Oct 2026 · 0→1 prototype

Filling a café's empty Tuesdays

About the project

Nook is a mobile app for Bengaluru. People find events, work seats and tables at cafés and brewpubs. Hosts get a room. Venues get busier hours. It has three views, one each for customers, hosts and venue owners. I designed and built every screen, alone.

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Role
Senior WordPress Developer & Front-end Developer
Timeline
Oct 2026
Type
0→1 Product DesignMobile UXConsumer Marketplace
Tools
HTMLCSSJavaScriptPHPFigmaClaude Code
Customer11 screens
Welcome screen
Welcome
Home screen
Home
Events screen
Events
Event page screen
Event page
Venues screen
Venues
Venue page screen
Venue page
Venue space screen
Venue space
Passes screen
Passes
You screen
You
Nook Money screen
Nook Money
Celebrate screen
Celebrate
Host7 screens
Venue owner4 screens
Host home screen
Host home
Plan: type screen
Plan: type
Plan: basics screen
Plan: basics
Plan: place screen
Plan: place
Plan: tickets screen
Plan: tickets
Plan: review screen
Plan: review
Earnings screen
Earnings
Today screen
Today
Pass rules screen
Pass rules
Requests screen
Requests
Money screen
Money
01·The story

Three people, one empty room.

Each side tries to fix it alone, and each fix creates a new problem.

CAFE"Weekday morningsare so quiet.""Where can I workfor hours?"Tuesday, 11 am
The businessA cafe sells coffee. Its real asset is seats that sit empty at certain hours.
CAFE??VenueHostCustomer, too, searching alone
The causeVenue, host and customer each solve it alone. Nothing connects them in one place.
Seats empty, tables blocked50% OFFweekdays"Discounts make uslook cheap."4 hours, one coffee
The venue: empty seats, wrong fixesDiscounts cheapen the place. A laptop worker who stays all day on one coffee costs table turns.
Days lost per eventMin spend?Food?RSVPs??"Days to book a room,then RSVPs in WhatsApp."
The host: a room is a negotiationBooking a room takes days of back and forth. Then the guest list lives in a chat.
No single place to lookNolaptops"Most cafes limitlaptop time.""Any planstonight?"
The customer: nowhere to settle inRemote workers find cafes that limit laptops. Friends want a plan, not a search.

Venuewants fuller weekdaysHostwants a room and an audienceCustomerwants somewhere to settle inIllustrated. The venues in the prototype are real places and are not partners.

02·Context

Same café, two very different days

QuietFull

Illustrative pattern. Not measured data.

Venues

Weekday seats sit empty. Discounts cheapen the place.

Hosts

Booking a room takes days. RSVPs end up in WhatsApp.

Customers

No obvious place that welcomes you for hours of work.

Venue

gives Seats and halls

gets Full weekdays, busy evenings

Nook

Customer

gives Pass, ticket, bill

gets A place to work, meet, eat

Nook

Host

gives An audience

gets A room and ticketing

Design bet

Sell access, not coupons. A seat, a ticket, a table.

03·Process

Start with the people who host

Host survey start screen

Hosts are the hardest side to win, so I began there with a short survey for people who run events in cafés and breweries.

SeatingMinimum spendFoodFeesVenue type
  1. SurveyLive, answers charted
  2. PrototypeOne pass, three roles
  3. AuditEvery screen at 390 px
  4. Small roundsFix, push, check
  5. NextReal venues and hosts
04·Information architecture

Three roles, one map

Each role has its own colour and its own tab bar. A switch sheet moves you between them in one tap.

Customer

  • Home
    • Location search
    • Celebrate tiles
  • Events
    • Event page
    • Ticket
    • Organizer page
  • Venues
    • Venue page: Overview, Menu, Space, Events, Passes
    • Book a table
    • Order and pay
  • Passes
    • Half day, Full day, Week, Month
    • Buy: café, seat, pay
    • Team passes
  • You
    • Profile and saved addresses
    • Nook Money
    • Orders and bookings
    • Celebrations

Host

  • Home
    • Next event
    • Quick actions
  • Plan
    • 1 What kind
    • 2 Name and date
    • 3 Place
    • 4 Tickets and food
    • 5 Check and send
  • Events
    • Event page
    • Guest list
  • Earnings
    • Tickets this week
    • By event

Venue owner

  • Today
    • Seat map
    • Check-ins and spend
  • Pass rules
    • Seats and hours
    • Floor prices
    • Earnings simulator
  • Requests
    • Accept
    • Counter
    • Decline
  • Money
    • Next payout
    • How it is calculated
05·Flows

Four flows, start to finish

Buy a work pass

Customer · from the tab bar to a pass in the wallet

  1. Pick a pass screen
    1Pick a pass
  2. Pick a café screen
    2Pick a café
  3. Day and seat screen
    3Day and seat
  4. Review and pay screen
    4Review and pay
  5. Pass is ready screen
    5Pass is ready

Eat at the venue

Customer · check in, order from the table, pay, get cashback

  1. Check in screen
    1Check in
  2. Order screen
    2Order
  3. Kitchen screen
    3Kitchen
  4. Pay the bill screen
    4Pay the bill
  5. Cashback screen
    5Cashback

Host an event

Host · five steps from an idea to a shareable invite

  1. What kind screen
    1What kind
  2. Name and date screen
    2Name and date
  3. Choose a place screen
    3Choose a place
  4. Set tickets screen
    4Set tickets
  5. Check and send screen
    5Check and send

Run the café side

Venue owner · see the room, set the rules, answer requests, check money

  1. Today screen
    1Today
  2. Pass rules screen
    2Pass rules
  3. Requests screen
    3Requests
  4. Money screen
    4Money
06·Decisions

Five calls that shaped it

Passes

A pass should feel like a trip

  • Your area on the left, the café on the right, a route between.
  • Tap it to flip. The house rules live on the back.
  • Check in and the stub tears off.

Event tickets use a different shape, a gig stub, so the two never blur.

Venue page

One scroll, tabs that keep up

  • Before: each part sat behind its own tab, so you had to guess.
  • Now: five sections on one page. The tab bar follows you and highlights where you are.
  • Layout became Space. The old name did not say what was inside.
Money

Same money, two views

Customer receipt showing amounts only, no fee percentages
CustomerAmounts only
Venue owner money page showing commission
Venue ownerSees the commission
Trust

Say what is real

Welcome screen with the demo disclaimer

Real name, area, type of 26 places

~Example prices, menus, seats, deals

~Stock ambience photos, labelled

The venues are not partners, and the app says so on the first screen.
Roles

Customers host parties. Organizers host communities.

Customer celebrate tiles: birthday, anniversary, party, family
CustomerPrivate occasions
vs
Host plan tiles: networking, startup talks, games, workshops
HostPublic community events

Splitting them made both flows shorter. Each asks only what it needs.

07·Built and checked

Small, plain and fast to change

26real venues named
3role views
4pass types
9event categories
8host event types
0console errors
Vanilla JSHash routerCSS variablesNo build stepOne PHP endpoint
08·Where it stands

A prototype, not a product yet

No real users. No signed venues. No real payments. I built it so a venue owner or a host can react to something real.

  1. 10venue owners
  2. 30customers
  3. 4 to 6real events, run by hand
A metaphor explains more than copy.The boarding pass replaced paragraphs of onboarding.
Hidden content gets skipped.Tabs became sections on one page.
Honest labels beat polish.Say what is example. People still react to it.

Nook is a working name. Venues in the prototype are real places from public lists and are not partners. Prices, menus and deals are examples.

Vinyaara

Building comfort and discretion into a premium care brand

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