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.
A cross-platform mobile app connecting wellness and beauty specialists with clients through social feeds, professional profiles and in-app booking, as an alternative to finding clients on Instagram.
About
About this project
Bellus is a social discovery and booking platform designed specifically for wellness and beauty professionals: barbers, nail technicians, aestheticians, 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 is designed to bring Instagram DMs, phone calls and separate booking tools into one app.
Services behind this project
Starting point
The challenge
- 01
Wellness professionals were relying on Instagram and Google Maps to be found, and neither supported direct booking or professional verification. The founder needed a focused first version that fitted a startup budget.
- 02
The app had to feel familiar to Instagram users while adding booking, and to keep specialists and clients in clearly separate roles.
- 03
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.
Deliverables
What we delivered
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Admin dashboard for content and user management
Web back-end where Bellus operators moderate posts, manage user accounts, review verification cases, and monitor platform activity.
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Complete UX/UI redesign from client prototype
Full visual and interaction overhaul of the client's initial prototype, reworking flows so social browsing and booking feel like one app, not two.
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Cross-platform iOS & Android mobile application
Single React Native + Expo codebase delivering native-feeling experiences on both stores, with shared business logic across platforms.
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In-app service booking and scheduling
Clients pick a specialist, choose a service, see real availability, and confirm a slot (payment and confirmation handled inside the app).
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Role-based access control (specialist, client, admin)
Three completely separate experiences sharing one codebase: specialists see their schedule and posts, clients see discovery and bookings, admins see moderation tooling.
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Social feed with posts, groups, and follower structure
Image-heavy feed with posts, follows, and topical groups, built so specialists can showcase work without competing with general lifestyle content.
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Specialist identity verification system
Onboarding flow that collects ID and credentials, queues them for admin review, and gates booking until a specialist is verified, protecting clients from impostor accounts.
Result
What the project delivered.
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4 months
From project kickoff to production-ready MVP with complete social and booking functionality
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3 user roles
Specialist, client and admin, each with its own screens and permissions.
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iOS and Android
Both apps prepared for App Store and Play Store submission from one codebase.
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In-app booking
Clients pick a service, see real availability and confirm a slot inside the app, instead of arranging it over DMs.
Process
How we worked
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Step 1 / 4 -
Step 2 / 4 Redesigned the client's initial prototype from scratch, creating separate user journeys for specialists and clients. Focused on making the feed feel familiar to social media users, with booking part of the same flow.
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Step 3 / 4 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 to handle image-heavy posts on both platforms.
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Step 4 / 4 Conducted QA across multiple devices and OS versions, validated the whole booking flow, and prepared the app for store submission with all required assets and compliance documentation.
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