Case study

Redesign of NASA APoD

Using NLP to redesign and build a new NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day app increasing engagement and reducing churn by 60%

Digital Design, Mobile Design
Ongoing

Responsibilities

Interaction design

UI Design

Prototyping

Tools

Figma

Xcode

Google Cloud Platform

Teams

3 UX Designers

2 Engineers

Context

Project overview

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day website lacks thoughtful design, and third-party mobile apps fail to truly help people appreciate the cosmos. This project is a complete redesign of the APoD experience by designing and building an app that transforms how people engage with astronomy.

By reimagining the interface and user journey around the NASA APoD API, the goal is to inspire curiosity, make the cosmos more accessible, and help people develop a deeper appreciation for astronomy through thoughtful design and interaction.

Current situation

NASA APoD website

Third-party APoD apps

Presents raw data without an engaging experience
Low incentive for casual users to return, limiting its appeal to non-enthusiasts

An Instagram-like feed on endless scroll with a date picker
Doesn't tell any story or take you on a journey, however it has a comment section

API Analysis & AI Integration

Understanding the NASA APoD API

Response structure

{
  "date": "YYYY-MM-DD",
  "title": "string",
  "explanation": "text",
  "url": "image URL",
  "copyright": "string"
}

The NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day API returns a single day's image and metadata. Use the date parameter to request a specific day. While comprehensive, it lacks narrative structure, emotional context, and the editorial curation that transforms data into an engaging experience.

Returns JSON response with daily astronomy picture data
Requires API key for authentication
Rate limit: 1000 requests per hour

All astronomy

Discover the cosmos.

Experience space.

The universe is vast, ancient, and endlessly beautiful. Each day brings a new image, a new story, and a new reason to look up. Explore NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day and see the cosmos like never before.

Smart themes that

change overtime.

Users can explore astronomy through curated themes that evolve with the cosmos itself. Its actively curated by a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm that these make the themes intelligently adapt over time, reflecting recent discoveries, trending events, and the ever changing narrative of space exploration.

Follow space missions

and events.

Designed to leverage the NLP's ability to understand context and meaning, it automatically groups space mission updates from astronomy images into curated collections. This AI-powered curation transforms how users discover and follow ongoing space explorations, presenting mission progress as a cohesive narrative rather than scattered updates.

Discover rare events

and recent discoveries.

Rare cosmic events and groundbreaking discoveries are intelligently organized through semantic categorization. The natural language processing system understands meaning and context, grouping related phenomena in ways that reveal deeper connections. This approach transforms how users explore the cosmos, rather than just browsing images, they uncover the stories that connect them.

A new way to look up and appreciate

NASA's Image of the Day.

The NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day view was designed to let the image stand alone first, allowing users to appreciate the details without distraction. Only when they slide / swipe up do they discover the story behind the image such as its name, description, and the wonder it represents. This intentional moment of pause transforms viewing into an experience of discovery unlike the alternative apps.

Design Implementation

When the user taps on the image, the aniamted caret serves as a signifier for the swipe affordance

The swipe animation only minimizes the image to reveal some information about the image to reduce cognitice load and enhace the experiecne.

Process of building all-astronomy app on xcode

Coming Soon

Where this exploration leads

01 · Immersive depth for APOD images

Subtle 3D parallax and scroll‑driven zoom will make each image feel like a window into space, not just a flat photo.

02 · Interactive story layers:

Tap‑to‑reveal annotations and staged “zoom into the cosmos” views will turn technical APOD descriptions into approachable, guided stories.

03 · Guided journeys

Short, curated sequences (onboarding, theme selection, guided pathways) will lead people through the cosmos step‑by‑step instead of one image at a time.