Cidade
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Cidade ✧
UX/Product Design - 2022
Cidade is an ambitious super app designed to serve the district of Cidade in São Paulo, Brazil—a historic area undergoing a massive transformation. As part of an extensive renovation plan, Cidade is being reimagined into a vibrant hub featuring high-end boutiques, luxury shopping, diverse businesses, cultural events, and fine dining experiences. This ambitious revitalization effort required a digital ecosystem capable of supporting the district’s growing demands, making the Cidade super app a fundamental pillar of this transformation.
The project was developed while I was employed at OnOff Telecom in Estonia, where I worked as the sole UX Designer in a small but highly focused team alongside the Project Manager and the company’s CEO. With only a few initial wireframes from the CEO, my task was to build the entire design system from the ground up, ensuring scalability, efficiency, and a seamless user experience. Given the complexity of the project, two separate development teams were required—one local team from Brazil and another from Farfetch, which provided the foundation for developing such an extensive app.
From conceptualization to final pixel-perfect designs, my responsibilities included structuring the app’s user experience, defining navigation flows, and establishing a robust design system. To maintain consistency and efficiency, I created a comprehensive library of reusable components and meticulously organized all assets in Sketch to streamline collaboration with both development teams.
Role: UI/UX Designer
Team: 1 UI/UX designer, 1 product manager
Client: High-end renovation project in São Paulo (via OnOff App company)
Credits: Nataliia Hryhorova (Product manager)
Challenge & Project Approach
The Cidade Super App was developed using a structured, user-centric approach to ensure a seamless experience for both locals and visitors engaging with the district’s diverse offerings. The project began with an in-depth research phase, including user interviews, journey mapping, and persona development, to gain a deep understanding of target users' goals, behaviors, and challenges. This early research informed the ideation and concept validation process, where multiple solutions were explored through wireframing, prototyping, and A/B testing to determine the most effective design patterns for navigation, onboarding, and key functionalities.
We were starting entirely from scratch, with no existing user flows, no design system, and no prior research to guide us. This made it critical to build a strong foundation that would accommodate the district’s varied businesses and user needs.
The team was very small: I was the sole UX Designer working closely with just a Project Manager and the CEO. This meant I had to handle every aspect of the UX work, from early research and ideation to wireframes, UI design, and documentation. There was no internal development team on hand for day-to-day collaboration.
Adding to the complexity, the implementation required two separate development teams: a local team in Brazil and another from Farfetch. This introduced major technical challenges around coordination, alignment on requirements, and ensuring the design could realistically be built to spec across different teams and timelines. Communicating design decisions clearly and providing thorough documentation became essential to bridge these gaps.
Once initial concepts were validated, the design phase focused on creating high-fidelity UI/UX designs that ensured consistency across the app’s core sections, including fashion, wellness, dining, and social engagement. Usability testing and heuristic evaluations were conducted to refine the user experience, resolve friction points, and optimize performance. The final phase involved close collaboration with development teams, ensuring a smooth transition from design to implementation. Through iterative testing and refinement, the app was shaped into a highly functional and engaging platform that aligns with the evolving needs of Cidade, fostering adoption and long-term user engagement.
Discover (Research Phase)
The first phase focused on deeply understanding the target users, market trends, and business goals to ensure the Cidade app was built on a solid foundation. One of the first steps was to conduct competitive analysis to assess similar platforms in fashion, wellness, food delivery, and social engagement, identifying key opportunities for differentiation. To gain real insights into user behavior, we decided to organize user research sessions that included interviews and surveys, gathering data on how potential users interact with similar services. By analyzing this data, I was able to identify pain points and needs, which helped shape the app’s core functionalities. Additionally, I also mapped out business objectives by working closely with stakeholders, ensuring the app aligned with the vision of making Cidade a vibrant, interconnected district.
Define (Ideation Phase)
Building upon research insights, we needed to structure a clear framework for the app’s development. The creation of user personas, representing different types of users such as fashion lovers, foodies, wellness seekers, couriers, and business owners, was a first step to start guiding design decisions. To enhance usability, I defined user flows for each app section, ensuring smooth navigation for actions like browsing, purchasing, booking, and content sharing. By mapping customer journeys, it became possible to ensure that every interaction with the app was intuitive and engaging, reducing friction and maximizing satisfaction. Throughout this phase, I actively collaborated with stakeholders—including the CEO and project manager—to refine ideas, ensuring that our alignment and cohesion was absolute.
