Overview
GirlBnB is a freelance design commission for a dating and social app aimed at the lesbian community. Beyond matching, it imagined a forum layer where users could organise and join community events, supporting both romantic and platonic connection. I designed the full concept end-to-end as the sole designer over a two-month sprint in early 2025.
The three pillars of the brief: matching, forum, and profile.
Challenge
Mainstream dating apps are designed around assumptions that don't fit lesbian users well — visibility exposure, weak vetting, and a persistent lack of space for meeting friends rather than partners. A product centred on this community needed safety, visibility control, and community-building as first-class primitives from the first screen, not bolted onto a straight-default template.
Approach
- Designed the complete concept end-to-end — brand, visual language, component library, and every core screen.
- Created user flows for matching, forum posting, and community event organisation, with safety affordances (age verification, reporting, visibility controls) woven into the IA rather than buried in settings.
- Treated the matching surface less as a swipe mill and more as a thoughtful introduction, shaping copy and pacing to match.
Results
- Completed the full concept as a two-month solo design sprint — delivering a component library, full screen set, and user flows covering matching, forum, and profile.
- Established a visual and interaction language distinct from the straight-default templates that dominate the category.
- Delivered to the client at the end of the two-month sprint; I don't track what happened post-delivery.