App for all things Hungarian in the US
A complete redesign and cross-platform rebuild of the HuGo community app.
HuGo is a community-powered discovery app for Hungarians in the United States — and anyone curious about Hungarian culture. From a chimney cake maker in California to the stained-glass windows of the Washington National Cathedral, if it has ties to Hungary, HuGo knows about it.
Our job: take an existing iOS-only app and transform it. New design, new architecture, new platforms — while keeping the community that had already built it.
The Challenge
Built for the community,
in two directions at once.
HuGo’s strength is its community — users find, photograph, and upload the places. That means the UX had to work hard in two directions at once.
Getting people to contribute. We needed to make content creation feel rewarding, not like a chore. The solution: a star-based rating system that surfaces and rewards the most active contributors.
Getting people to donate. HuGo is backed by a foundation. We ran a dedicated monetization workshop to find a donation model that felt natural — not transactional — for a community-first product.
The Solution
Discovery
We started by reviewing the existing app end-to-end with our discovery framework — mapping every user flow, identifying friction points, and proposing new features. Each proposal was scored on feasibility vs. value, giving the client a prioritized roadmap they could act on immediately.
Monetization Workshop
Before writing any code, we ran a dedicated workshop on monetization models. We evaluated what works for community apps — and more importantly, what wouldn't feel wrong to this particular audience. The result: a one-time and recurring donation feature designed around community generosity, not conversion pressure.
Design
The visual redesign kept HuGo's soul — including its hussar mascot — but made him (and everything around him) sharper, more playful, and more contemporary. The map view was restructured for clarity. Every screen was designed mobile-first and tested against real usage patterns from the existing app.
Development
React Native for cross-platform coverage — the app now runs on both iOS and Android from a single codebase. Python and PHP power the backend. The architecture was built for the community to grow into: more places, more users, more features.
See it in motion
What we delivered
Modernised visuals, improved map clarity, and a more playful mascot
Rebuilt from iOS-only to full iOS + Android coverage via React Native
Star-based contribution system motivating users to add and verify places
