Offline
Engineering serendipity
ROLE
Design Engineer
TIMELINE
January 2026 - present
TECH STACK
Figma
Jitter
SwiftUI
Xcode
LINK
- OVERVIEW
- MARKET RESEARCH
- COMPETITIVE
- DESIGN PROCESS
- FINAL DESIGNS
- FEATURE SPOTLIGHT
Overview
What is Offline?
Offline is a proximity-based social network that ditches endless feeds and swiping to engineer real-world serendipity. By moving with you, it transforms passive physical spaces into active opportunities for authentic, spontaneous connection.
Target Audience
Successfully scaled to 2,000+ active students at the University of Toronto, with a new version currently in development for a broader San Francisco audience.
How did I add value?
End-to-End Execution: Led the UX/UI prototyping and implemented the frontend code for features. Brand & Design System: Established the app's visual identity and built a scalable component library to ensure UI consistency across the entire platform. Strategic Product Vision: Identified a critical drop-off in user engagement and successfully pitched a pivot to the founders. Feature Delivery: Shipped an intent-driven 'Events' feature to turn passive proximity into active connection.
Market Research
The core problem with digital socializing is the friction between Presence and Permission. While platforms like Instagram provide a feed, users often feel isolated while scrolling. Conversely, curated dinner apps require money and planning, killing spontaneity. During my initial breakdown of the platform, I realized we were stuck in what I called the 'Aquarium Phase.' Users could see the 'fish' (people nearby), but there was thick glass between them. They were watching, but the social friction of breaking the ice was too high. They needed a mutual friend to give them permission to say hello. Here is the strategic breakdown of how to improve Offline to beat competitors like 222 and avoid the "ghost town" fate of other proximity apps.
Competitive Research
To solve the Aquarium Phase, I mapped the competitive landscape to find our 'Golden Gap.' • Paid Curators (222, Timeleft): High intent, but low spontaneity. Fails the 'broke student' test. • Raw Tools (Proximity Chat): High proximity, but zero social grace. Walking up to a dot on a map with no context feels invasive. • AI Matchmakers (Series): High curation, but zero physical momentum. Using AI to send automated cold intros just traps users in another awkward iMessage group chat instead of getting them offline. • Ghost Towns (Who's Down): Status apps that failed due to a lack of local density.
The opportunity was clear: We needed to combine the instant nature of raw proximity with the high-intent permission of paid events, all while keeping it free and accessible.
Design Process
The Pivot to Events Initially, I prototyped concepts like a 'Vibe Dial' and AI-generated side quests to give users a shared mission. While the founders loved the psychology behind lowering the stakes of interaction, we realized that the most scalable, natural way to facilitate high-intent gatherings was to lean into existing communities.
We pivoted the core idea into a full Events feature. Instead of relying on random proximity or awkward opening lines, the Events feature gives people a shared destination and a built-in icebreaker.
Students can now discover campus club events, local meetups, and curated gatherings directly on a map. I designed the full flow—from discovery to RSVP and ticketing—and built the UI in Swift, turning the app into an active social calendar instead of a passive radar. As we iterated, we redesigned the Events feed to be cleaner and easier to read, inspired by Luma. I also prototyped the frontend in SwiftUI with structured dummy data, so our backend engineer could easily plug in real event data from UofT club Instagram pages and speed up our launch.
Final Designs
This prototype uses sample data to showcase the core experience: the main Events screen, Your Plans, Discover, and the event detail + registration flow. Seeing this feature used in the real world to bridge the gap between digital proximity and physical connection validated our design decisions.
Feature Spotlight
Here are some of my other work that went into production.
