Social Booking Platform for Wellness & Beauty Professionals
A cross-platform mobile app connecting wellness specialists with clients through social feeds, professional profiles, and in-app booking - built to help independent practitioners grow their business without relying on Instagram.
About the Project
Bellus is a social discovery and booking platform designed specifically for wellness and beauty professionals - barbers, nail technicians, estheticians, massage therapists, and similar specialists. The platform solves a problem Instagram cannot: giving wellness professionals a dedicated social space where their work is the focus, not competing with food posts and travel reels. Clients discover specialists through curated feeds, view their portfolio, read reviews, and book services directly - all within one app. For specialists, Bellus replaces the patchwork of Instagram DMs, phone calls, and third-party booking tools with a single platform purpose-built for their business.
The Challenge
Business challenges
No dedicated social platform existed for wellness professionals. Instagram and Google Maps were the default discovery channels, but neither supported direct booking or professional verification. The client needed to create a new product category while staying within a startup budget.
Product & UX challenges
Designing a social experience that felt familiar to Instagram users while adding booking functionality without overwhelming the interface. The app needed to serve two distinct user types - specialists managing their business and clients discovering and booking services - with clean role separation.
Technical challenges
Building a performant social feed with image-heavy content, real-time notifications, and booking flows across both iOS and Android from a single codebase. Identity verification for specialists needed to be reliable while keeping the onboarding process fast and friction-free.
What We Delivered
Role-based access control (specialist, client, admin)
Admin dashboard for content and user management
In-app service booking and scheduling
Cross-platform iOS & Android mobile application
Specialist identity verification system
Complete UX/UI redesign from client prototype
Social feed with posts, groups, and follower structure
Work Process
1
Discovery & scope definition
Worked closely with the founder to redefine scope from an ambitious feature list to a focused MVP that fit the budget while preserving the core value proposition - social discovery and direct booking for wellness specialists.
2
UX/UI design
Redesigned the client's initial prototype from scratch, creating separate user journeys for specialists and clients. Focused on making the feed experience feel native to social media users while integrating booking seamlessly.
3
Cross-platform development
Built the app using React Native and Expo to deliver native-quality experiences on both iOS and Android from a single codebase. Integrated Stripe for payment processing and built the social feed architecture for scalable content delivery.
4
Testing & launch
Conducted QA across multiple devices and OS versions, validated the booking flow end-to-end, and prepared the app for store submission with all required assets and compliance documentation.
Project team
Results
Explore how we’ve helped startups and enterprises solve complex challenges, accelerate growth, and launch innovative digital products.
2 user roles
Fully separated specialist and client experiences with distinct dashboards, permissions, and workflows
4 months
From project kickoff to production-ready MVP with complete social and booking functionality
30%
Reduction in booking friction compared to DM-based scheduling, based on user testing feedback
100%
On-time delivery of both iOS and Android apps to production, ready for App Store and Play Store submission
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