Live product · Web platform
Cakes & Days
Expanding and refining a live birthday calendar product.
The starting point
When I joined Cakes & Days, the core calendar concept already existed, but the product had not yet launched. Its interface relied on a generic template, the brand was not established, and several important journeys still needed to be designed or refined.
The challenge was not simply to restyle a calendar. The product needed a recognizable identity, clearer workflows and a flexible structure that could support continued growth.
How could we turn an early functional calendar template into a distinctive and scalable product without making its growing feature set overwhelming?
My contribution
I worked as the company’s only dedicated UX/UI designer, collaborating closely with the product owner and developer throughout research, design, iteration and implementation. My role covered visual identity, product UX and UI, end-to-end journeys, prototyping, usability testing, developer handoff and the marketing ecosystem.
Brand & interface
Identity and UI foundations
- Visual identity and logo
- Product UX and UI
- Interface patterns
Journeys
End-to-end product flows
- Onboarding and creation flows
- Subscription and settings experiences
- Sharing, invitation and export flows
Craft & delivery
Validation and handoff
- Prototyping and usability testing
- Developer handoff
- Marketing website and email templates
Creating a recognizable product identity
The original interface was functional but visually generic. I created the Cakes & Days logo and developed a visual system that gave the product a more distinctive, playful and coherent identity while preserving the clarity needed for a productivity tool.
I also designed a dark mode using deep purple surfaces rather than simply reversing the light interface, preserving the product’s personality while maintaining hierarchy and readability.
- Logo and visual identity
- Typography and color direction
- Clearer interface hierarchy
- Consistent buttons, icons and states
- Color coding for calendars and events
- Light and dark interface treatments
- Consistency across product and marketing
Designing connected user journeys
A significant part of my work involved designing complete journeys rather than isolated screens. I considered how users moved from understanding the product to creating, configuring, managing and sharing a calendar.
A guided creation wizard
Creating a calendar means choosing a format, adding people and events, picking a visual style and deciding how it will be shared or printed. Presented at once, that felt overwhelming.
The wizard breaks the setup into a guided sequence, so first-time users make one decision at a time and always see what they have already chosen.
From research to design
In testing, several people hesitated at the point where they had to commit to a calendar format before seeing what it looked like. I reordered the steps so the format choice comes with a live preview, and moved optional settings behind a “more options” step — hesitation at that step disappeared in the next round.
Designing for scale
The product kept growing, so the interface had to stay predictable.
As new capabilities were added, the goal was to provide meaningful customization without making users feel as though they were operating professional design software.
- 01
Predictable organization
Related settings needed to behave consistently and appear where users expected to find them.
- 02
Progressive complexity
Common actions remained easy to access, while more detailed controls were revealed only when needed.
- 03
Reusable patterns
Panels, controls and interactions were designed as reusable systems that could support additional calendar formats and future product growth.
I conducted desk research, interviews and usability testing across the wider product experience, analyzed recurring problems and discussed the resulting iterations with the product owner and developer.
- Research
- Synthesis
- Prototype
- Testing
- Iteration
Extending the identity beyond the product
I also designed the Cakes & Days marketing website from the ground up, including the homepage, feature pages, team page and blog experience. I created email templates as well, helping the visual identity remain consistent across the wider customer journey.
one identity, everywhereConcepts still in exploration
Alongside released work, I explored directions that are not part of the live product yet. These remain concepts, shown here as design thinking rather than shipped features.
Concept
Creative tools
Concepts for giving users more expressive control over how a calendar looks, without turning the product into design software.
Concept
Personalized experiences
Ideas around calendars that adapt to a household — who is in it, what they celebrate and how they like to be reminded.
Concept
Digital gifting
Explorations of how a finished calendar could be shared or gifted digitally as a small, personal moment.
Outcome
Live productDuring my involvement, Cakes & Days evolved from an early template-based concept into a live product used by real users.
My work contributed to a recognizable visual identity, clearer product hierarchy, connected creation and management journeys, reusable interface patterns and a consistent marketing ecosystem.
- Live commercial product
- Complete logo and visual identity
- Core creation and management flows
- Reusable interface patterns
- Research-informed iterations
- Product and marketing consistency
The project taught me how to balance broad design ownership with close collaboration, and how everyday interface decisions change when a product must remain coherent as it continues to grow.
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