Loki – Empowering Small Businesses with Social + Booking
CONTEXT
Loki is a mobile platform designed to help small businesses grow by combining social engagement with booking and payment tools. Small businesses often struggle to balance visibility with operations: managing their marketing on social media, while separately handling bookings, payments, and customer communication.
Loki bridges this gap by seamlessly blending social discovery, service showcasing, direct communication, and booking management into a single application.
CONTEXT
Loki is a mobile platform designed to help small businesses grow by combining social engagement with booking and payment tools. Small businesses often struggle to balance visibility with operations: managing their marketing on social media, while separately handling bookings, payments, and customer communication.
Loki bridges this gap by seamlessly blending social discovery, service showcasing, direct communication, and booking management into a single application.
CONTEXT
Loki is a mobile platform designed to help small businesses grow by combining social engagement with booking and payment tools. Small businesses often struggle to balance visibility with operations: managing their marketing on social media, while separately handling bookings, payments, and customer communication.
Loki bridges this gap by seamlessly blending social discovery, service showcasing, direct communication, and booking management into a single application.
CONTEXT
Loki is a mobile platform designed to help small businesses grow by combining social engagement with booking and payment tools. Small businesses often struggle to balance visibility with operations: managing their marketing on social media, while separately handling bookings, payments, and customer communication.
Loki bridges this gap by seamlessly blending social discovery, service showcasing, direct communication, and booking management into a single application.
THE PROBLEM
"How do I showcase my services while also managing my business in one place?”
For many small business owners, the digital landscape is overwhelming. They juggle multiple apps for:
Marketing (Instagram, Facebook)
Bookings & scheduling (Calendly, Fresha)
Payments (Stripe, PayPal)
Messaging (WhatsApp, Messenger)
This fragmentation creates friction, inefficiency, and lost opportunities.
| “I use Instagram to market, Calendly for scheduling, and PayPal for payments, it’s exhausting.”(Small business owner, research interview) |
USER RESEARCH
How are small businesses currently managing growth?
To better understand, we conducted interviews with freelancers, fitness trainers, wellness providers, and food vendors. We also analyzed popular booking/social apps to evaluate their limitations..
Our goal: How might we design a platform that empowers small business owners to grow through both visibility and operations, in one integrated experience?
IDEATION
Exploring key features to address the complexities of the college experience
Upon taking our user research and noting key pain points to address, we brainstormed and mapped out the preliminary information architecture
through which our product would be structured.
Key Insights from Research:
Business owners want a professional yet approachable profile to showcase services.
Customers want a frictionless discovery-to-booking journey.
Managing multiple apps wastes time and creates inconsistency.
Social validation (ratings, reviews, portfolios) strongly influences booking decisions.
From our research, we developed two user personas representing:
The Freelancer: a service-based entrepreneur looking to grow a client base.
The Customer: a user seeking trustworthy, local services.
IDEATION
Exploring key features for small business empowerment
Based on user research, we mapped out preliminary information architecture and brainstormed core features to address visibility and operations together.
Early Feature Concepts:
Business profile (services, ratings, portfolio)
Booking + integrated payments
Direct messaging with clients
Analytics dashboard with follower and revenue insights
Social explore page for customer discovery
We consolidated these into client/business sof the login flow, profile pages, home feed, booking system, and analytics.
ITERATION & USER TESTING
Designing to simplify operations and increase visibility
We transitioned from lo-fi sketches to mid-fidelity wireframes, followed by user testing with small business owners and potential customers. Feedback guided several iterations:
Home & Profile Iterations
Explored how much emphasis to place on services vs. posts.
Finalized a design that highlights services and ratings while keeping a social feed-like structure for customer engagement.
Booking & Payments Iterations
Tested flows for calendar, scheduling, and payment confirmation.
Simplified to a step-by-step booking journey: select service → pick time → confirm payment.
Messaging & Notifications Iterations
Originally designed as a secondary feature, but user testing revealed direct messaging was essential for trust-building.
Redesigned the DM system to function seamlessly with booking confirmations and service inquiries.
Analytics Dashboard Iterations
Explored different data visualizations for revenue, followers, and engagement.
Final design focuses on clear insights with charts and at-a-glance statistics for business growth tracking.
Design Evolution
1. Before (Early Concept)
The first iteration focused heavily on basic functionality: login, calendar, payments, and messaging.
The design was simple and minimal, but lacked brand identity and didn’t fully communicate Loki’s vision as a social + booking platform for small businesses.
Challenges observed:
The UI felt generic and transactional.
Limited focus on the social and discovery aspects that set Loki apart.
Inconsistent design language across flows (some looked corporate, others casual).
2. After (Mid-Fidelity Redesign)
In the second iteration, we explored a stronger brand presence with more vibrant color palettes, rounded components, and richer visuals.
We added more emphasis on profiles, ratings, and services to highlight small businesses better.
Improvements included:
Profile-first experience: services, ratings, and portfolios made central.
Social media feed style homepage for discoverability.
Cleaner navigation at the bottom for consistency
Design Evolution
1. Before (Early Concept)
The first iteration focused heavily on basic functionality: login, calendar, payments, and messaging.
The design was simple and minimal, but lacked brand identity and didn’t fully communicate Loki’s vision as a social + booking platform for small businesses.
Challenges observed:
The UI felt generic and transactional.
Limited focus on the social and discovery aspects that set Loki apart.
Inconsistent design language across flows (some looked corporate, others casual).
2. After (Mid-Fidelity Redesign)
In the second iteration, we explored a stronger brand presence with more vibrant color palettes, rounded components, and richer visuals.
We added more emphasis on profiles, ratings, and services to highlight small businesses better.
Improvements included:
Profile-first experience: services, ratings, and portfolios made central.
