Joyner — City Discovery App (AI Workflow)

Discover what’s happening nearby.

Joyner is a mobile app that helps people discover local events — from underground art markets to spontaneous meetups — in one place, with zero noise.

Joyner became my AI Product Design experiment: I used Claude Code and Figma MCP to move from a product concept into a structured, developer-ready and partially coded mobile prototype.
I directed the product logic, UX decisions, visual system and validation, while AI helped accelerate research synthesis, design audit, handoff documentation, token extraction and React Native prototyping.

Deliverables
Research, Personas, JTBD, Sitemap, UI Design, Design System
Year
2025
The Problem

People miss events in their own city. Not because nothing's happening — but because information is scattered across Telegram channels, Instagram stories, Bodo, and word of mouth. By the time someone finds out about something, it's either sold out or already over.

There’s no single, reliable source. No personalization. No way to know who else is going.

Core problems identified through research:

  • No centralized platform — users juggle 5+ sources just to find weekend plans
  • Events discovered too late to act on
  • Hard to find events that match specific interests (not just mass concerts)
  • Difficult to navigate large events once there
  • Booking flows on existing platforms are unreliable — reservations disappear, need manual reconfirmation

AI as a production workflow, not a shortcut.

AI Workflow

I directed the product decisions and used AI tools to accelerate the loop: critique, structure, document, prototype and iterate

  1. 1

    Frame

    Problem, users, JTBD, MVP scope

  2. 2

    Audit

    Figma MCP review of structure and craft

  3. 3

    Systemize

    Tokens, components, states, rules

  4. 4

    Prototype

    Expo / React Native screens

  5. 5

    Handoff

    Single source of truth + playbook

Swipe to explore

HUMAN-LED

Product framing, UX priorities, visual judgment, final decisions, quality control.

AI-ASSISTED

Research synthesis, critique pass, token extraction, documentation, prototype scaffolding.

The case is backed by real artifacts

RESEARCH + BENCHMARK

Competitive matrix, MVP recommendation.

PERSONAS + JTBD

Three behavioral archetypes and mapped user jobs.

IA + FLOWS

Screen inventory, navigation logic, Mermaid user flows.

DESIGN SYSTEM

Tokens, component rules, live component reference

HANDOFF

Developer source of truth with states, accessibility and build notes.

PROTOTYPE

Expo / React Native screens and reusable components.

The Artifacts Behind the Flow

Research

These quotes directly shaped the product's feature priorities.

User Personas

Three distinct user types emerged from research, each with different needs and behaviors.

Jobs To Be Done

The JTBD framework helped define what users are actually hiring the app to do:

Concept & Strategy

Mission

Immerse people in the life of their city through events. Make city life more interesting, lighter, and more spontaneous. Show that there’s always something happening nearby — you just need to look.

Tone of Voice

Light, friendly, modern. Inspires without pressure. No corporate tone. Has personality, respects the user.

Visual language

A focused color palette built on contrast — Lemon as the energetic accent, Blue as the brand anchor, and near-black as the base.

Information Architecture

Mapped 15+ screens across 5 navigation sections and 4 key user flows, establishing clear hierarchy before moving to UI.

UI Design

Designed around real user needs — each screen answers a specific question before the user has to ask. Four discovery tabs match different mindsets. The event page surfaces who's attending, real photos, and transport info. Booking completes in 3 steps. Users and organizers alike can add events, keeping the content alive and local.

Reflection

The design process moved from research → JTBD → sitemap → UI, with each step building directly on the last. The personas weren't decorative — they drove specific decisions: the "For You" tab exists because of Ivan, the "Who's Attending" screen exists because of a single quote from a real user interview.

What I’d do next: Usability testing on the onboarding flow and booking funnel. The 15-screen onboarding might be too long — I’d test a shorter version and measure completion rates.

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