Enjoy immersive role play sessions with
AI powered *astrsk
What is astrsk?
Astrsk is an AI-powered role-play platform that lets users engage with AI characters in immersive, interactive scenarios. Beyond simply participating, users can create custom characters and plots, building personalized role-play experiences. While AI role-play currently thrives within a dedicated niche, our goal is to lower the barrier to entry through intuitive, user-friendly design.
MY ROLE
Reviewing current product
Analyzing research results
Ideation on OKRs and product IA
Wireframing on UX flows
UI design
Building design system
Onboarding & managing Junior Designer
COLLABORATION
Junior Product Designer
Lead Engineer + 2 Engineers
Business Lead
TIMELINE
Feb 2025 - Present
CORE CHALLENGE
Transforming a complex, unintuitive product into a user friendly platform that is not only enjoyable for existing power users but also inviting to new and casual users.
Problem 1 - Onboarding experience
PROBLEM
Users struggle to understand what to do upon first entering the platform
To successfully engage in a Role Play session, users must first connect to a Provider and then create both Cards and Flows. However, there is currently no in-product guidance to support this process. As a result, many users are unclear about what steps they need to take, in what order, and where to perform them. This leads to confusion, drop-off, and underutilization of key features.
SOLUTION A
Mission-based onboarding
When tackling this problem, the first thing that came to mind was the need to design a proper onboarding experience for users. I believed it was important to introduce each core feature while also explaining how these features are interconnected. By guiding users step-by-step—what to do, in what order, and where to go—I felt we could significantly reduce early-stage confusion. Additionally, I wanted the UI we built for onboarding to be useful even after the initial experience. Rather than making it a one-time walkthrough, I thought it would be more valuable if this UI could be repurposed and continue adding value beyond onboarding.
That thinking led to the Mission & Reward section. When users first enter the platform, they are automatically brought to this page. Here, they’ll find missions displayed as cards. Clicking a button on a mission card takes the user directly to the area where they can complete that action. If necessary, coach marks provide extra guidance along the way. After completing a mission and returning to the Mission page, the user receives a token-style reward.
I intentionally avoided framing this solely as an onboarding experience. Instead, I designed it as a more flexible Mission & Reward system. This allows us to continue promoting desired behaviors even after onboarding is complete. For example, when a new version of the product is released, we can use this system to encourage users to explore new features or updates quickly.
Missions dashboard, coach mark, and complete dialog
SOLUTION B
Providing default assets
Among casual users, there’s a significant group who aren’t interested in creating their own characters, plots, or flows—they just want to jump in and try the experience. For these users, their main goal is simply to start playing as easily and quickly as possible.
To support them, I introduced another solution: pre-built default assets.
We provide a few character cards, plot cards, and preconfigured flows and agents right out of the box. This allows users to immediately try out a role play session with no setup required.
Once users enjoy their initial role play experience, they’re more likely to get curious about deeper customization options and begin exploring the rest of the platform’s features.
Default provided characters, plots, flow, and provider
Problem 2 - Overloaded interfaces
PROBLEM
Key pages are packed with features but lack guidance, overwhelming users
Some pages in the product are overloaded with too many features and pieces of information all at once. On top of that, they often lack any meaningful guidance to help users navigate what they're seeing. As a result, even when users arrive at the correct page, they’re left confused and overwhelmed—unsure of what to do next or how to proceed.
SOLUTION A
Restructuring information architecture
The most problematic page was Flow & Agents (previously called Prompts). It was overloaded with features crammed together, and the UI lacked any clear structure or guiding principles to help users make sense of it all.
Before touching the UI itself, my first priority was to ask: Should all of this even be on the same page? I brought the team together and began asking detailed questions about each feature—what it does, how it’s used, and whether it truly belongs here. Through this process we identified features that could be removed or relocated elsewhere in the product.
Restructuring IA through team discussions and Q&A sessions
SOLUTION B
Step-by-step UI
Even after refining the information architecture and reducing some features, the page still contained a high density of functionality. So for the elements that needed to remain, I broke the experience down into smaller, sequential steps. This allowed users to focus on one step at a time, transforming the interface into something much more intuitive and digestible.
Step-by-step UI for setting up an agent
Problem 3 - Lack of design system
PROBLEM
The product UI lacks consistency due to the absence of a design system
A well-designed UI naturally establishes a sense of consistency and pattern in the user's mind. Without even realizing it, users begin to respond to those patterns—resulting in a smoother and more intuitive experience.
However, this product lacked a foundational design system, making it difficult for users to recognize consistent rules or behaviors. In some cases, improperly used UI components only added to the confusion.
Same design for segmented controls and tabs
SOLUTION
Revamping the product with a proper design system
As part of the full product revamp, I also addressed the finer UI details one by one. I reviewed components to ensure they were being used appropriately and applied consistent design patterns across similar interactions. Most importantly, I began building a design system to help maintain visual and behavioral consistency as the product evolves over time.
Screenshots of the design system Figma file
Project outcome & Next steps
OUTCOME
*astrsk 1.0 official launch
The first official version of Astrsk has been released. Since we’re following a slow-release strategy, the initial rollout is limited to around 500 users, who are actively providing valuable feedback. The release will gradually expand to larger user groups over time.
NEXT STEPS
Mobile app & Device Data Sync
With the 1.0 launch behind us, we’ve already started preparing for the next steps. We're currently developing the mobile application and working on our first premium feature—Device Data Sync—which will be the platform’s first revenue-generating functionality.
For more details about the project, please contact jtk8682@gmail.com