As Etsy shifted from a primarily web-based experience to mobile, the product had become fragmented across teams, platforms, and years of isolated A/B-driven decisions. I joined the new systems team to help create a cohesive, mobile-first experience through motion design.
I led the creation of Etsy’s motion system, including global transitions, component behaviors, engineering tokens, and future-facing motion concepts.
As Etsy shifted from a primarily web-based experience to mobile, the product had become fragmented across teams, platforms, and years of isolated A/B-driven decisions. I joined the new systems team to help create a cohesive, mobile-first experience through motion design.
I led the creation of Etsy’s motion system, including global transitions, component behaviors, engineering tokens, and future-facing motion concepts.
As Etsy shifted from a primarily web-based experience to mobile, the product had become fragmented across teams, platforms, and years of isolated A/B-driven decisions. I joined the new systems team to help create a cohesive, mobile-first experience through motion design.
I led the creation of Etsy’s motion system, including global transitions, component behaviors, engineering tokens, and future-facing motion concepts.
The new design system was introduced internally through a hype reel I created and presented across the company.
I defined a system of global transitions with clear rules, rationale, and implementation guidance. Partnering across product verticals, I helped standardize navigation behaviors throughout the app.
This led to several major improvements. For example, the cart experience moved from a bottom-sheet web view into the app’s core navigation layer. Search flows were also simplified. Previously users could end up six or more screens deep while refining searches. We reworked the logic so users could return in a single tap.
After establishing foundational transitions, I focused on more immersive, motion-driven interactions. The existing app relied heavily on stacked left-to-right page transitions, creating a flat experience.
Working with another designer, I developed a masonry-style browsing pattern using modal transitions. Instead of pushing users deeper into navigation stacks, interactions kept them within the same visual “space,” creating a more fluid and immersive browsing experience.
I explored similar concepts within search, designing a system where search results remain in a continuous spatial environment rather than fragmented pages. Search history and refinements were preserved through expandable breadcrumb interactions, helping users stay oriented during deeper exploration.
When I joined, loading patterns varied widely across teams, some screens used spinners, others skeleton loaders, and image-loading behaviors were inconsistent.
I audited the app and created a unified loading system with clear guidelines. Pages now load with dynamic skeleton states, delayed images use progressive blur loading, and spinners are reserved for known processing moments such as checkout or onboarding. Longer wait states explored lightweight animated illustrations to reduce reliance on generic spinners.
I also designed the app startup experience, including a subtle logo animation and a custom skeleton-loading sequence tailored to Etsy’s dynamic homepage layout.
The startup flow also introduced a flexible framework for marketing moments, allowing branded video content to integrate seamlessly into app launch and loading.
I created motion specifications for Etsy’s mobile and web components, including handoff documentation, implementation tokens, and motion guidelines that could scale across future components and teams.
