Led the mobile UX/UI end-to-end — from problem framing to a scalable design system and the core acquisition-to-booking flows.
Outcome
5x iOS conversion
$1M revenue in the first 4 months
20x post-launch traffic growth
1M MAU within the year
11.6K installs in the first weeks
Role
Product Designer
Team
2 PMs
2 Engineers
2 Designers
Timeline
12 weeks (Nov 2024 – Feb 2025)
Tools
Figma, Notion, Slack
About the service
EnkorStay is a long-term housing marketplace for international renters, helping them discover neighborhoods, evaluate listings, and book housing in Korea with confidence.
Why this project existed
Enkostay already had a web platform and a mobile web experience, but user behavior showed a consistent pattern: users discovered listings on mobile and completed bookings on desktop.
Our research revealed two key insights:
The mobile web experience lacked the speed and polish of a native app.
Long-term rentals is a significant purchase, so users felt more confident completing the transaction on desktop.
The goal was to design the entire native mobile experience and remove the break in the conversion funnel.
Problems
A 200+ respondent survey of international renters consistently surfaced three recurring pain points.
Contextualization
Location discovery
A foreign address in text form alone doesn’t convey enough geographical context. So I explored design options aimed at contextualizing listings in relation to location.
Home Explorations
*UI here is a bit different since we were exploring branding as well.
List with map toggle
Gains
Faster list scanning
Familiar marketplace pattern
Higher information density
Trade-offs
Geographic context is hidden until users explicitly open the map
Users must evaluate unfamiliar neighborhoods from text alone
Additional interaction (toggle) interrupts exploration
Curated discovery
Gains
Reduces decision paralysis
Helps first-time visitors start exploring immediately by popular stays or their campus
Trade-offs
Editorial bias
Lower listing density
Hidden geographic context
Map with Popular & University Filters
Gains
Geographic understanding
Reduce cognitive load for unfamiliar locations
Better destination discovery for first-time visitors
Trade-offs
Show fewer listings at once
Additional interaction (toggle) interrupts exploration
Solutions
Map-first exploration
Most users don't know Seoul's geography, so a map is the most intuitive way to convey location — I made it the default, not a toggle away.
Surface key listing context upfront
Utilities are one of the top unknowns for international renters, so surfacing them alongside availability lets users scan and compare listings that fit their needs at a glance — speeding up the path to conversion.
Richer listing cards
Comparing many unfamiliar listings means tapping in and out of each one adds up fast — so surfacing key info directly on the card lets users shortlist by scrolling alone, keeping momentum toward booking instead of decision fatigue.
Transparency
Booking with confidence
Surfacing the most important info at the right time.
Information timing exploration
Option 1
Reveal everything on detail page
Option 2
Reveal information only after interaction
Option 3
Progressive reveal throughout the journey
Applied across the journey
Calendar
Need: Select stay dates
Blocker: Minimum stay rules
Reveal: Minimum stay requirements before users selected dates
Outcome
Users understand booking constraints while selecting dates.
Listing/Detail
Need: Evaluate the listing
Blocker: Host credibility & commute
Reveal: Surface trust and location context upfront
Outcome
Users can evaluate trust and commute at a glance.
Checkout
Need: Complete booking
Blocker: Payment compatability
Reveal: Clarify payment expectations before checkout
Outcome
Users can pay with less stress for paying huge amount with confident.
Results
$1M
Revenue in 4 months
5x
iOS booking conversion
20x
Traffic growth
What I learned
People explore unfamiliar places before they evaluate them.
The timing of information is just as important as the information itself.
Reducing uncertainty can create more value than adding more features.