Creating customer journey maps was an incredibly insightful process, as it allowed to deeply understand the motivations, frustrations, and expectations of i.e. a local citizen (or visitor) exploring Cidade after its transformation for the first time. Mapping out each phase of the journey—especially identifying pain points in planning and navigation—highlighted critical areas where the Cidade app needed to provide intuitive solutions, such as real-time updates on events, seamless booking experiences, and personalized recommendations. Observing the emotional fluctuations throughout the journey also reinforced the importance of creating a frictionless and engaging digital experience, ensuring that excitement remained high as users discovered new dining spots, boutiques, and cultural events. By pinpointing opportunities in the loyalty phase, it was possible to recognize the need to integrate retention strategies like exclusive perks and personalized content to encourage users to return. This holistic approach to user behavior directly influenced design decisions, helping me craft an experience that not only addresses pain points but also enhances the joy of exploring Cidade.
Develop (Design Phase)
With a well-defined structure, I transitioned into designing the app’s visual and interactive elements. I created wireframes and prototypes, starting with low-fidelity sketches before refining them into detailed high-fidelity designs. These prototypes helped validate the app’s structure and user flows through usability testing sessions. To ensure consistency across all sections, I developed a design system, incorporating color palettes, typography, iconography, and UI components tailored to Cidade’s branding. Interactive prototypes were tested with real users, allowing me to gather feedback and refine UI/UX elements iteratively. This phase also involved collaborating closely with developers, ensuring the designs were feasible and aligned with technical constraints.
Deliver (Implementation Phase)
The final phase focused on ensuring a smooth transition from design to a fully functional app. I worked alongside the development team to support implementation, ensuring the designs were accurately translated into code. Through regular design reviews and QA testing, I identified inconsistencies and usability issues, making necessary adjustments to optimize performance. I also prepared handoff documentation, including design guidelines and interactive specs, to streamline collaboration between design and development. As the app neared launch, I assisted in final usability testing, ensuring all user flows were seamless before going live. Post-launch, I gathered user feedback and analytics, providing insights for future updates and improvements.
This structured approach ensured that the Cidade app was designed with a strong user-centric foundation while maintaining alignment with business goals and brand identity.
Insights through UX research methodologies
Customer journey maps
These initial journey maps provided valuable insights from a UX research perspective by visually representing the emotional and experiential trajectory of users interacting with the Cidade district. They helped to allow us understanding the dimension of this project as we were able to highlight key engagement moments, emotional peaks, and pain points, allowing for a better understanding of possible user frustrations and giving the chance to come up with opportunities for enhancement. Considering how ambitious the project of the super app was and how much uncertainty we were facing on the initial steps by mapping emotional experiences alongside engagement levels, it became easier to identify where interventions, such as improved navigation, streamlined check-ins, or better loyalty incentives, could be implemented.
I developed customer journeys to map out the complete experience of different user types interacting with the Cidade app. This was critical given the app’s many sections (Food, Fashion, Culture, Wellness, Education, and social features like B Inspired). By visualizing each step a user would take—from discovering the app to booking a restaurant or exploring cultural events—I could identify friction points, emotional highs and lows, and opportunities to deliver delight. This approach ensured that every touchpoint was thoughtfully designed to keep users engaged and make their experience intuitive despite the app’s complexity.
User personas
To keep the design user-centered, I created detailed personas representing the diverse target audience of the Cidade district. These included local residents interested in the new dining and shopping options, and tourists or visitors drawn to the district’s cultural revitalization. The personas defined motivations, goals, pain points, and behaviors—acting as a constant reference throughout the design process to ensure decisions were anchored in real user needs rather than assumptions. They also helped communicate those needs clearly to stakeholders and development teams spread across multiple locations.
