interTabs

Overview

Developed at HOF Hack 2025 as a team of four, winning 1st Place, Best UI/UX, and Best Beginner Hack. Later published to the Chrome Web Store and launched by interfinity Limited.

My part of the work:

• Design & prototype — the visual design and UI/UX of the extension and website.
• Frontend development — the front end of the landing page.
• Marketing — promotion and marketing materials, including product videos.
• Design research — understanding users' needs and pain points, and conceptualizing solutions.

How can we help browser users manage tabs more efficiently?

Target audience: students, teachers, office workers, researchers — any browser user.

Problems

I interviewed 20+ browser users from different fields and age groups. The problems are interrelated and form a bad cycle.

Can't find the tab

“The biggest problem is that there are too many tabs and I can't find the one I need.”

Afraid to close tabs

“Tabs need to be reused for certain projects or classes, so we don't want to close them. But they just pile up.”

Slowing everything down

“There are so many tabs open, slowing down both me and the computer.”

Solution

Four features, each added in response to what the interviews surfaced.

Save tabs as Sessions

Save your tabs as a Session you can reopen anytime. Create separate Sessions for different tasks to keep your workflow organized.

From the research: users said they avoid closing tabs they still need later; Sessions reduce the fear of losing important pages and keep project-based workflows easy to return to.

Smart labeling

AI suggests names for tab groups based on their content and labels them automatically — you can edit them anytime.

From the research: people struggled to find the right tab once too many were open; AI-generated labels make saved groups easier to scan and recognize, so reopening the right Session is faster.

Start new Sessions with AI

When a window has a large number of tabs, interTabs uses AI to sort them into organized sections.

From the research: tab overload slows down both the user and their device; splitting a crowded window into meaningful groups automatically removes the heavy manual work at the moment users feel most overwhelmed.

One-click organize

Have countless tabs open? Intelligently organize them into Sessions with one click.

From the research: the solution needed to feel clear and simple — not like another complex tab manager. One click gives an immediate way to recover from browser chaos.

Impact

interTabs was featured and recognized across launch platforms.

Process

Market research

I researched the existing tab-managing Chrome extensions and found that none could sort tabs in a convenient and smart way.

Conclusion: create a clear and simple tool that helps users manage tabs by grouping them according to their needs.

Prototyping, testing, and iterating

From early product thinking in Figma to prototype reviews and real-world testing, I iterated on the information architecture, interaction flow, and visual system before finalizing the extension experience.

Visual design

Design decisions

I rethought how tab management should work from the ground up, deciding what to include and what to cut.

Information architecture

Rather than presenting tabs as a flat linear list, I introduced hierarchical grouping — tabs have structure and logical relationships, not just order. This was the core shift that made interTabs feel fundamentally different from native tab management.

Reducing switching cost

The design prioritises fast location — getting users to the right tab immediately without hunting. Visual distinction and structural grouping let users scan and identify targets at a glance, cutting the time lost bouncing between tabs.

Lightweight & non-intrusive

Because interTabs is a high-frequency tool, I kept the interface intentionally restrained. No visual noise, no unnecessary prompts — users stay focused on their actual work, not on managing the manager.

What got cut

Early concepts included deep customization for how AI groups tabs, and push notifications reminding users to save open sessions before closing. Both were dropped — they added friction to an experience that needed to feel effortless.

Video demo

Reflection

Building interTabs clarified something I'll carry into every project: the real challenge in productivity design isn't adding capability — it's reducing cognitive load.

The core tradeoff

More features mean more control — but also a steeper learning curve. I chose to protect the simplicity of the core experience first. A tool people actually use daily is worth more than a fully-featured one that feels like a chore.

Design value = faster decisions

The value of design here wasn't making things look clean — it was helping users make faster decisions. Every layout choice, every label, every grouping was evaluated by one question: does this help the user decide less?