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Applied Underwriters
Karmia is a platform for charitable gift cards that allows users to donate to causes they care about through a simple, guided experience. The platform matches donors with over two million nonprofits, enabling giving by cause, charity name, or location. As both a B2C and B2B startup, Karmia helps nonprofits reach new, tech-savvy donors while offering brands and organizations modern tools for charitable giving, including QR codes and NFC-based transactions.
When I joined the team, Karmia’s visual language and simple, functional aesthetic were already established. My role was to maintain consistency while extending the experience across new pages and devices.
My Role
I joined Karmia as a junior UX designer and contributed across UX strategy, research, wireframing, prototyping, visual design, and design system work. This was one of my first professional UX roles and played a key part in shaping how I approach systems thinking, collaboration, and solving real product problems.
I worked closely with senior designers and engineers, receiving direction and feedback while owning specific flows and responsive implementations.
The Challenge
Karmia needed to balance simplicity with complexity. The platform supports millions of nonprofits, multiple user types, and both B2C and B2B use cases, all while maintaining a calm and approachable experience for first-time donors. As a growing startup, requirements were often evolving, and new pages needed to align with an existing design system without introducing unnecessary complexity.
Designing for a platform that supports over 2 million nonprofits while keeping the experience simple and approachable for first-time donors
Balancing B2C and B2B needs within a single product ecosystem
Working within an established visual system while creating new pages and flows
Adapting to evolving requirements in a fast-moving startup environment
Creating responsive designs that prioritized key actions across mobile, tablet, and desktop
Design Strategy
The design strategy for Karmia focused on simplifying charitable giving across devices while supporting both B2C and B2B users. The goal was to reduce friction, prioritize clarity, and build trust so users could easily discover nonprofits and complete donations with confidence.
A mobile-first, system-driven approach guided the work. By designing for smaller screens first, only the most essential content and actions were emphasized, then scaled up for tablet and desktop. Consistency was maintained by adhering to the existing design system while extending it through responsive layouts, empty states, checkout flows, and a custom icon set to support growth without compromising usability.
Design Execution
Responsive Design: Mobile and Tablet
One of my primary responsibilities was designing the mobile and tablet versions of the website. Karmia’s responsive experience needed to surface essential information and actions clearly across screen sizes without overwhelming users.
For new pages, I followed a mobile-first approach, designing for the smallest screens first and progressively enhancing the layout as screen size increased. These designs were then handed off to the development team and used as the reference for implementation. This approach helped ensure clarity, consistency, and scalability across devices.
Designing Meaningful Empty States
I also focused on designing empty states, which play an important role in guiding users when no data is present. Rather than treating empty states as dead ends, we used them as opportunities to encourage action and reduce friction.
For example, Karmia’s empty cart state clearly prompts users to either move items from “Saved for Later” or continue browsing nonprofits. These moments helped reinforce next steps while keeping the experience friendly and intentional.
Simplifying the Checkout Experience
Because Karmia functions as a marketplace for nonprofits, a clear and trustworthy checkout experience was essential. I worked on defining and simplifying checkout flows across multiple scenarios, including guest users and logged-in users.
My goal was to reduce cognitive load while maintaining transparency around donations and transactions. By mapping out these scenarios and refining the steps, we helped create a smoother donation process that felt approachable for first-time users and efficient for returning donors.
Designing an Icon Set
As part of the design process, I created a custom icon set that was used consistently throughout the Karmia platform, with a primary focus on representing charity categories. The task was to redesign the existing icons and establish a cohesive visual library that aligned with Karmia’s simple, functional aesthetic.
Each icon was designed for clarity, scalability, and consistency across web and mobile experiences. The final icon set helped users quickly scan and understand different causes, improved visual cohesion across pages, and became a reusable system element that supported both current and future product needs.
Outcome
This project marked a key milestone in my growth as a UX designer. Through hands-on work across responsive design, systems thinking, and user flows, I gained experience translating product goals into clear, usable interfaces. Collaborating with designers and engineers taught me how design decisions scale within real products and how thoughtful UX can make charitable giving more accessible and intuitive.