Creating detailed user personas like Mariana Oliveira (a local fashion-forward user) and David Mitchell (a visiting tourist) was a crucial step in the early UX research phase of the Cidade super app. These personas helped define core user needs, pain points, and behavioral patterns, allowing the team to shape the app’s features and user journey accordingly.
By developing Mariana’s persona, we gained insights into how a local user interacts with the app daily—whether for fashion, wellness, or social engagement. Her needs highlighted the importance of community-driven features like B Inspired, seamless integration with local brands, and an engaging loyalty system.
On the other hand, David’s persona provided perspective on the experience of a short-term visitor who values efficiency, curation, networking and premium services. His expectations emphasized the need for fast reservations, multilingual support, and exclusive experiences that would make his visit memorable.
These personas allowed us to:
Validate feature priorities—ensuring the app serves both locals and tourists effectively.
Identify pain points early—such as language barriers, time constraints, and the overwhelming number of choices.
Design user journeys with clarity—by mapping key actions before, during, and after app interaction.
Create a product that feels intuitive and relevant—for different user segments, increasing engagement and retention.
Journey Maps & User Flows
I also built journey maps to visualize specific user scenarios in more detail. For example, exploring what's new in Cidade after its renovation, or booking a restaurant table. These maps highlighted phases of the experience (like discovery, planning, booking, visiting), the user's emotional states, pain points, and opportunities for improvement at each step. Journey mapping helped me prioritize features, refine flows, and design solutions that responded to genuine user goals—making sure that complex tasks felt easy and inviting.
Given the breadth of functionality in Cidade—from fashion shopping and food delivery to event bookings and in-app social media—I designed detailed user flows for every section. These flows charted each step a user would take to complete a goal, ensuring the paths were logical, efficient, and free of unnecessary complexity. Clear user flows were essential both for designing the UI and for communicating requirements to the two separate development teams, ensuring consistent, cohesive implementation despite the distributed setup.
A/B Testing during early UX Research prhase
During early design validation, I used A/B testing to explore critical interaction choices. For instance, different layouts for restaurant booking flows, variations in checkout experiences, or alternate designs for onboarding screens. Testing these variations with users and stakeholders helped refine the design based on real feedback, ensuring the chosen solutions were the most effective and intuitive.
1. Navigation & Onboarding Flow
A Version: A step-by-step onboarding guide with illustrations and tooltips explaining each feature.
B Version: A minimalist skip-able onboarding with a brief video tutorial instead.
Goal: Determine which approach leads to higher feature discovery and engagement rates for first-time users.
2. Homepage Personalization for Locals vs. Tourists
A Version: A homepage tailored for locals, showing trending fashion designers, restaurant reservations, and wellness classes.
B Version: A homepage for tourists, featuring curated experiences, must-visit places, and exclusive offers.
Goal: Understand if context-based personalization improves retention and interaction rates.
3. Booking System for Restaurants & Experiences
A Version: A traditional list-based layout for browsing and reserving restaurants/events.
B Version: A map-based interface, allowing users to book based on location.
Goal: Measure which layout drives faster decision-making and higher conversion rates.
4. Social Engagement in ‘B Inspired’ Section
A Version: Allow users to engage via likes and comments on photos/videos.
B Version: Introduce a reaction system (emojis) and shareable story format.
Goal: Test which engagement model generates more user interaction and content sharing.
Heuristic evaluation after UX Research
After completing all the foundational UX research work—customer journeys, user personas, journey maps, user flows, and A/B testing—I conducted a thorough heuristic evaluation of the app’s design. This step was critical for ensuring that even with strong research foundations, the final experience wouldn’t fall prey to common usability pitfalls.
A heuristic evaluation follows Jakob Nielsen’s usability principles to assess the interface and user experience based on consistency, efficiency, error prevention, and accessibility.
By applying this method, we could:
- Identify usability issues that users might not explicitly report but affect their experience.
- Ensure consistency across different sections (e.g., booking flows, marketplace interactions, and social engagement).
- Evaluate accessibility features, ensuring the app caters to various user needs, including tourists unfamiliar with São Paulo.
- Optimize navigation & hierarchy, making it easier for users to explore Cidade without confusion.
