Savvyo / 2026 · Phase 1
Product Design
Social Platform
Mobile App
0 → 1
Pitch & Strategy
Design system
Savvyo is under NDA. This page shares the thinking and process, with a curated set of Phase 1 screens.
Role
Product Designer
Stage
Phase 1 · Social Retention
Platform
iOS & Android
Recognition
2nd Runner-Up, Manthan 2026
In short
Problem
Social apps reward collecting people. Feeds get louder, trust gets thinner, and the useful parts of a community end up scattered across apps that don’t talk to each other.
Key decision
Make connection finite. Everyone gets 70 spots, shown as what’s left rather than as a follower score, so adding someone costs something on both sides.
My scope
Phase 1 of the platform, and the profile module end to end: journeys, states, edge cases and the consent model under India’s DPDP Act.
Outcome
2nd Runner-Up at Manthan 2026, a national startup competition. — add what shipped or what’s next, and the timeline —
Contents
01 · The problem
The Problem
01
Attention over relationships
People are treated as audiences to monetise. Algorithms reward extreme, polarising content to keep everyone scrolling.
02
Individual data over collective
Useful local knowledge stays trapped in private chats, disconnected platforms and closed ecosystems.
03
Scale without connection
We connected billions of people, yet struggle to turn those connections into trust, cooperation and shared value.
02 · The idea
What is Savvyo
01
JOIN
Connect with close ones, trusted circles and local communities in a clean, distraction‑free social space.
02
ENGAGE
Discover and trade on a verified, diverse marketplace built on community trust.
03
BENEFIT
Everyday utility tools and services that save time and deliver practical local value.
04
EMPOWER
Collectively shape transparent, sovereign, community‑driven localised AI tools.
03 · Phase 1
The Solution · Phase 1: Social Retention
Meaningful relationships
One‑to‑one connections capped at 70. Intentional exclusivity that matters.
Thriving communities
Purpose‑driven spaces to belong, collaborate and solve together.
Collective knowledge
Organised, trusted, reusable knowledge that grows smarter with everyone.
Trusted value creation
Commerce and opportunity that grow from trust and community, not ads.
Better outcomes. For everyone.
For individuals
More meaningful connections, less noise, a stronger voice.
For communities
More engagement, collaboration and collective impact.
For creators & businesses
Better reach, deeper trust, sustainable growth.
For society
A stronger social fabric and more valuable collective intelligence.
04 · My scope
My scope · The profile module
The production UI is under NDA, so the screens below are the low‑fidelity journey boards I used to think, review and align the team.
Journeys, not screens
I wrote the module as user stories, then broke each one into beats. Every beat names a state the interface has to hold, so review conversations were about behaviour instead of pixels.
Rules of the system
A profile carries a finite connection budget. I defined how that budget reads and behaves: shown as spots remaining, never as a follower score, and only committed when the other person accepts.
Consent by design
I designed within India’s DPDP Act rather than bolting privacy on at the end: private by default, purpose‑limited consent, and a withdrawal path that is as easy as the opt‑in.
Creating user journeys
01
A new user should understand what the app is before doing anything.
Decision: the empty state sells the model. Privacy is the starting position, not a setting to hunt for.
02
Connect with a real friend, so their posts reach the Core feed.
Decision: friction is the cost, not paperwork. The spot is committed, not spent, until the other person accepts.
03
Decide who gets into your 70, without pressure or guilt.
Decision: a decline is never broadcast. The sender’s spot returns and they never learn they were turned down, so dignity is built into the architecture.
Most of the module’s character came from states nobody demos: what happens when someone changes their mind, runs out of room, or says no.
Sent, then reconsidered
A pending request can be withdrawn. Nothing is announced, and the spot returns to the sender untouched.
A quiet no
Not now resolves silently. The sender only ever learns about a yes, which removes the social cost of declining.
A full 70
When the budget is nearly spent, the cost is shown on both sides before the request is sent, so neither person is surprised.
An empty profile
No posts, no bio and no cover still has to look intentional, so the first screen explains the model instead of looking broken.
Waiting
Between request and answer, the interface holds an honest in‑between state rather than implying a connection exists.
Who sees what
Private by default means a stranger, a pending request and a LinkUp each see a different profile.
I pulled profile screens from around thirty social, community and creator apps, collected through Mobbin, and sorted them by what each pattern rewards. The point was not visual inspiration; it was deciding which mechanics to keep and which ones quietly work against a finite‑connection product.
Reference screens from third‑party apps, collected via Mobbin for pattern analysis.
Kept
A predictable header order — cover, avatar, identity, then tabbed content — because familiarity here buys attention for the parts that are genuinely new.
Kept
Editing as a focused, plain‑language form, with each field explaining where it will appear.
Rejected
Follower and following counts. A visible score turns a finite budget into a leaderboard and invites exactly the behaviour Savvyo is designed to avoid.
Rejected
Completion bars and “people you may know” loops. Growth prompts borrow the user’s attention to serve the platform, not the relationship.
Designing under India’s DPDP Act, 2023
Private by default
Nothing a new user does is public until they choose otherwise, so the safe state is the default state rather than a setting to find.
Purpose‑limited asks
Each permission is requested where it is used and says what it is for, instead of one blanket agreement at sign‑up.
Withdrawal as easy as consent
Turning something off takes the same number of taps as turning it on, with no confirmation maze.
Only what the product needs
The module collects the minimum to make a profile work, which also removed the data that powers follower counts and growth loops.
Plain language, no dark patterns
Notices read like sentences, and the quieter option is never dressed down to steer the choice.
Rights people can actually use
Access, correction and deletion are treated as routine product flows rather than support tickets.
Written as design intent for the product team. It is not a legal opinion.
05 · The product
Designing Phase 1
A calm home feed split into Core and Following, search that understands people, posts, media and communities, and an empty state that invites you to share a moment instead of scrolling.
Home feed
Empty state
Search · Top
Search · Trending
Search · Media
06 · Proof
Recognition
Manthan 2026 · National Startup Competition by Symbiosis
Built from first principles, prioritising real human trust limits over synthetic monetisation loops.
“Savvyo is the blueprint for the next generation of platform tech. The future of the digital economy lies in collective value.”
— Manthan Panel
Phase 2 is in progress. More soon.
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