Making life in South Korea stress-free for foreigners.

The product: 

Konnect is a hyper-personalised AI platform designed to help foreigners navigate life in South Korea by removing language and cultural barriers.

The founder, based in South Korea, reached out to me to schedule an introductory meeting to discuss my background and the company’s vision. During that first conversation, he proposed a design challenge: redesign Konnect’s landing page based on what I believed would best represent the product and its purpose.

After an initial concept and a round of critical feedback, the project evolved into a strong example of iteration, stakeholder alignment, and design decision-making.

Project duration:

December 2025 - January 2026

Project Overview

The problem: 

Konnect is a powerful AI-driven service designed to support foreigners navigating life in South Korea. However, its existing landing page did not clearly communicate the product’s purpose or guide users toward a clear next step.

The experience placed too much emphasis on explanation rather than interaction, requiring users to spend time interpreting the interface before understanding how the service could help them. In addition, the page lacked strong cultural cues, making it difficult for users to instantly associate the product with South Korea. This resulted in a first impression that felt more technology-led than service-led, increasing cognitive effort at a critical entry point.

The goal: 

The goal of this redesign was to create a landing page that feels intuitive, culturally grounded, and immediately actionable.

Rather than explaining Konnect through text, the experience needed to guide users naturally toward interaction by making the search bar the central element of the page. The design also aimed to establish a clear connection to South Korea from the first glance, while reducing visual noise and supporting future product expansion through a service-oriented navigation structure.

Ultimately, the objective was to ensure that users could arrive on the page and instinctively understand both what Konnect offers and how to begin using it.

My role: 

UX/UI Designer

Responsibilities: 

• Defined the core problem from an open-ended brief

• Designed the landing page UX and UI end to end

• Prioritised the search experience through clear visual hierarchy

• Reworked navigation to support a service-based product

• Iterated the design based on stakeholder feedback

The existing experience

The existing landing page focused on explaining the product but lacked a clear primary action and strong cultural cues, making it harder for first-time users to understand how to engage with the service.

Initial Direction & Feedback

In the first iteration, I focused on:

• A soft gradient background

• Minimal copy

• A prominent search bar inspired by familiar search experiences

While the concept communicated calm and ease of use, the founder shared clear and critical feedback that reshaped the direction of the project.

Key feedback included:

• The page did not instantly feel South Korea-related

• The headline competed too much with the search bar

• Navigation placement did not suit a service-based product

• The visual style felt too “AI-led” rather than human-led

• A darker, more grounded tone would better fit the brand

• Subtext was unnecessary and diluted focus

This feedback clarified that the landing page needed to prioritise action, cultural clarity, and human guidance above all else.

Reframing the problem

After feedback, the design challenge became:

How might we create a landing page that immediately signals “this is about Korea”, places the search experience at the centre, and feels human-first rather than technology-first?

Final Design Solution

Search bar as the primary focal point

The search bar was intentionally made the most visually dominant element on the page.

This reinforces Konnect’s core value: users can immediately ask questions and receive guidance without needing to read instructions.

Strong, recognisable Korean context

The background imagery was updated to clearly reflect South Korea at first glance.

Although the founder still expressed reservations about using photography, he acknowledged that the cultural recognition was significantly stronger and more immediate.

Navigation moved to the left

To better reflect a service-based product, the navigation was moved from the top to the left side.

This aligns with dashboard-style tools and supports future scalability beyond a single landing page.

Reduced visual competition

A subtle, glass-like effect was applied to the navigation to prevent it from competing with the main interaction.

This ensured the search experience remained the clear priority.

Icon-led navigation with progressive disclosure

Navigation became more icon-heavy, with text labels appearing on hover.

This reduced visual noise while maintaining clarity and accessibility for users when needed.

Outcome

The final version was much better received by the founder and aligned more closely with his vision for Konnect.

The updated design:

• Clearly prioritised the core interaction

• Felt culturally grounded and intentional

• Shifted away from obvious “AI aesthetics”

• Communicated guidance, not automation

Takeaways

This project highlighted the importance of early alignment when working with open-ended briefs. Creative freedom is valuable, but clarity on direction helps avoid unnecessary iteration.

It also reinforced that cultural cues play a critical role in shaping first impressions, and that stakeholder feedback is often about positioning rather than personal preference. Most importantly, it showed that AI-powered products benefit from human-centred design choices rather than overt “AI” aesthetics.