- Validate previous research findings, aligning final design choices with actual user behavior and expectations.
By reviewing the designs against established usability principles—such as visibility of system status, match between system and real-world concepts, user control and freedom, consistency, error prevention, and aesthetic clarity—I was able to systematically identify issues that could frustrate or confuse users. For example, I checked whether the checkout and booking processes clearly communicated progress and confirmation, whether the many different sections maintained consistent patterns, and whether error messages were helpful and non-disruptive.
This evaluation helped uncover subtle problems that might not emerge in early testing but could hurt long-term usability, especially given the app’s complexity and diverse audience. It also provided a clear, actionable set of recommendations for refining designs before handoff to the development teams. Ultimately, the heuristic evaluation served as a quality-control step to ensure the Cidade app delivered not just on its ambitious feature set but also on a smooth, satisfying, and accessible user experience.
Establishing a Design components system
On a project that was starting pretty much from scratch kickstarting a design components system that could be scalable and serve as a bridge between Design and Development was key. As the development and wireframing of UI progressed I kept documenting components and optimizing them for use in different sections and features. It tremendously helped to ensure visual consistency and evolve as well Cidade’s visual identity.
App core section’s
In designing the different sections of the Cidade app—Food, Fashion, Wellness, Education, and Culture—I focused on creating a cohesive yet flexible experience that could adapt to the unique needs of each area while feeling like part of a single, unified brand. My approach centered on defining clear user flows, understanding motivations through research, and applying consistent design principles to ensure intuitive navigation across the entire app. I worked to balance visual appeal with usability, making sure that regardless of whether users were browsing restaurants, booking a class, exploring cultural events, or shopping fashion, they encountered a seamless, polished experience that encouraged discovery and engagement throughout Cidade’s vibrant ecosystem.
Food
The Food section connects users with the best culinary experiences in Cidade. Whether dining in, ordering for delivery, or shopping for organic ingredients, this section provides seamless access to top restaurants, local markets, and fresh produce.
Restaurants – Explore Cidade’s finest dining options. Browse restaurant profiles with videos, photos, menus, and user reviews. Secure a reservation with just a few taps and experience world-class cuisine.
Delivery – Enjoy restaurant-quality meals from the comfort of your home. Order from a variety of local restaurants and track your delivery in real time.
Biomarket – Shop for organic, locally sourced, and bio-certified products from São Paulo’s best farmers and sustainable producers. Get fresh, high-quality ingredients delivered straight to your door.
Fashion
The Fashion section brings together the best of Cidade’s luxury and designer fashion, giving users access to exclusive collections, vintage pieces, and even rentable outfits.
New – Browse high-end boutiques and luxury brands in Cidade. Discover the latest trends in clothing, accessories, jewelry, and footwear, and shop directly from your favorite brands.
Vintage – A curated space for vintage lovers and aspiring designers. Find unique, timeless fashion pieces and support up-and-coming local designers who bring fresh styles to the industry.
Rent – Need a statement outfit for a special occasion? Rent designer fashion items from top boutiques in Cidade, as long as you have sufficient balance in your MWallet.
Culture
Cidade is a cultural hub, and the Culture section offers users an easy way to discover and attend the best events in town. Whether it's entertainment, knowledge-sharing, or spiritual gatherings, this section keeps users connected to what’s happening in the district.
Entertainment – Find and book tickets for concerts, fashion shows, cinema screenings, theater performances, live music, art exhibitions, and other major cultural events.
Talks – Stay informed with industry-leading conferences, seminars, and masterclasses. Connect with thought leaders and expand your knowledge on a variety of topics.
Religion – Explore religious and community events such as festivals, guided tours, spiritual ceremonies, and faith-based gatherings.
Wellness
The Wellness section is designed to help users prioritize their health, fitness, and self-care. From workouts to spa treatments and premium beauty products, everything you need for a balanced lifestyle is here.
Classes – Join various fitness and wellness classes, including yoga, CrossFit, BJJ, boxing, capoeira, and more. Book your spot and stay active with expert-led sessions.
Services – Browse and book wellness treatments, including massages, skincare therapies, spa experiences, and body treatments, all offered by top professionals.
