Introduction
Joyin is a mobile application designed to discover local events and quickly form a community around them
MY role
Product Designer & Researcher
Main goals
make it easy to find relevant events happening nearby
help people build real connections through small groups and activities
simplify event creation and management for organizers
Methods
User Interviews / User Personas / JTBS Customer Journey Mapping / Competitive Analysis / Wireframing
User Interviews
Users destroyed my original idea — and showed me what really matters
6 interviews that changed the direction of the product
Challenge — The initial focus was wrong
The product started with an assumption: people are looking for big events — concerts, theater, exhibitions.
Formats:
yoga in the yard
live music in a bar
stand-up in a cafe
mini-workshops
cozy meetings based on interests
The value is not in scale, but in emotions and contact.
I have a child and sometimes it's hard to find an event where you can spend an evening with your family, and I would like personalized selections based on my experience.
Communication is very important to me, people from different fields can help somehow, it's interesting to chat
For me everything depends on my mood — if I’m in the right mindset, I can go out. But I’ll only go if someone invites me. I never go alone to events like these.
Communication is very important during a workshop. They only ask for your name, but the workshop itself isn’t engaging.
It would be very useful for me to have a map while traveling — if I have a free hour, I could quickly check what’s happening nearby, like an exhibition.
Since everything revolves around Instagram, it would be convenient if after posting a photo there you could also upload it into the event automatically.
It's very hard to find a community, so I want to create one myself.
When you're in your own neighborhood you don’t always know where else you can go, or what’s available in another part of the city
after
To create the right product, you need to understand who it exists for and what work it does
After the interview, it became obvious: the product works for two different segments at once with different scenarios, motivations and pain points.
In my product, these are two key segments:
people who are looking for events and want to diversify their leisure time
What needs to be instant in the app (JTBD → features)
Find nearby events in 1 tap
See the vibe, people & format instantly
Join the event in 1 click
Get logistic clarity (where/when/how long)
Save / share in 1 tap
Access ticket instantly
Rate & add photo after the event
organizers who hold intimate events and work with the community
What needs to be instant in the app (JTBD → features)
Create the event in under 2 minutes
Duplicate or plan recurring events
Manage participants easily
Accept prepayments
Update event details instantly
Share event to IG/Telegram
Access ready locations
Competitive Analysis from the Inside Out
Minimum steps to action
Maximum clarity in the interface
I mapped all key scenarios, prioritized screens, and built an architecture focused on one principle: remove friction, reveal what's essential, and make the main actions instant.
Goal
Structure the core user flows and define a product logic that truly matches the needs of two very different audiences — event participants and event organizers.
Impact
This foundation made it possible to move into wireframes with full clarity on:
what users need to see first
which actions must happen in one tap
and how to support the fastest paths:
discover → register → attend for participants
and create → publish → manage for organizers.
mini-workshops
cozy meetings based on interests
Site map
To build a better product, you first need to understand where competitors fail — and where they actually deliver
To uncover where the market truly breaks, I went far beyond screenshots and flow comparisons.
I walked through the full user journey inside 5 competing apps, signed up for real events as an actual participant, and dissected their UX from the inside.
This showed not what competitors claim to do — but how their products actually feel in action.
What became immediately clear
browsing an event
understanding its details
registering in one seamless step
Wireframes
After the first prototype, it became clear: the initial architecture couldn’t handle real user behavior
Flows were breaking, roles were blending, and navigation was losing people.
This was the moment when the solution had to be systemic — not cosmetic → Architecture V2.
Challenge
The event-creation flow didn’t work for most users
Most users attend events — they don’t create them.
So the navigation structure must be optimized for discovery and participation, not creation.
Event creation should stay accessible, but never dominate the experience.
Impact
Clear separation between discovering events and managing personal activity.
Lower cognitive load — primary actions stay visible, secondary ones don’t compete for attention.
