Ezequiel Rodríguez — AI-Powered Product Designer
BookingChic: End-to-end booking ecosystem for a luxury day spa
Role: Product Designer + PM duties · Timeline: 2024–2025 · Team: 3 developers, general manager
BookingChic is a custom SaaS booking ecosystem for a luxury day spa in Australia — a web-based management platform for staff and a customer mobile app for booking, purchasing, and rewards. It was designed as one system with two connected experiences, where decisions on one side directly shape the other.
The problem
The spa juggled separate third-party tools for scheduling, promotions, rewards, and product sales — fragmented workflows for staff, and no premium experience for the customers the brand wanted to retain.
Business platform (web)
For managers and staff: centralized operations with full control over bookings, services, and promotions. I translated user stories into a requirements matrix, surfaced edge cases early, prioritized the calendar module as the foundation, and validated each module with stakeholders before moving forward.
Customer mobile app
For frequent spa customers: appointment booking, product and gift card purchases, rewards and point redemption, VIP subscriptions, and offers. The UI breaks mobile convention deliberately — serif typography and a custom palette reflect the luxury brand, validated for readability through user testing.
Designing both sides of one system
Business configurations shape what customers can see and book; customer behavior shapes how managers configure services and promotions. Designing both sides in parallel made trade-offs between flexibility, simplicity, and usability visible early — and kept the system coherent end to end.
Challenges & solutions
- Designer and PM at once — Challenge: No dedicated PM to manage scope and priorities. Solution: Structured documentation, clear task breakdowns, and regular check-ins kept the team aligned.
- Non-traditional mobile UI — Challenge: Luxury branding choices challenged standard mobile conventions. Solution: Strong visual hierarchy, high contrast, and user testing maintained usability.
- Rewards integration — Challenge: Real-time synchronization across web and mobile. Solution: Close collaboration with backend development ensured consistency and reliability.
The outcome
The web platform is live in production and the mobile app is built and pending launch — one coherent system replacing the patchwork of third-party tools. With no dedicated PM, I also owned priorities, documentation, and developer alignment throughout.
- 4 operational areas unified in one system
- 2 connected experiences, web + mobile
- 3 developers aligned — no dedicated PM
Key takeaways
- Designing both sides of an ecosystem leads to stronger UX decisions
- Clear ownership and documentation are essential in PM-less teams
- Business needs and user experience must evolve together
- Strong branding and usability can coexist when tested and validated
All work · Contact ezecrodriguez22@gmail.com