Social media feed style homepage for discoverability.
Cleaner navigation at the bottom for consistency
Friends List Iterations
The friends list is a comprehensive view of a user’s friends, where a user can click further to their friends’ profiles (iterated on above). Below are a few iterations, where we reflected on ways to incorporate this social feature without driving the application to be reminiscent of a traditional social-media platform.
Design Evolution
1. Before (Early Concept)
The first iteration focused heavily on basic functionality: login, calendar, payments, and messaging.
The design was simple and minimal, but lacked brand identity and didn’t fully communicate Loki’s vision as a social + booking platform for small businesses.
Challenges observed:
The UI felt generic and transactional.
Limited focus on the social and discovery aspects that set Loki apart.
Inconsistent design language across flows (some looked corporate, others casual).
Design Evolution
1. Before (Early Concept)
The first iteration focused heavily on basic functionality: login, calendar, payments, and messaging.
The design was simple and minimal, but lacked brand identity and didn’t fully communicate Loki’s vision as a social + booking platform for small businesses.
Challenges observed:
The UI felt generic and transactional.
Limited focus on the social and discovery aspects that set Loki apart.
Inconsistent design language across flows (some looked corporate, others casual).
FINAL DESIGNS
Final Changes (Refined Design System)
After multiple design cycles, we present Loki:
A cohesive color system that balances professionalism and friendliness.
Simplified calendar & booking flow to reduce friction.
Integrated DMs + payments + ratings seamlessly within profiles.
Added micro-interactions and clear feedback states (e.g., payment confirmation, booking approval).
FINAL DESIGNS
Final Changes (Refined Design System)
After multiple design cycles, we present Loki:
A cohesive color system that balances professionalism and friendliness.
Simplified calendar & booking flow to reduce friction.
Integrated DMs + payments + ratings seamlessly within profiles.
Added micro-interactions and clear feedback states (e.g., payment confirmation, booking approval).
2. After (Mid-Fidelity Redesign)
In the second iteration, we explored a stronger brand presence with more vibrant color palettes, rounded components, and richer visuals.
We added more emphasis on profiles, ratings, and services to highlight small businesses better.
Improvements included:
Profile-first experience: services, ratings, and portfolios made central.
Social media feed style homepage for discoverability.
Cleaner navigation at the bottom for consistency
Create & Customize Business Profiles
Build a professional hub with service listings, ratings, portfolio images, and reviews designed to both attract and convert customers.
Seamless Booking & Payment Integration
A built-in booking calendar with Stripe payments streamlines the customer journey from exploration → booking → checkout.
Engage Customers through Social Posts & Messaging
Owners can post updates, while customers can explore, follow, and directly message businesses. This ensures ongoing engagement beyond transactions.
Track Growth with Statistics & Insights
Business owners can monitor followers, bookings, and revenue trends with visual dashboards empowering data-driven decisions.
2. After (Mid-Fidelity Redesign)
In the second iteration, we explored a stronger brand presence with more vibrant color palettes, rounded components, and richer visuals.
We added more emphasis on profiles, ratings, and services to highlight small businesses better.
Improvements included:
Profile-first experience: services, ratings, and portfolios made central.
Social media feed style homepage for discoverability.
Cleaner navigation at the bottom for consistency
REFLECTIONS
Designing for empowerment and efficiency
This project was a lesson in how design can simplify complexity for small businesses. Through iterative testing, we learned that the balance between social engagement and operations was crucial to Loki’s success.
Key Takeaways
Integration > fragmentation: Users valued having everything in one place.
Simplicity matters: Reducing steps in booking and payment dramatically improved usability.
Trust through design: Ratings, reviews, and messaging foster user confidence.
If I had more time…
Expand customer engagement features, such as loyalty programs and referral systems.
Explore AI-powered recommendations for service discovery.
Test Loki with medium-sized businesses to scale beyond freelancers.
You Made to the Bottom !!!!
While you're here, let's connect:)))
You Made to the Bottom !!!!
While you're here, let's connect:)))
Email : samriddhi.makasare@gmail.com
Email : samriddhi.makasare@gmail.com
Linkedin :https://www.linkedin.com/in/samriddhimakasare/
Linkedin :https://www.linkedin.com/in/samriddhimakasare/
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/samriddhimakasare/
Made with lots of love and espresso
SAMRIDDHI MAKASARE | 2025
Design Evolution
1. Before (Early Concept)
The first iteration focused heavily on basic functionality: login, calendar, payments, and messaging.
The design was simple and minimal, but lacked brand identity and didn’t fully communicate Loki’s vision as a social + booking platform for small businesses.
Challenges observed:
The UI felt generic and transactional.
Limited focus on the social and discovery aspects that set Loki apart.
Inconsistent design language across flows (some looked corporate, others casual).
ITERATION & USER TESTING
Designing to simplify operations and increase visibility
We transitioned from lo-fi sketches to mid-fidelity wireframes, followed by user testing with small business owners and potential customers. Feedback guided several iterations:
Home & Profile Iterations
Explored how much emphasis to place on services vs. posts.
Finalized a design that highlights services and ratings while keeping a social feed-like structure for customer engagement.
Booking & Payments Iterations
Tested flows for calendar, scheduling, and payment confirmation.
Simplified to a step-by-step booking journey: select service → pick time → confirm payment.
Messaging & Notifications Iterations
Originally designed as a secondary feature, but user testing revealed direct messaging was essential for trust-building.
Redesigned the DM system to function seamlessly with booking confirmations and service inquiries.
Analytics Dashboard Iterations
Explored different data visualizations for revenue, followers, and engagement.
Final design focuses on clear insights with charts and at-a-glance statistics for business growth tracking.
