Role

Product Designer

Team

3+1 (tech+design)

Scope

UI/UX Design, Product Strategy, Design System, User Research, UX Writing

Context

In 2022, the Unboxing BLR Foundation launched the BLR Hubba initiative to celebrate Bangalore's rich arts and culture scene. This annual cultural festival aimed to transform everyday life in the city by showcasing year-round events spanning art, dance, theatre, literature, sports, and more. I joined as a consultant to help shape the platform, driving its vision of a citywide festival experience for Bangalore.

Problem Statement

Bangalore lacked a unified platform for locals to discover and engage with cultural events. BLR Hubba set out to bridge this gap by creating a website that celebrates the city during the festival while supporting hyper-local events throughout the year.

Challenges

• Festive-First Platform: Balancing a vibrant festival experience with an ongoing, everyday event hub.
• Complex Event Management System: Building a backend system where BLR Hubba acts as the primary administrator, approving each event submitted by partner organizers. This setup required a streamlined yet flexible approval process to maintain quality control and consistency across all platform events.
• Supporting Artists and Event Organizers: Creating a user-friendly backend for organizers to showcase their events, manage updates, and attract new audiences without extensive technical skills.
• Scalability and Flexibility: Building the infrastructure to support an expanding calendar of events and new categories over time, so the platform can grow alongside the city’s evolving cultural landscape

Solutions

Initial Brief

The design needed to balance what the festival celebrates—Bangalore’s essence—with how it’s celebrated, through event listings and bookings. Post-festival, it would transition into a platform for year-round cultural engagement.

This dual purpose became the foundation for our design decisions, ensuring the platform remained relevant and user-focused throughout the year. Version 0.1 to 0.2 is an attempt to bridge the dual purpose. Based on this, we proposed Version 0.1 of the website (see below).

Version 0.2

Version 0.1 captured the festival’s vibrancy. Version 0.2 addressed the broader goal: creating a year-round hub for hyper-local events. (I've added some of the screens below)