Unlocking the Possibilities of
Social Media Bookmarks
A feature concept that brings your saved posts back into search — so the things you bookmarked surface alongside what's new and trending, instead of staying buried.
duration
5 months, 2025-2026
TYPE
ArtCenter Graduate Project
Advisors: Brian Boyl, Aaron Bjork
MY ROLE
End-to-end: research, UX/UI design, prototyping
Achievement
95% would use this feature
Validated with 42 Gen Z testers, ages 18–28
The Challenge
How might we turn forgotten saves
on social media into everyday inspiration?
Search Landing Screen
A search landing
that blends your saves with new finds
Search and bookmarks have always lived in two separate places. Rubie merges them — so the moment you start typing, your saves are already part of the answer.
AI Chat Search
AI search that prioritizes your saves
Tap Bookmark Mode and Rubie answers with your saved posts first, followed by relevant new content from the wider feed — putting you in control of which lens leads the search.
Content View
Constraints
designed to focus on your bookmarks
A simple horizontal swipe on the bottom cloud bar shifts the image of the selected photo tile at the top — a light, physical way to browse what you've saved.
Micro-interactions that make Rubie feel alive
Context
What to do? What to eat?
Gen Z actively seeks and saves daily ideas on social media.
For Gen Z, Social media is not just a platform for communication — it’s an active space for discovering real-time, trend-driven information through people.
User Research
But most of what they save never resurfaces.
I surveyed 42 Gen Z users (ages 18–28) about how often they revisit what they bookmark. The pattern was clear: saving feels productive in the moment, but the content rarely makes it back into their day.
Market Research
Competitor Analysis
I audited seven platforms — Instagram, Threads, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit — to see how each handles saved content. Across all of them, the saved tab sits apart from search. Rediscovery becomes a separate task instead of part of the flow.
Social media prioritizes instant joy, constantly surfacing trending content.
Problem
Today’s social media search
prioritizes new and trending content,
making saved content harder to rediscover.
Persona
Three Types of Users
Created three personas representing the information flow ecosystem of social media.
User Research
User Interview Insights
Examined how the current information-driven social media ecosystem operates and identified specific needs across different user groups.
Goal
Design a search experience that balances three needs: rediscovery for consumers, visibility for creators, and engagement for platforms.
Trending content serves creators and platforms — visibility for new work, engagement for the business. But users' saves stay locked in a separate folder, invisible the moment they start searching. A system that works for everyone except the person searching.
Design Decision 1
Search UI vs Chat UI
Bookmarks are mostly daily-life curation — cafés, recipes, fashion. The kind of content people ask a friend about, not type into a search bar. Chat UI fits — retrieval feels less like a lookup, more like asking someone who knows your taste.
PROS
Easy to scan and compare results
Familiar — users already know how to filter and sort
CONS
Requires precise keywords
Discovery feels fragmented: query, result, repeat
PROS
Natural-language input lowers friction
Built for open-ended discovery and refinement
CONS
Harder to see all results at a glance
Limited filtering and sorting controls
Design Decision 2
Position of AI Chat Search
Because we chose a chat-based UI, we placed search at the bottom for maximum convenience.
Final Design 1
Search Landing Screen
Final Design 2
Search Results
Final Design 3
Content View
What I've learned
Depth of Problem Definition
At first, the problem was defined broadly as Gen Z not fully utilizing bookmark data. Because it was too broad, the solutions were vague and scattered. Once the focus narrowed to issues within the current search system, the solution became much clearer.
Understanding the Ecosystem
Initially, I assumed this was mainly a problem for content consumers, so I only interviewed consumers. However, when designing, I realized the solution could also benefit creators. By looking at the entire ecosystem, the ideas became more realistic and cohesive.
Importance of Iteration
By creating multiple versions (A, B, C, D), I experienced how iterative design makes solutions more practical and user-friendly.