Kids’ party marketplace
Kuwait’s first dedicated marketplace for kids’ party venues. Previously, parents had to contact venues individually to compare options and check availability, while venue teams managed bookings manually across calendars and spreadsheets.
Key contributions
Within tight time and budget constraints, I designed the product’s core functionality and built a clickable prototype. Testing confirmed users could complete the booking flow, with minor issues resolved before development. The marketplace launched and began receiving bookings, providing early evidence of demand.
I designed venue tools that showed pending booking requests and room availability together. Staff could see which requests needed a response and which bookings they could confirm.
An Entire Market With No Product
Parents in Kuwait struggled to find and compare kids' party venues. They had to visit multiple websites and contact each venue individually to check availability. Venue owners managed bookings manually across calendars and spreadsheets, making it hard to keep track of requests and availability. The market was an empty field with no similar products or direct competitors. The marketplace aimed to connect parents and venues, streamline workflows, and validate a new business opportunity.
Designing For Validated Bookings, Not A Full Marketplace
The MVP goal was to prove that parents complete bookings, not to build a fully automated platform. I focused on designing only what was necessary to support this, while keeping the product scalable for future iterations.
Mobile Booking Flow
The mobile booking experience was the most complex and high-risk part of the MVP, where drop-off was most likely. Parents needed to configure a party by selecting date, duration, number of guests, and add-ons, while clearly understanding the total price. I focused design effort on this flow, simplifying it into sequential steps and introducing progressive price updates to build clarity and trust.
Admin Calendar & Booking Management
For venue admins, I designed a calendar-based dashboard to make availability and required actions visible at a glance. I focused design effort on booking and availability flows, ensuring admins could quickly understand what needed attention and respond to requests. To stay within budget, I accepted scope reductions and introduced a simplified table view prioritizing unconfirmed bookings.
From Idea To Validated Product
Delivered an MVP that moved the idea into the market and enabled real booking validation. Early usage led to new feature requests, confirming product value and creating a clear path for further growth.
Learnings
Validate Early
Early prototyping of the booking flow helped reduce drop-off risk and align on interaction logic before development.
Prioritization
I pushed back on adding more content to listing cards and learned that restraint is essential to preserve fast scanning and clear decision-making in marketplaces.
Role Separation Matters
Combining parent and admin experiences early reduced development effort but introduced subtle design challenges. I learned that separating roles upfront helps avoid unnecessary complexity later.