Beauty – Shop high-end beauty products, including makeup, skincare, perfumes, and cosmetics from luxury brands, ensuring you always look and feel your best.
Educational
The Education section offers exclusive, high-quality courses designed by prestigious institutions and academies specifically for the Cidade project. Users can explore a variety of subjects, including business, entrepreneurship, fashion, design, fitness, and technology. Each course is structured into multiple lessons, interactive workshops, and a dedicated resource library, providing a comprehensive learning experience. Users can access video lessons, downloadable study materials, and participate in Q&A forums with fellow students and instructors. Upon completion, learners receive a certification, adding value to their professional and personal growth. This section is designed to make high-level education accessible, empowering users with knowledge and skills tailored to Cidade’s evolving industries.
Section B Inspired
B Inspired is the social media heart of the Cidade super app—an Instagram-like platform where users and influencers can share their experiences and inspire others. Whether it's posting about a dining experience at a top restaurant, attending an exclusive fashion show, exploring cultural events, or enjoying the district’s vibrant lifestyle, this section brings Cidade’s energy to life through user-generated content.
This feature plays a crucial role in engagement by fostering a sense of community and encouraging interaction. Users can discover new activities, get recommendations from real experiences, and feel more connected to the Cidade lifestyle. B Inspired is more than just a social feed—it's a dynamic space where trends are set, experiences are shared, and Cidade’s unique atmosphere is showcased in real time.
From a UX perspective, B Inspired adds a layer of complexity to the app, as it requires seamless media uploads, an intuitive interface for browsing and engaging with content, and algorithms to surface the most relevant and inspiring posts. By integrating this social element, the Cidade app becomes more than just a marketplace—it evolves into a living, breathing ecosystem where users are not just participants but contributors to the district’s ever-growing story.
When approaching the design of the B Inspired section, I focused on making it feel immediately familiar yet distinctively tailored to the Cidade experience. I drew inspiration from proven social media models—particularly Instagram’s intuitive, visual-first layout—because users already know how to navigate and engage with that kind of feed. But I didn’t want it to feel like a simple copy. Instead, I considered how Cidade’s unique mix of culture, fashion, food, and events could be showcased in a way that encourages local pride and discovery.
MWallet
The MWallet and its MCoins started as a simple reward and earning system within the Cidade app, designed to incentivize user engagement through purchases, event participation, and interactions within the app. Initially, MCoins served as a loyalty currency, rewarding users for activities such as dining at restaurants, shopping at boutiques, attending cultural events, and subscribing to exclusive services. Users could accumulate MCoins and redeem them for discounts, perks, and exclusive experiences, making it a valuable system that encouraged retention and spending within the Cidade ecosystem.
As Cidade expanded and its ecosystem grew richer, MWallet evolved beyond just a rewards system and transformed into a full-fledged payment solution. With more businesses, restaurants, and boutiques integrating into the Cidade app, the demand for a seamless and unified payment method increased. MWallet became the answer, allowing users to not only store and manage their MCoins but also top up their balance using traditional payment methods like credit cards and bank transfers. This shift positioned MWallet as more than just an incentive tool—it became an essential financial feature, offering users convenience and exclusivity in their transactions within Cidade.
The most ambitious leap in its evolution came when MCoins transitioned from being a digital points system to a true cryptocurrency. This expansion meant that MCoins were no longer restricted to the Cidade ecosystem; instead, they could be transferred, exchanged, and even used as a digital asset beyond the app. This move opened doors for users to use MCoins for peer-to-peer transactions, invest in digital assets, and even make payments at select partner locations. By integrating blockchain technology, the MWallet ensured secure, transparent, and decentralized transactions, aligning with the future of digital finance. What started as a simple loyalty feature had now become a sophisticated cryptocurrency-driven payment system, reinforcing Cidade’s position as an innovative and forward-thinking district where technology and lifestyle seamlessly blend.
