A Dubai-based service marketplace needed a map-based mobile app that could handle real-time provider discovery, in-app chat, and booking -- for a market where the user's mental model was shaped by ride-hailing and food-delivery apps, and anything less polished would read as untrustworthy.
Dubai's app market is saturated with venture-funded, extremely well-designed consumer apps. A service marketplace competing for the same attention with a mediocre interface wouldn't just underperform -- it would actively signal that the underlying service was unreliable too.
We designed the app around the interaction patterns Dubai users already trust from ride-hailing and delivery apps -- live map tracking, chat-first communication, clear status states -- so the learning curve was near zero despite the product being unfamiliar.
We made the map the home screen, not a menu destination.
Map-based service discovery only works if the map is the first thing the user sees and acts on -- not a tab they have to find. We put live provider availability directly on the home screen, mirroring the mental model users already had from ride-hailing apps.
What we rejected: Map-based service discovery only works if the map is the first thing the user sees and acts on -- not a tab they have to find. We put live provider availability directly on the home screen, mirroring the mental model users already had from ride-hailing apps.
We built the chat interface to carry booking actions, not just messages.
Separating chat from booking forces the user to bounce between screens to confirm details that came up in conversation. We embedded booking actions directly into the chat thread so a conversation could resolve into a confirmed booking without leaving the screen.
What we rejected: A standard separate messaging tab with booking handled entirely through a different flow. Cleaner architecture on paper, but it adds friction at the exact moment the user is ready to commit.
"ELM approached the app like a product, not a collection of screens. Every interaction was designed to reduce friction, making it easier for customers to discover, book, and trust our services."
— Zaid Khan, Founder, Next To You
This was designed entirely in Figma without a live build, which is its own lesson: several interaction details -- especially around the chat-to-booking handoff -- would have been resolved faster with a working prototype than with static frames and annotations.
