Introduction
While reviewing the portfolio companies for the Kleiner Perkins Design Fellowship Challenge, I decided to focus on a partner whose product I know firsthand. I chose Houzz—a platform I’ve used for home design inspiration and project planning. Drawing from my own experiences, along with insights from friends and family who also use the app, I decided to redesign the Houzz mobile app to modernize its content discovery and search experience.
This is a case study for the Kleiner Perkins Design Fellowship. I am not affiliated with Houzz.
Curated Search Experience
Houzz offers a wealth of resources for home design, inspiration, and shopping. However, new users may not have the best experience navigating its mobile app and getting started on a home project. Even as a regular user, I sometimes struggle to quickly locate what I’m looking for or decide where to begin my search for specific projects.
Current Design:
What if there was a technology that could understand a detailed prompt about exactly what I'm looking for, build a foundation of ideas and resources, and deliver curated content quickly? Thanks to advanced language models, that’s already exists today!
I immediately thought of a cool feature I recently used called "Browse for Me" in Arc by The Browser Company. I'm a huge fan of Arc—it offers one of the best browsing experiences for developers and designers, constantly pushing boundaries with features to enhance how we search and browse daily. Inspired by this, I wanted to create a similar experience that expands on the concept with tailored results (it learns as you search), support for multiple search media (such as providing a reference picture or videos), automated project collections, saved search results, and more. Essentially, it would act as a personal assistant, gathering, saving, and presenting exactly what you need. Imagine typing something like, "I need help remodeling my kitchen," and instantly receiving not only media results but text suggestions. This approach makes search fun and intuitive, delivering the information you need to get started right away.
No more manually saving photos, taking notes in external apps, comparing prices across tabs, or spending hours researching. Houzz is now the operating system for everything home-related.
If you still prefer searching for content through traditional methods, they remain fully available. This feature sits on top of search and will wedge its way into the hands of customers looking for a more customized search experience—without disrupting existing approaches. Additionally, it not only significantly improves the user experience but also creates new monetization opportunities for Houzz, such as sponsored results and helping users find products and resources they actually want and need faster.
Better Content Discovery
The current content experience feels static and uninspiring. To address this, I built the Discover page, drawing inspiration from TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts to enhance engagement.
You may wonder why a house-planning app would adopt social media-like features. The goal is simple: sustain curiosity, increase engagement, and unlock new revenue opportunities. Short-form content isn’t just a trend—it’s a proven strategy for driving user retention and business growth in our 8s or less generation.
In fact, research shows that video and short-form content significantly enhance user engagement, retention, and growth. According to recent data, since the introduction of YouTube Shorts, the platform has seen a significant increase in users, with monthly active users growing from 1.5 billion in 2022 to approximately 2 billion by the end of 2023; with around 80% of these users regularly watch Shorts.
Further research shows that users are 1.5 times more likely to make a purchase after discovering content in this format. The key metric in mobile apps is how long we can keep users on the app, which drives revenue through ads, partnerships, or premium services. For Houzz, this creates an opportunity to boost engagement and generate less invasive, natural revenue sources.
Source:
Branding Refresh
I also refreshed the branding with a brighter, more eye-catching mint green color theme (#00C29E) while maintaining the brand's Futura font family. The app’s icon now features a glowing halo effect—perfect for standing out among the many apps on our phones!
Design Board:
I used Figma to structure my process, from brainstorming and gathering inspiration to building high-fidelity mockups. I explored different design concepts, focusing on layout, typography, and visual hierarchy to create simple interfaces and deliver a great user experience.
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Conclusion
In this case study, I explored ways to modernize Houzz’s mobile app UI and UX, integrating modern features like short-form content and LLM-powered search. This project was a great opportunity to build on my passion for product thinking and design. I was fortunate to be a finalist for the Fellowship—grateful for the process, experiences, and those who reviewed my work.
I learned a lot about myself, my passion for design, and my future goals through my essay applications, this case study, creative video submission, and everything in between. I highly recommend all student apply to VC fellowships—there are many great ones out there, such as Thrive Capital and Kleiner Perkins. It's a great chance to learn, and who knows, you might even get the opportunity to work for one of the amazing startups these VC firms help launch and grow!
Hope you enjoyed this blog post. To anyone reading this, feel free to fork the Figma file, use any of the design resources, or draw inspiration from the content :)