Helping students, freelancers and remote workers choose a place that fits their work, before they arrive.
Helping students, freelancers and remote workers choose a place that fits their work, before they arrive.
Mobile app
Work & study
Personal concept
Sole designer, UX & UI
01 / OVERVIEW
I designed Quork around finding a suitable place to work.
As a freelancer, I kept looking for good places to sit and work. Quork is a personal project that turns that familiar search into a focused product concept.
A good coffee is only the beginning.
My role
Sole product designer, responsible for research, user flows and UI.
Team
Independent personal project
Status
Personal product-design concept
Design scope
Workspace search and filters, map comparison, place profiles and visitor reviews.
For
Freelancers, remote workers and students
In this case study
02 / THE PROBLEM
Every workspace visit was a gamble.
People choose cafés, libraries and coworking spaces without knowing what they’ll find. A highly rated place can still be noisy, full, or short on power outlets. So they waste time moving between places instead of working.
A lovely café. But can I work here?
Will I find a seat?
Can I take a call?
Is there a socket?
Will the Wi-Fi hold up?
A wasted trip costs more than travel time.
Finding another place interrupts the work before it even begins. The design challenge was to make practical fit easier to judge, before leaving home.
03 / USER RESEARCH
People needed confidence before making the trip.
I surveyed students, freelancers and remote workers and had informal conversations about how they choose where to work. These findings focus on recurring needs and the information missing before a visit.
01
A recurring routine
Finding a place to work is a recurring need, not a one-off.
02
Everyday places
Cafés were a common choice for everyday work.
03
Borrowed confidence
People relied on online reviews and recommendations from friends.
04
Missing practical details
Practical details such as noise, seats and outlets were difficult to judge before arriving.
04 / COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Finding a place and judging its fit are different tasks.
I compared broad place discovery with workspace booking. Quork focuses on practical fit for an everyday work or study session, and that value still needs to justify using a separate app.
Google Maps
✓ Place search, maps and reviews
Gable
✓ Discover and book workspaces
QQuork concept
Concept: discover places for work or study
Scroll across to compare the details →
Task
Google Maps
Gable
QQuork concept
Find a location
✓ Place search, maps and reviews
✓ Discover and book workspaces
Concept: discover places for work or study
Judge conditions
Limited: popular times and visitor reviews provide context
Limited: workspace details inform a booking
Concept: bring work-related details forward
Choose by practical needs
Limited: general place information and reviews
✓ Workspace search and booking criteria
Concept: prioritize Wi-Fi, quiet, power and food
Trust changing information
Conditions can differ from a past review or estimate
Availability and listed amenities support booking
Open question: how reports stay recent and trustworthy
✓ Existing capability · Limited: relevant with constraints · Concept: proposed direction, not a tested result.
Feature references checked October 2026. Comparison focuses on this project’s use case. Google Maps ↗Gable ↗
05 / KEY INSIGHTS
Practical details help people judge a place before arriving.
01WHAT I LEARNED
People need information specific to working.
WHAT IT CHANGED
Search for practical fit.
Make Wi-Fi, quiet, power and food explicit search preferences.
Compare places using details that matter for work.
Follow the designed discovery flow through three original screens. Each step answers a more specific question before the person opens a place profile.
01
Start with the area.
Where could I work today?
Search, location and place categories create an approachable starting point. People can begin browsing before defining every preference.
THE TRADE-OFF
A simple entry point still needs a visible route to more specific criteria.
02
Choose what matters.
What does this work session need?
Explicit filters let people narrow the options around atmosphere, connectivity and amenities. The same person can need a different place on a different day.
THE TRADE-OFF
More control adds more choices. Filters should support the search without becoming a task of their own.
03
Compare in context.
Is this place worth the trip?
The map keeps the area visible while place previews support comparison. People can weigh location as part of their decision before opening the full profile.
THE TRADE-OFF
A map cannot show every detail. The preview should help people decide whether to open the full profile.
DECIDING BEFORE ARRIVAL
The details make the decision.
A place profile brings practical information together. Specific visitor feedback adds context to the choice, while changing conditions still need a trustworthy source.
The place profile describes noise separately from the overall rating. Visitors can report how quiet their own visit felt.
Why these details matter
See the place.
Photos and basic place details help people understand the place they are considering.
Check the practical fit.
Bring work-related amenities and essential information into the place profile.
Make feedback specific.
Visitors can report noise, Wi-Fi and outlet availability alongside a written review. These details give a rating useful context.
Product question: changing conditions need a clear source and update time before they can be presented as live information.
The trust trade-off
More information can support a decision, but outdated information can mislead. A visitor review describes an experience. It does not guarantee current conditions.
11 / REFLECTION
Design the choice. Respect the uncertainty.
The work brought me back to the details that make a place useful. Confidence depends both on what the interface shows and on what it can honestly promise.
THE LEARNING
Fit is personal. Explicit preferences make room for different tasks without assuming one ideal workspace.
WHAT I’D TEST
Can someone choose a suitable place and explain why it fits, without falling back to several other apps?
WHAT I’D WATCH
Repeated filter changes and backtracking between places, signs that comparison still needs work.
WHAT REMAINS OPEN
How changing conditions are sourced, updated and communicated. That needs validation before claiming live information.
12 / WHAT I’D TEST NEXT
Questions for the next round of testing.
01
How recent does a user report need to be before people trust it?
02
What makes people actually check in and report noise or seats?
03
Can someone go from search to directions in under a minute?
A PERSONAL NOTE
A place to work. A little room to think.
This project began with a familiar part of my own freelance life.
A place to work. A little room to think.
This project began with a familiar part of my own freelance life.
A place to work. A little room to think.
This project began with a familiar part of my own freelance life.
A note from the designer
A note from the designer
This project became personal very quickly. As someone who spent years working as a freelancer, I constantly found myself searching for quiet places to work, cafés that weren’t too noisy, libraries with available seating, or workspaces where I could actually focus for a few hours.
This project became personal very quickly. As someone who spent years working as a freelancer, I constantly found myself searching for quiet places to work, cafés that weren’t too noisy, libraries with available seating, or workspaces where I could actually focus for a few hours.
Most of the time, finding the right place meant opening multiple apps, reading scattered reviews, checking Wi-Fi comments, guessing how crowded the place might be, and sometimes arriving only to realize it simply didn’t fit my needs.
Most of the time, finding the right place meant opening multiple apps, reading scattered reviews, checking Wi-Fi comments, guessing how crowded the place might be, and sometimes arriving only to realize it simply didn’t fit my needs.
That frustration became the starting point for Quork. Rather than designing another “places app”, I wanted to create a tool that helps people feel more confident before leaving home, reducing uncertainty and making workspace discovery faster, calmer and more intentional.
That frustration became the starting point for Quork. Rather than designing another “places app”, I wanted to create a tool that helps people feel more confident before leaving home, reducing uncertainty and making workspace discovery faster, calmer and more intentional.
Good design doesn’t only help people do things faster. Sometimes it helps them feel more comfortable doing them.
Google Maps
Gable
