Vendirect
End-to-End Mobile App Design
Project Summary
Mission
Vendirect is an end-to-end design project that reimagines how gap year students and their parents in Israel discover and connect with local services.
The mission was to create a centralized, intuitive business directory that simplifies a fragmented process, bringing everything from international SIM cards and recommended restaurants to laundry and medical care into one reliable platform. Through user research, competitive analysis, and iterative design, the goal was to deliver a seamless experience that feels trustworthy and easy to use for both tech-savvy teens and less digitally native parents, while also offering small businesses a sustainable way to reach their audience.
The Problem
Finding reliable services during a gap year in Israel is harder than it should be.
Parents and students often rely on scattered Facebook groups, word-of-mouth recommendations, or outdated websites, leading to frustration, wasted time, and uncertainty about quality. On the other side, small local businesses struggle to reach this niche audience in a clear, affordable way. The lack of a centralized, trustworthy hub creates a gap that leaves both students and businesses underserved.
The Solution
Vendirect was designed as the natural next step for IsraelGapYear’s already trusted platform.
Building on a well-established reputation with thousands of students and parents, the goal was to extend that trust into a digital business directory that feels both reliable and easy to navigate. By centralizing services in one intuitive app, Vendirect gives users confidence that they’re accessing vetted, relevant options, while also creating a clear, affordable channel for small businesses to connect with the gap year community.
Timeframe
5 weeks (July-August 2025)
My Role
Product Designer (with prior role as Digital Marketing Manager at IsraelGapYear)
Research
User flows
Wireframing
Visual design
Branding
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Skills
Figma
Fig Jam
Google Forms
Maze
Tools
Starting with Research
Coming into this project, I was already familiar with IsraelGapYear’s audience from my role as Digital Marketing Manager, which gave me insight into their needs and behaviors. Still, it was important to go beyond assumptions, define who would benefit most from a directory app, and focus on features that solved real pain points rather than creating a “nice-to-have” add-on.
User Surveys
For this project, I prioritized surveys as the fastest way to gather broad insights, supported by a few informal interviews for context. The surveys were concise yet comprehensive- long enough to capture key data but short enough to keep users engaged and maximize responses.
Competitor Analysis
A competitor analysis was performed to understand how similar platforms approached this space, identify gaps in their offerings, and gather inspiration for best practices. This helped clarify what Vendirect needed to do differently to truly stand out and solve unmet needs.
Who Are We Designing For?
To guide the design, I narrowed in on the users who would gain the most from a business directory app. By distilling survey and interview insights and affinity mapping, I shaped a clear persona that captured their core needs, frustrations, and goals.
Setting the Priorities Straight
At this stage, it was all about focusing on what really mattered for launch and making sure the app stayed simple, practical, and built around the most important needs first.
Project Goals
Clarifying project goals made it possible to connect what gap year families truly need with what IsraelGapYear as a business must achieve, creating a focused foundation for Vendirect’s design.
From Core Needs to Future Growth
In defining Vendirect’s edge, it was key to separate essential launch features from those that could come later. The MVP focused on core priorities such as search, filtering, saving favorites, and direct contact, while features like recommendations, personalization, and community tools were mapped as future opportunities to keep the launch practical yet scalable.
App Map
With the features prioritized, an app map was used to visualize Vendirect’s structure, making sure that every screen had a clear purpose and logical connection. This helped align features with project goals, simplify navigation, and validate that the MVP could be delivered in a streamlined, intuitive way.
User Flow
A flow was created to outline how users would search within a category, apply filters to narrow results, and save a business for later. While flows were also created for onboarding and other key actions, this one is highlighted here as the most critical path and the focus of usability testing which would be tackled later.
Exploring the Flow
It was now time to begin bringing Vendirect to life.
Beginning with Sketches
Sketching in the lowest fidelity was a crucial first step, especially for an end-to-end application like Vendirect. I focused on quickly mapping out as many screens as possible, even beyond the initial test flows, to think ahead and explore the full scope before moving into deeper design.
Moving up in Fidelity
After sketching, I moved into mid-fidelity wireframes to refine structure, layout, and hierarchy before committing to visuals. This stage was important to validate flows and iterate on functionality without the distraction of final colors or branding. By taking this step instead of jumping straight to high-fidelity, I was able to focus on how the app actually worked for users and ensure the foundation was solid before polishing the details.
Branding Vendirect
Building a Vision from Scratch
Because Vendirect was designed with long-term potential in mind, branding played a central role. While the app was created under IsraelGapYear, it needed its own identity- one that was connected to the parent brand but strong enough to stand alone. This separation ensures that if scaled, sold, or expanded to new audiences, the brand would have the flexibility to grow independently.
A complete visual system was developed from scratch: a custom logo, color palette, typography, and style tile that defined the look and feel. A full UI kit was also built for Vendirect, ensuring consistency across screens and laying the groundwork for future scalability.
Going High Fidelity
The high-fidelity designs brought Vendirect’s custom UI to life, translating the branding and UI kit into polished screens. These designs were treated as living iterations, refined continuously through feedback and testing to ensure both usability and visual consistency.
Testing the Flow
To test how intuitive and effective the feature really was, I ran a remote usability test using Maze. I recruited 10 participants and gave them three simple, realistic tasks. They were all intended to help me observe how users naturally approached the most important features and whether the flow felt clear, seamless, and purposeful.
Task 1:
“You are the parent of a gap year student living in Israel. You’d like to order food to be delivered to your child’s dorm. Navigate to where you would find businesses that sell food.”
Task 2:
“Your child is studying in Jerusalem AND has food allergies. Show me how you’d filter the Catering & Food vendors to find the ones that work for them.”
Task 3:
“You’ve decided you want to learn more about "SafeBites Israel". Please look at their business page and add it to your favorites so you can easily find it later.”
Analysis
All usability test tasks reached a 100% success rate, showing that the core flows were clear and intuitive. However, analysis of misclicks, particularly 41.2% misclick rate in the third and final task, revealed opportunities to refine interactions and reduce user confusion for an even smoother experience.
Small Changes, Big Impact
Based on usability feedback, small but important iterations were made such as switching the heart icons to a clearer bookmark symbol and adjusting the bottom sheet interaction so that saving a business felt more intuitive, especially for less tech-familiar users.
Future Testing
Looking ahead, more usability sessions would be run on areas not yet tested, such as onboarding, profile pages, the forum, and accessing saved items. Exploring these flows would uncover new insights and ensure the experience feels seamless end-to-end.
Reflection
Working on Vendirect was a unique opportunity to contribute to a company I had previously been part of, but this time in a completely different capacity and with a new set of skills. Designing an end-to-end product from research through high-fidelity prototypes highlighted both the challenges and the potential of building something from the ground up. While this case study represents the design stages, the possibilities for Vendirect are far-reaching, offering real impact for families and businesses in a market that has yet to be tapped.
Expand usability testing to onboarding, profiles, forum, and saved items
Explore additional features beyond the MVP, such as recommendations and community tools
Test scalability for other audiences and potential new markets
Collaborate with developers to bring designs into a functional prototype