Baco

Helping people explore, host, and join local events — all in one place.

About the project

Two founders in Goiânia, Brazil approached me to design a mobile app that would help people feel more connected to their city. Whether someone was new in town, traveling, or just looking for something to do, they wanted to simplify how locals discover and share events with friends.

We were starting completely from scratch—no brand, no screens, no user base. This was a fully remote project during the tail end of the pandemic when in-person behavior was still shifting, which added another layer of complexity. We had to move fast, keep scope tight, and deliver an MVP that felt intuitive and modern while working with limited time, budget, and access to real users.

ROLE

Product Designer

Platform

iOS

TIMELINE

June 2020- Sep 2020

LOCATION

Remote

I kicked off with five informal interviews through the founders' personal networks to understand how people were currently finding and planning local events. I also benchmarked similar platforms like Meetup, Eventbrite, Fever, and even Instagram behavior to identify gaps and user expectations.

From that research, we defined three guiding principles for the experience: speed, clarity, and social energy. These principles became our filter for every design decision and helped us focus the feature set around real user behaviors rather than trying to build everything at once.

I mapped key flows and features, then moved into wireframes in Figma to create a clickable prototype for testing. The challenge was balancing discoverability with simplicity—people needed to find events quickly but also feel confident creating and sharing their own.

Once the structure was validated, I designed high-fidelity mockups using a bold, modern visual system that captured the app's intended energy. I also collaborated closely on the branding direction to ensure everything felt cohesive. Key features included a scrollable homepage of event cards, a frictionless event creation flow, and lightweight invites and profiles that kept things personal without adding unnecessary complexity.

The final prototype was clean, cohesive, and built with scalability in mind. I delivered a complete design system alongside the high-fidelity screens, giving the founders everything they needed to move into development.

Working on Baco during a time when social behavior was shifting taught me how to design for uncertainty. The project reinforced the importance of clear principles and tight scope when resources are limited, and showed me how effective remote collaboration could be when everyone stays aligned on the core vision.