, and endless scrolling, Loam is designed to foster healthy online social habits and authentic connection. Each feature, or lack thereof, is built to prioritize people over engagement, attention, or profitability.

Timeline: 1 year
Team: Chem, Ella, Max, Joe, Dom, Gavin, Enoch
Status: On Progress

Problem

We all struggle with spending too much time on social media.

Meaningful connection and genuine interaction have been sacrificed for design intended solely to capture and retain our attention. Today's platforms optimize for engagement instead of relationships, encouraging us to consume, perform, and scroll rather than genuinely connect.

Secondary Research

Hooked Model

Built around the Hooked Model (Nir Eyal), social media platforms use behavioral psychology to maximize habit formation and keep users coming back.

Mental Health

Studies consistently link heavy social media use with increased anxiety, depression, and loneliness, especially among teenagers and young adults.

Algorithmic Polarization

Engagement-based algorithms amplify outrage and controversy because emotionally charged content generates more interaction, contributing to greater social division.

Misinformation & Trust

Algorithmically curated feeds blur the line between credible information and misinformation, making it harder to establish shared facts and trust online.

Solution

So we built Loam.

A social media platform that ditches doomscrolling for an environment that's built for the people who actually matter. Imagine opening your feed and only seeing posts from people you care about. No strangers. No noise. And a feed that ends.

This is social media as it was meant to be.

Research

Initial Research

Before designing, our team conducted a survey to better understand how people use social media, validating key frustrations and uncovering opportunities for more meaningful connection.

Kano Analysis

Our team used a Kano Analysis to evaluate proposed features through user feedback, allowing us to prioritize meaningful experiences while avoiding unnecessary social media conventions.

Competitor Research

Our team analyzed today's leading social media platforms to identify common design patterns, pain points, and opportunities. These insights became the guiding principles behind Loam's product decisions.

Persona

Our team created user personas to represent our target audience and keep every design decision grounded in real user needs.

Branding

Desirability Survey

Our team conducted a desirability study to understand how people perceive Loam's brand identity and the emotions it evokes, ensuring our visual direction aligned with our intended experience.

Logo

Guided by our desirability study, our team explored visual directions that embodied the brand attributes users associated with Loam. The final identity draws inspiration from nature, growth, and meaningful human connection.

Color Palette

Guided by our desirability study, our team crafted a nature-inspired color palette that reflects Loam's grounded, organic identity. Dark Brown conveys stability, Soft Beige brings warmth, Earth Green symbolizes growth and connection, Lime Green evokes calmness, and Warm Orange-Brown adds subtle energy without overwhelming the experience.

Typography

Our team paired Bricolage Grotesque and Host Grotesk to balance personality with readability. Bricolage adds warmth and character to headings, while Host Grotesk provides clean, comfortable reading for body text, creating a type system that reflects Loam's approachable identity.

Poster

Marketing

Design System

To maintain a cohesive experience, our team developed a design system covering layouts, colors, typography, components, iconography, and reusable UI elements.

Prototype

Sitemap

Our team created a sitemap to organize the app's information architecture and define a clear, intuitive navigation structure before moving into interface design.