– YAHOO! –

Designing the Foundation for Mobile Growth

A Unified Vision Mobile
B2C (Business to Consumer) / Mobile App iOS

Challenges
When I stepped in, the Yahoo! app was a stagnant and underperforming digital property with no clear strategic ownership. It had been operating in maintenance mode with limited leadership support and no defined mobile strategy or product vision. User sentiment reflected this reality. The app carried a 1.5-star rating on iOS, driven by no effective acquisition, retention, or engagement strategies in place.

In short, the Yahoo! app wasn’t failing because of market conditions. It was failing because it lacked vision, focus, and advocacy.

Solution
I led the design of the Yahoo! app (iOS) working closely with the product partner in Sunnyvale, California, developer teams from Taiwan and Singapore. The product and design strategy is centered on delivering a modern, unified, intuitive, and globally relevant experience. The solution introduced a unified content architecture that brought together core Yahoo! categories, News, Finance, Sports, Videos, Photo Galleries, Email, and Entertainment, Friends, wrapped in a localized and familiar navigation model.

To support adoption across international markets, the app incorporated localized experiences tailored to regional languages, content priorities, and cultural expectations. The result was a modernized global app experience that reintroduced the Yahoo! brand to mobile users while addressing long-standing quality issues.

Key Features

  • A unified content architecture spanning News, Finance, Sports, Entertainment and more.

  • Market-specific localization to drive adoption, engagement and relevance.

  • Streamlined discovery flows for search, sharing, and personalized content.

Business Impact

  • App Store ranking improved to #4 (up from #8) within 5 months.

  • App Store rating improvement to 3 stars (up from 1.5 stars).

Role & Responsibilities
I am responsible for designing the Yahoo! app (iOS) and enhancing existing Yahoo! News designs, creating wireframes, user flows, visual design, app art assets, usability testing, and making promotional materials for the Apple App Store, web publishers, and Yahoo!’s major product launch event.

yhoo_1.png
 

Product Availability

  • 4 countries, United States, Taiwan, Australia and Hong Kong.

 

I created the Yahoo! icon for the app, and with the Yahoo! brand team’s blessing, it sits nicely on the the device and app store.

 

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT JET AT YAHOO!

Sr. Product Manager, Design partner at Yahoo! Weather, Sunnyvale, CA, United States

Jet is a pleasure to work with as has been a wonderful and talented designer on our Yahoo! Weather for Android team. He brings a lot of energy and ideas to a project and expediently delivers great designs and assets.

Jet has the tenacity to jump into a project at any stage and with high risks, as supported by a fond memory of his work-marathon during the famed Yahoo! Hack Days (24 hour product innovation marathon) to work on our Weather team. The result - we won amongst 80+ other teams. Any team would be stronger for having such a strong design contributor.

Sr. Product Manager, Design partner at Yahoo! News, Sunnyvale, CA, United States

Jet is talented as well as motivated when it comes to design. He not only creates experiences that are visually attractive, but goes the extra step to make sure the implementation stacks up to his high standards. Jet would be an asset in any organization that values design.