A scalable, logical foundation that supports both attendees and organizers without mixing their flows.
Design foundation
Joyin is built for people who attend events — not only for people who create them.
THE PRINCIPLE — ATTENDEE EXPERIENCE FIRST
The primary audience is people who are curious and social — but often anxious about showing up somewhere alone.
The name came from two words: joy and join. Not «EventApp.» Not «Gather.» A word that belongs to the person attending — the moment of deciding to show up, and feeling good about it.
That logic carried through everything.
Events
Joyins
Communities
Circles
Users
Joyners
Saved
Joylist
The language is consistent end-to-end — and it’s always the attendee’s perspective.
Visual Language
The same screen shows events, communities, and people. Without a visual grammar — it's noise.
The solution wasn't more labels.
It was shape and color — a system that communicates before the user reads a single word.
01. Every category has a shape. Context before text.
Each event category has its own shape and color. Not decoration — a navigation system. Users recognize context before they read anything.
This grammar runs through the entire product: category badges on event cards, color themes inside chats, tags on profile pages.
02. One chat list. Three shapes. Zero confusion.
The chat list is where the system proves itself most. Events, Circles, and direct messages appear side by side — shape and color do all the disambiguation. No label needed.
03. Stickers are not decoration. They're the voice.
Stickers aren’t a style choice — they’re how this audience communicates. Built into confirmations, empty states, and chats as a first-class interaction, not an add-on.
Micro-copy completes the voice. Every state has a next step. Every label sounds like a person who wants you to have a good time.
Challenge 1
Changing one filter shouldn't feel like leaving the app.
Before
The original filter was a separate full-screen page
To change just one thing — say, «show me only free events» — the user had to navigate away from the feed, scan through every option, apply, and come back.
Most people open the app with one specific intention. A full filter screen forces them to answer questions they didn’t come to answer.
After
Filters moved into the top bar as quick-access chips
Tapping one opens a bottom sheet with only the relevant options. The feed stays visible behind it. One tap, one decision, back to browsing.
For users who think spatially — the same feed is available as a map view. Category shapes appear directly on the map, so you can see what's happening around you geographically. The toggle between list and map is pinned to the bottom — always one tap away, never a separate screen.
Challenge 3
People don't register for things they don't understand — but too much context buries the action.
Design decision
The event page carries a lot: description, map, organizer profile, who's attending, reviews, related events. That's necessary context — people don't register for things they don't understand.
The risk is burying the action under the information.
Feature 1
A profile that keeps you inside the app.
CHALLENGE: PROFILES THAT GO NOWHERE
Most social apps show you a profile and stop there. You read it, close it, and forget why you opened it.
In an event app, that's a missed opportunity. Every person is a path to new events, communities, and connections.
solution: every profile is an entry point
Attending section shows upcoming events by category. Circles appear at the bottom. One tap leads to an event — which leads to an organizer — which leads to their profile.
There's always a next step. The user never hits a dead end.
Feature 2
Every new user sees an empty app first. That moment either converts them — or loses them
CHALLENGE – A blank screen is a dead end.
A new user who hasn't joined anything yet shouldn't feel like they've arrived somewhere unfinished.
SOLUTION
Every empty state in Joyin does two things: acknowledges where the user is, and immediately shows them where to go next.
My Joyins — no upcoming events yet.
Two options appear: explore what's happening nearby, or create your own event. The user is never stuck.
My Circles — no communities yet.
Instead of a blank list, three Circle suggestions appear — real communities the user might want to join, with member counts and a direct CTA.
Notifications — nothing here yet.
Two event recommendations show up immediately, with an Explore button. The empty state becomes a discovery surface.
The stickers are part of it too — they make the moment feel light, not like a failure state.
Empty states are not edge cases. For every new user, they're the first thing they see.
more works
UX Research
Product Design
Rebuilding the Real Estate UX and Achieving a +9% Increase in Session Time
Brand Experience Design
UX/UI