Subscriptions, Registration, Checkout & Settings
The Cidade super app offers premium subscription packages tailored to different lifestyles, ensuring users gain exclusive access, perks, and discounts across food, fashion, culture, and wellness. Each package caters to a specific audience, allowing users to choose a membership that aligns with their interests while benefiting from VIP treatment. This approach enhances user engagement and encourages long-term app loyalty by making the Cidade experience even more immersive and rewarding. This strategy incentivizes long-term commitment, encourages exploration & spending so subscribers are more likely to attend events, shop, dine, and use premium services to make the most of their membership. It also creates a sense of exclusivity & prestige as VIP perks make users feel special, reinforcing Cidade’s luxury and high-end positioning as well as it targets niche audiences effectively.
The Registration process was revamped to offer a quick, intuitive, and seamless experience, ensuring that users can effortlessly create an account and start exploring the vibrant experiences Cidade has to offer. Designed with usability and convenience in mind, the onboarding flow is structured into simple, logical steps that guide users smoothly through sign-up.
Checkout process in the Cidade super app is designed to be seamless, secure, and incredibly efficient, ensuring that users can complete their purchases and orders without unnecessary delays. Whether shopping for fashion, accessories, beauty products, booking wellness services, or ordering food, the process flows effortlessly from selection to payment, making the entire experience smooth and enjoyable.
With a user-friendly interface, the app allows customers to finalize their transactions quickly, whether they are paying with a credit or debit card, digital wallets, or MCoins, the app’s built-in currency. Returning users benefit from saved payment details, enabling one-tap checkout, while new users can securely add their preferred payment methods with ease. Address selection for food delivery is intuitive, featuring GPS-based input and saved locations, ensuring accuracy and convenience.
Security is a priority, with encrypted transactions and two-step authentication protecting every purchase. Users receive instant confirmations and digital receipts, giving them full transparency over their transactions. Those subscribed to premium packages enjoy automatic discounts, priority services, and exclusive perks, making the experience even more rewarding.
From browsing to finalizing an order, every step has been optimized to be as quick and intuitive as possible. The real-time order tracking feature enhances the experience, allowing users to follow their food deliveries, upcoming wellness appointments, or fashion rentals with ease. The Cidade app transforms the traditional checkout process into a frictionless journey, making shopping and ordering a delight rather than a chore.
The User Settings section of the Cidade app has reached a new level of refinement, offering a seamless, intuitive, and highly personalized experience. Every detail has been carefully crafted to provide users with full control over their accounts, ensuring effortless navigation and customization. From managing payment methods and subscriptions to setting language preferences and adjusting notification settings, everything is designed for convenience.
The streamlined interface enhances clarity, while the organized structure ensures users can quickly access what they need. Security is a priority, with robust options for password management and data control. The inclusion of support features and FAQs makes it easy for users to find assistance whenever needed. The entire section is now a polished, cohesive hub that reflects the sophistication and user-centric vision of the Cidade app, making everyday interactions more efficient and enjoyable.
Courier, Farmer & Restaurant Apps
For the Restaurant, Farmer, and Courier apps, my design work focused on delivering clear, streamlined, and highly task-oriented experiences tailored to each app’s type of specific needs and value proposition at Cidade. Across all three, I considered the distinct workflows of each type, ensuring these business-facing tools felt professional, efficient, and empowering.
The Courier Partner app is an essential tool designed specifically for delivery couriers, providing them with everything they need to manage their work efficiently and maximize their earnings. Acting as the backbone of Cidade’s delivery network, the app allows couriers to receive and accept delivery requests instantly, whether for food orders, package deliveries, or other on-demand services. With a clear and intuitive interface, couriers can view all relevant details about each order, including pickup and drop-off locations, estimated delivery time, and customer instructions, ensuring a smooth and organized workflow.
Flexibility is at the heart of the Courier Partner app. Couriers have full control over their working hours, allowing them to set their availability based on their preferences. They can also specify the type of vehicle they use, whether it’s a bicycle, motorcycle, or car, optimizing order assignments to match their capabilities. Earnings are transparently displayed, providing real-time insights into completed deliveries, bonuses, and potential incentives, with customizable payout options so couriers can choose how and when they get paid.
