DISCOVER PROJECT
3 min read
Shway – Social Discovery App
Tinder for plans. Scaled to 7000+ users and 1000+ events
MY ROLE
Product Designer, Product, Dev
DURATION
4 months
TEAM
3
TL;DR
Shway is a plan-first social app that helps users discover, host, and join real-world activities — from tennis games to food walks. Instead of swiping on people, users swipe on plans.. It's like "Tinder for plans"
I co-founded the startup and with the team of 8 built and launched a working MAP. It was a success attracting 7000+ users hosting 1000+ events with just a mere ₹3.5 Cost Per Install
The Initial Challenge
Ever wanted to play tennis, but your friends were busy or just weren’t interested — leaving you to cancel plans and sit lonely at home?
People want to go out.
They don’t want to go alone.
Their friends are often busy, uninterested, or just hard to coordinate with.
But most plans die in the group chat!
Discovery: Listening to Users
We set out to understand what prevents people from acting on their intent to socialize. Our approach:
Quantitative Survey: 100+ responses from students, working professionals, hobbyists
Qualitative Interviews: 20+ in-depth user calls to map behavior and blockers
Insights:
60% people face plan cancellation issues
>50% people are interested to make plans with new people
57% people believe that new experiences will positively impact them. Discover interesting plans happening near them
💡 User Needs
Making successful plans with friends without too much management
Discover interesting plans happening near them
Match with people based on activity intent, not bio
Avoid small talk — low-pressure socializing
Freedom to host and join easily
DEFINING
We reframed the social app experience:
❌ People-first → ✔️ Plan-first
Instead of matching on profiles, users swipe through curated plans. If they join and get accepted, they unlock the group chat.
We designed two key user journeys to understand different touchpoints while using an app like this
The Host: Wants to create an event and attract relevant people
The Attendee: Browses plans, swipes to join
We then created an IA outlining all touch points of the app.
DESIGN
Frictionless Onboarding:
Users drop right into Explore after selecting a few interests. No forced profile setup upfront. We only ask for a profile when users swipe right on a plan.Swiping on Plans, not People:
Each card shows the event name, date, host, and vibe. Users swipe right to request to join.
Matching UX:
Once a host accepts, users get a "You matched!" screen with direct access to the event group chat.Event Chat UI:
A shared group chat opens for every matched event — nudging participants to coordinate, vibe-check, and meet.
ANALYTICS
We used tools like Firebase, Sentry & Metabase to capture errors, click events and get data on various metrics and parameters
Me in Dev role 🫢
Coming from a tech background (HTML, CSS, JS, Python), I dove into development once designs were stable. GPT-powered solutions and my prior knowledge helped me:
Implement basic APIs (Django + React Native)
Fix layout and styling issues
Collaborate faster with devs to ship reliably
This hands-on experience gave me perspective into design-to-code parity — and made me believe “designing with dev in mind” is no longer optional.
ITERATE. ITERATE. ITERATE. 🫢
*1
Female Users Deleting Accounts
Problem: High churn from women within 48 hours.
Response: Focus group of 8 women helped us understand trust issues with profile quality.
Fixes:
Made profile pic mandatory
Allowed multiple photos
Optional fields: location, work, profession, Instagram handle
Outcome: Female retention improved 2.3x
*2
Low Chat Activity
Problem: High match rate, low message volume.
Insight: Users were unaware they had new chats — poor visibility and no nudges.
Fixes:
Opened chat immediately on match screen
Added chat redirection on event click
Introduced unread message badges in bottom nav
Outcome: 🟢 Messages per event increased 200%
Metrics
As of now, we had a great success in running the app
