Case Study — Product Design
2016 to 2018
I helped Anonyome Labs build the avatar and identity system for MySudo, an iOS app that lets people create separate phone numbers, emails, and personas to keep their real identity private. I designed the avatar creation flow and the broader visual system that made each “Sudo” feel like a real, ownable identity, which helped drive engagement and made the privacy concept easier to understand at a glance.
300
USERS TESTED
4%
CHURN REDUCTION
8%
USER ADOPTION INCREASE
The Problem
Most privacy tools ask people to think like security experts before they'll use them — cryptic settings, no clear sense of what's actually being protected, and setup flows that feel more like a chore than a benefit. MySudo's core idea — a separate, disposable identity for every context — needed to feel approachable from the first screen, not just technically sound.
There was a second problem sitting right next to it: it's genuinely hard to express real emotion and intent over text, and there was no private, encrypted way to do it. Giving each Sudo identity a face and a personality, not just a number, was how we solved both at once.
The Solution
SudoSpace gave every Sudo a customizable avatar — a digital extension of yourself, and anonymity from trackers, hackers, and annoying people. People built out a full-body avatar, then dropped it straight into conversations, where simple text commands like :hi triggered animations instead of just sending words.
The How
I led design on SudoSpace end to end — coordinating a small design team, doing the initial 3D character sculpting and rigging myself in ZBrush, Maya, and Cinema 4D, then later managing the budget and creative direction as we brought in Morph3D (a Daz 3D subsidiary at the time) to scale the work. Alongside that I ran usability testing and competitive analysis and owned the wireframing and UI work itself.
Style research through UserTesting.com surveys pointed us toward a clear preference: big eyes, anthropomorphized animals, and a Disney-ish, comic-book feel over anything photorealistic. That preference became the style bible for every avatar we shipped.
Every avatar started as a sketch, moved to refined 2D art, then got converted into a 3D model — I did that initial sculpting and rigging myself in 2017–2018, with audience testing feeding back into the design at each stage rather than waiting until the end to find out what landed. The style's larger eyes read a little unusual head-on, but at the small scale people actually saw it — a profile photo — it worked.
The finished builder let people rotate, dress, and customize their avatar in real time — full-body poses, an outfit closet down to shoes and accessories, and face customization like eyebrows and eye color.
Outcome
We shipped a fully functional desktop avatar builder — chosen over mobile-first for cost-efficiency — with customizable full-body avatars, text-to-animation mapping, a private social platform organized into topic-based worlds, and secure messaging built in. Beyond the app itself, the style system I set held up well enough that we designed over 90 unique avatar trading cards for internal distribution.
3D character technology has come a long way since I was hands-on with ZBrush and Maya in 2017 and 2018. If I picked this back up today, the obvious next step would be pushing that same pipeline toward higher fidelity and scale.
What are others saying about Richard Kimball?
Mackenzie Kerr
Product Marketing Leader
Richard is an absolute joy to work with! I have had the pleasure of working with him for two years at Anonyome Labs on a number of different projects. Richard is a talented UX/UI Designer and Illustrator. He is versatile, quick to act, and has an extremely creative vision. Richard has a talent for brightening up the office. No matter how tense a meeting, he made sure everyone left with a smile. Richard would be an asset on any team.
Oct 9, 2018
John S. Haymore
Creative Director
Richard's methodical approach to UX brings highly fidelity design to our apps. His ability to visualize functional aspects of a project from concept to finished product with a heightened sense of emotional connection, creates a user experience that people react too. Richard's also a team player that fosters close collaboration across multi-functional teams. A must have to any organization.
Oct 8, 2018
Brittany Keller
Freelance Artist & Small Business Owner
Rich has been an amazing mentor and team member to me. Over the short time that I have worked with him at Anonyome, he has guided me through user testing, pitch deck storytelling, and collaborated with me on screen creation. As we worked on user testing he gave great insight on what questions to ask, how to instruct the users as they worked through the test and how to pull meaningful data out of the tests. While we collaborated on screen creation and pitch decks he encouraged creativity and building upon eachother's designs. He always keeps in mind who our audience is and what story is meaningful to them, then figuring out the best way to tell it.
Aside from being a skilled UX designer, he is a great illustrator, animator, and 3D artist which allow him to bring unique skills and perspectives to the table. It is easy to see his passion for good design and eye-catching illustrations because it comes out in his work. He also likes to decorate the team's workspace with art, to help inspire us and get the creative juices flowing. Even when he is thrown a curveball, he is able to switch gears and take the lead as a project manager. He is not afraid to take care of the monotonous tasks of project scoping and creating excel documents. Rich has a wide range of skills that he has taught me either directly, or just being able to work with him and be involved in the same projects. He is a great asset to any team and I highly recommend him.
Oct 6, 2018
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