Beyond deliveries, the app offers robust support features, ensuring couriers can access help whenever they need it. From in-app assistance and direct customer support to troubleshooting resources, couriers are never left without guidance. This level of accessibility and flexibility makes the Courier Partner app not just a work tool but a reliable companion for those looking to thrive in the delivery ecosystem. By streamlining operations, empowering couriers with control, and ensuring seamless transactions, the app enhances efficiency and reliability, making deliveries faster and more rewarding for everyone involved.
The Farmer app is a powerful and intuitive platform designed exclusively for farmers, giving them full control over their product listings, orders, and overall business operations within the Cidade ecosystem. Acting as a digital storefront, the app allows farmers to seamlessly add, update, and manage their products, ensuring that customers always have access to fresh, high-quality goods. With real-time inventory management, farmers can track stock levels, adjust pricing, and highlight seasonal or specialty items, making their offerings more dynamic and appealing.
Beyond just product management, the app streamlines the entire order process, from receiving requests to confirming and preparing shipments. Farmers can view detailed order information, track delivery statuses, and communicate with buyers if needed, ensuring transparency and efficiency in every transaction. The earnings dashboard provides real-time insights into sales performance, allowing farmers to monitor their revenue, access payout options, and plan their financial growth with confidence.
The Restaurant App is designed to be an all-in-one solution for restaurant partners, offering seamless management of table bookings, food delivery orders, and customer interactions. With an intuitive and elegant interface, restaurant managers can efficiently handle reservations, confirm check-ins, manage waitlists, and oversee delivery logistics, all from a single platform.
Restaurants can view and sort reservations by time, status, or priority, ensuring smooth operations during peak hours. Each booking entry displays essential details such as: guest name and number of guests, booking time and reference number, seating preferences (indoor, outdoor, terrace) or special requests (concierge/valet service, birthday celebrations, non-smoking area, allergies).
Staff can confirm a guest's check-in, move them to a waitlist, or cancel a booking if necessary. The app also enables direct communication with customers via a call button, allowing restaurant managers to reach out instantly for clarifications or confirmations. It also integrates a delivery tracking system, allowing restaurants to monitor orders in real-time. Each order includes: order number and timestamp, items included in the order (dishes with images), courier estimated pick-up and delivery times, status updates (processed, in preparation, ready for pickup, on the way, delivered), customer’s delivery address with an interactive map view.
The settings section of the app gives restaurant managers full control over their tables, dishes, and menus. They can add or update available tables and seating capacity, modify menus by adding new dishes or updating existing ones, adjust pricing and availability based on inventory and demand. One of the standout features of the app is its statistics dashboard, providing restaurant owners with detailed business insights. They can track key performance indicators such as: Table Turnover Rates, Average Dining Time, No-Show Percentage, Average Order Value or Total Reservations & Income
Outcome and Learnings
Even though the Cidade app was never released publicly, my work as UX designer had a significant impact on the project’s trajectory. I helped transform an initial idea into a concrete, research-informed, and highly structured product vision. The deliverables I created (like complete UI designs, components system, interaction flows, documentation and heuristic evaluations) served as a solid foundation that would have allowed the development teams to move forward confidently. Despite the app wasn’t released, the design work produced clear documentation and alignment across stakeholders, showing that thoughtful UX can de-risk a complex, multi-stakeholder project before significant development costs are incurred.
This project taught me how to navigate complexity while working in a small, cross-cultural team with limited resources and no in-house development. I learned the value of clear communication and stakeholder alignment, especially when coordinating with external teams. The necessity to design for such a broad, ambitious scope—across retail, food delivery, event bookings, social media, and payments—pushed me to improve my ability to break down problems, prioritize user needs, and maintain consistency in large systems. Some of my takeaway learnings were:
Improved my ability to communicate clearly with a small, cross-cultural team spread across different countries.
Learned to navigate a highly complex project scope with many interconnected features.
Gained experience aligning diverse stakeholders around a shared vision and research-backed decisions.
Strengthened my skills in breaking down big, ambitious goals into manageable, user-centered design solutions.
Practiced balancing real user needs with technical and business constraints.
Developed a better approach to maintaining design consistency across multiple app sections and use cases.
Learned to adapt my UX process for projects without in-house development teams, ensuring deliverables were clear and actionable.