LiftLabs: Designing and launching an app in two weeks
Part 1
Designing a native mobile app to control and track a new ropeless lift system while fitting seamlessly into real-world lobster fishing workflows.
Project overview
LiftLabs developed a ropeless lift system that allows lobster traps to surface without traditional ropes and buoys.
My role was to design the native mobile experience used to locate, deploy, retrieve, and manage the system while fitting into existing fishing practices.
The initial product had to go from concept to a working app in just two weeks, making prioritization and close collaboration with development critical from the start.
Learn more about how it works
Project objective
The project's primary aim was to design, develop, and launch an intuitive, simple, and targeted native mobile app that seamlessly integrates with current lobster fishing techniques. The app will also offer precise tracking, deployment, retrieval, and management of the LiftLabs system. To accomplish this successfully, it was also necessary to gain an understanding of the inner workings of the system, lobster fishing practices, and the competition LiftLabs was up against.
Timeline
2 weeks (initial sprint)
Project ongoing
My role
Product Designer
UX Reseracher
UX/UI
Collaboration
LiftLabs founder
3 mobile developers
Tools
Figma / FigJam
Jira
Adobe Photoshop
Slack
The process
Discover
Define
Design
Deliver
Next steps
Stakeholder interview
Market research
Competitive analysis
Contextual inquiries
User flows
Comparative analysis
Sketches
Style guide
Custom icons and designs
Hi-Fi wireframes + prototype
Dev handoff materials
Mapping out the project
LiftLabs needed a working app in time for a demonstration with lobster fishers and potential investors. That gave us just two weeks for research and design before development, testing, and troubleshooting began.
The timeline meant I couldn't research everything or explore every possible feature. I needed to quickly understand the system, identify the most important user needs, and establish a focused MVP that development could build against.
How the system works
Before designing the app, I needed to understand how the LiftLabs hardware, boat, and fishing workflow worked together.
The system introduced a completely different interaction model from a typical mobile app: users were controlling physical equipment through the phone while working on the water.
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The fisher locates the LiftLabs system (Lift) via a dropped pin on a map
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When nearby the Lift, an acoustic signal is sent from the boat to the Lift attached to the lead trap
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The Lift inflates a buoy, creating enough buoyancy to raise the Lift and lead trap to the surface, attached to the rest of the trawl (a string of traps linked together)
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The fisher puts the Lift into its docking station, where it is reset
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The catch is unloaded, trap by trap
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The Lift is reattached, and the Trawl is pushed back overboard
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A pin is dropped on the map to show the location of the Lift and Trawl
Understanding the people, environment, and system
Having limited prior knowledge of lobster fishing and recent advances in ropeless fishing innovation, it was important to explore the key aspects and intricacies of each to hone in on the app's requirements. To do so, the discovery phase was divided into 4 sections of research.
Founder interview
I started with the founder to understand the product vision, technical constraints, and goals for the first release.
This helped establish the core capabilities the app needed to support, including locating equipment, managing Lifts and Trawls, and sending commands to individual devices.
App objectives and criteria:
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Map easily shows where the LiftLabs System is located
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Add/Remove LiftLabs Systems
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Pin a Lift or Trawl
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Assign unique Lift to lead or end trap of a Trawl
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Quick ability to select and send acoustic commands to individual lifts
Designing for the environment
Understanding lobster fishing wasn't just about learning the terminology. I needed to understand the environment where the app would actually be used and the constraints that environment would create.
I considered factors such as:
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Gloves and physical interaction
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Movement of the boat
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Bright sunlight and screen visibility
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Divided attention while fishing
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Different crew sizes and responsibilities
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Different fishing styles and workflows
These constraints became important design considerations throughout the MVP.
Understanding the existing system
I reviewed existing documentation and prior research to understand how the LiftLabs hardware communicated with the app and what developers would need from the design.
This helped me account for technical constraints early and understand where the mobile experience fit within the larger system.
Learning from existing solutions
I reviewed competing fishing systems and apps to understand how similar products handled equipment management, navigation, and deployment.
The biggest opportunity was simplicity. Many existing solutions were complex and difficult to understand, reinforcing the need for LiftLabs to make its core tasks quick and approachable.
Defining the MVP
With only two weeks for research and design, I needed to establish what the first version absolutely had to do.
The MVP focused on the essential task required to manage LiftLabs equipment while fishing. These criteria became the foundation for the user flows and interface design.
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Keep the interface simple to learn and operate
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Support large touch targets for use with gloves
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Quickly add, edit, swap, and remove devices
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Locate and navigate to deployed equipment
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Deploy and retrieve Lifts and Trawls
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Monitor battery status
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Support phones and tablets
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Adapt to different fishing practices
Designing around the essential tasks
With the MVP defined, I broke the experience into four core scenarios:
Mapping these flows helped strip away unnecessary functionality and focus the initial design on the tasks fishers would need to complete most often.
From flows to interface
With the core workflows defined, I began exploring how the app could make those tasks fast and easy to complete on the water.
I worked closely with the development team throughout the process to validate technical feasibility early and avoid designing interactions that couldn't be supported within the timeline.
The design evolved from rough sketches into a working prototype, with each iteration focused on simplifying the core workflows and making important actions easy to access.
The research and MVP criteria led to a few principles that guided the interface.
Designed for quick decisions
Keep the most important information and actions immediately accessible.
Designed for touch
Use large, easy-to-target controls that remain practical when users are wearing gloves or moving around a boat.
Designed for awareness
Make location, battery status, deployment state, and other critical information easy to scan.
Designed for flexibility
Support different fishing styles while keeping the core workflows consistent.
Designed across devices
Create a flexible layout that works across phones and tablets without compromising access to the map or key controls.
Designing for the real world
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Simple layout
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Quickly switch between map and list view
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Easily view and edit trawl and lift information
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Large buttons / touch points
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Battery status monitoring
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Easily view and edit
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Quickly edit, deploy and retrieve lifts / trawls
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Large buttons / touch points
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Rapid re-deployment after retrieval
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Simple GPS pinning
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Immediate review of pertinent deployment information
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One-off tasks or task done on land placed strategically in the hamburger menu
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Easily swap or edit lift information
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Simplified and flexible design to fit with a variety of fishing styles
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Flexible design, usable on both phone and tablet by placing the cards from the phone design on the far right of the tablet, and allowing the map to always be visible on the left.
Version 1 prototype
The first working prototype brought the core workflows together into a product that could be handed to development and tested in the field.
The goal wasn't to solve every possible use case. It was to create a focused, functional foundation that could be validated with real users and improved through subsequent iterations.
From prototype to product
Once the prototype was finalized, I worked directly with the development team to walk through the experience, document interactions, and clarify functionality and navigation.
I created detailed development notes and worked through Jira tickets during debugging to help resolve issues before the product was demonstrated to lobster fishers and potential investors in Nova Scotia.
Next steps
With the MVP established, the next phase focused on refining the experience based on real-world use and feedback.
Account & Authentication
Create a smoother sign-up and login experience with clearer account management and recovery options.
UI & Interaction
Refine layouts, interactions, and visual patterns to make the app more consistent and easier to use.
Responsive Experience
Reduce unnecessary scrolling and create flexible layouts that work across different mobile devices.
Real-World Validation
Test the product with fishers in the field to identify friction, validate key workflows, and guide future improvements.
