Year:
2026
Tools:
Framer, Figma, Illustrator
Category:
Community + Events, UI/UX
Overview
Closing the gap between online interest and offline presence.
Orbit is a community-driven events app designed to turn shared interests into real-world experiences. It helps people discover communities they resonate with and attend events that actually feel relevant, blending interest-based discovery with local gatherings so meeting people around ideas, culture, and passions feels natural instead of forced.
Problem
Modern social platforms focus heavily on content but very little on connection. Communities are scattered, events feel disconnected from the people attending them, and discovering meaningful gatherings takes effort across multiple apps. As a result, many interests stay digital and never translate into real moments.
Solution
Orbit brings communities and events into a single focused experience. It organizes people around shared interests first, then surfaces events as extensions of those communities. This makes discovery intentional, participation effortless, and real-world connections more accessible.
Flow
The Orbit Flow
A user opens Orbit and moves through onboarding, choosing to continue with phone or email, before landing on Home. From there, the experience branches into five core paths: Communities, Events, Chats, Profile, and Create Community, each built around a specific way people engage, discovering groups, finding events, messaging, managing their own profile, or starting something new. Each path goes deeper on its own terms, Communities leads to joining and chatting within a group, Events leads to registering and following up afterward, Profile handles account details and sign-out, and Create Community walks someone through inviting members and launching events. The structure keeps five distinct intents from colliding into one another, while still sharing the same Home entry point.
Experience
Research Insights
Research centered on users aged 18-30, spanning students, creative professionals, and tech roles. The strongest barriers were safety and trust concerns, fear of judgment, and social anxiety, while the clearest motivations were making new friends, discovering local activities, and reducing loneliness.
User Persona
Arjun and Irshad, both socially active but disconnected in similar ways, capture the core tension: "I meet plenty of people, but real connections are rare," and "I like meeting new people, but only if the vibe feels right." Both wanted low-pressure ways to find genuine, trustworthy communities nearby, without the noise of generic social apps.
Empathy Map
Users say they want to meet people who "actually vibe" with them, but most existing apps feel disconnected, "people just scroll, not connect." They feel lonely but curious, cautious about joining anything that doesn't feel real, and relieved once they find a space that does. In practice, they scroll social media without engaging deeply, join groups but lose interest fast, and often observe communities quietly before committing to join.
Outcome
Discovery That Feels Intentional
Orbit explores how a community platform can prioritize trust and genuine connection over passive content consumption. By organizing discovery around shared interests rather than a generic feed, and giving every path (Communities, Events, Chats, Profile, Create Community) its own clear purpose, the app turns scattered social behavior into something more deliberate, meeting people because the interest is real, not because an algorithm suggested it.
