Chuzi PTE.LTD
2021
This project walks through the design process of Chuzi, a mobile app envisioned as the next big dance and music platform in India and the Philippines. It was developed in 2020 by Chuzi Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based company with a global team across Canada, India, and the Philippines. Chuzi set out to meet the growing demand for user-generated content and give both creators and viewers a stage.
Branding & Identity
UI/UX
Product Design
Chuzi App — then and now
Company: Chuzi PTE.LTD
Role: UI/UX & Product Lead Designer
Industry: Entertainment, Content
THE CHALLENGE
Chuzi is a passionate startup with a clear vision for their dance and music app. Joining their lean team mid-development, I had no documentation, no design system, and no blueprint to work from. Everything lived in Figma, inconsistencies had already crept into the product, and the clock was ticking before launch.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Chuzi presented a rare kind of opportunity. The platform is built to fill the void left by TikTok’s absence in India, giving aspiring dancers and music creators a dedicated space to compete, grow, and eventually earn. For creators, it’s a stage. For viewers, it’s a reward system that keeps them coming back.
For me personally, this was a first. Leading design and reporting directly to a CEO, while collaborating with a diverse team of creatives across Singapore and India, pushed me into new territory in the best way possible.
THE WORK
I collaborated with the CEO and department heads to define the MVP, run a competitive analysis, and map a clear user journey from scratch. To keep the team aligned, I established the foundational documentation, clear design processes, and a unified design system. Finally, I refreshed Chuzi’s visual identity and redesigned the website to create a dynamic experience that truly reflects the brand.
KEY PROJECTS
Chuzi
Choose your groove
SIMPLIFYING CHALLENGE & VOTING WORKFLOWS
We streamlined Chuzi’s interface with dedicated tabs and clear navigation to make voting and creating challenges effortless. By focusing the MVP on 1v1 dance battles within our existing community, we significantly cut down development time while maintaining quality.
SIMPLIFYING CHALLENGE NAVIGATION & POINT REWARDS
I redesigned challenge creation so users can quickly shoot or upload dance videos and launch 24-hour voting contests. Engaging micro-interactions give users real-time feedback, making earning points both transparent and fun.
EFFORTLESS VOTING & VERIFIED CHALLENGE INTEGRITY
Supporting a favorite creator is as simple as tapping the Chuzi Star icon. To keep competition fair and engaging, we updated the challenge mechanics to protect against abuse without adding friction for genuine users.
01
Identified and Streamlined the MVP
Walking in with no documentation and six months of unconventional processes to untangle, I took the initiative to review, regroup, and realign the team around the current state of the product. We tightened the MVP by scaling back the rules and challenge mechanics to give the team better control over uploaded content and prevent reward exploitation. From there, we clearly defined what needed to ship now versus later, giving design and development a cleaner, more focused path forward.
02
Delivered the Full MVP Scope in 2 Months
By aligning closely with stakeholders and finding the right middle ground between ambition and feasibility, we kept the project moving without losing momentum. Every redesigned screen and updated user journey for the Chuzi dance app was delivered within two months, on scope and ready for development.
03
Launched
I had moved on from Chuzi before the product went live, but a month after I delivered the final screens, I saw the news on Facebook and LinkedIn. The MVP had launched. Sometimes the best validation comes after you’ve already left the building.
what i learned
Balancing ambition with reality
Chuzi was full of energy and big ideas, and I genuinely loved that about the team. But time is always the silent constraint in any product build. I learned to make sharper decisions about what to prioritize, letting go of the nice-to-haves without losing sight of what would actually move the needle for users. Good UX isn’t always about doing more. Sometimes it’s about doing less, better.
Knowing when to speak up
Even after delivering the MVP, something didn’t sit right. My instinct told me the product wasn’t quite ready for launch. I brought my concerns to the CEO directly, an honest conversation about bugs, incomplete UIs, and the long-term cost of a rushed release. It wasn’t the easiest conversation, but it was the right one. The decision to push forward anyway reminded me that advocacy is part of the job, even when the outcome isn’t what you hoped for.
Knowing when to move on
Chuzi was one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I’ve taken on. But when the product direction started to drift from my belief in shipping quality work, I had to be honest with myself too. Leaving wasn’t easy, but it was the right call. The experience made me a sharper, more grounded design leader and reinforced what I value most in the work I do.
What I’d Do Differently
Getting in earlier
Joining six months into development meant inheriting decisions I had no hand in making. If I could do it again, I would have pushed harder and faster to establish structure from day one rather than untangling it along the way. The earlier you set the foundation, the better everything that follows turns out to be.
