Destined
What began as a conversation about creative struggle turned into an experiment in connection.Destined is a platform that helps people find the right photographer; not through ads or algorithms, but through empathy, clarity, and design that understands how humans actually search.
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What began as a conversation about creative struggle turned into an experiment in connection. Destined is a platform that helps people find the right photographer; not through ads or algorithms, but through empathy, clarity, and design that understands how humans actually search.
This one started long before the brief, in a photography studio in Mumbai. Between shoots, my mentor said one line to me: “You’re destined for a life behind the camera.”It was a beautiful way to describe my love for the art, and I really appreciated it. That thought and the word destined stayed with me, but not as a prophecy, as a problem. Because he also gave me one warning with it.
He said In photography, being good and talented doesn’t mean being found. Finding work, finding clients, finding trust — it’s a constant search. A messy one.
So I decided to design that search again.
When I looked into this more I found a stat that stunned me. In India,
That means no steady platform, no consistent discovery path, lots of hoping someone notices you. I kept asking myself the same question:
Why is something as visual, emotional, and inspiring as photography made so complicated?
I decided to stop guessing and start listening. I spoke with over a dozen people: photographers, business owners, clients, wedding planners. Every conversation carried the same fatigue:
• Photographers chasing inquiries through DMs that never convert
• Clients lost in portfolios, unsure who to trust or how much to pay
• Creative ecosystems built on filters, feeds, and algorithms rather than understanding
Photographers don’t just need clients. They need the right kind of clients. People who understand their craft, value their time, and speak their language. And clients, too, feel lost. They want great work but often don’t know how to find or evaluate it. I realized,
The internet has made everything visible, but not everything findable.
Most platforms assume users know what they want already. But real people rarely do. I analyzed four competitors that resonates the photography services space, focusing on their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). What I saw was: discovery is everywhere, hiring almost nowhere. The internet has made everything visible, but not everything findable.
The goal was simple on paper: make finding, hiring, and collaborating with photographers effortless for both sides. But creating a space that feels social enough to browse, yet structured enough to work, turned out to be far more layered in reality.
Destined is my attempt to make that balance real.
a platform that feels part social, part professional, but mostly human.
In Ideation Phase, The focus here is to generate diverse design solutions to address the problem identified:“Finding and hiring the right photographer is frustrating, time-consuming, and lacks transparency in pricing and availability.”I mapped the ecosystem from both sides:
• For clients: clarity, trust, and convenience
• For photographers: exposure, structure, and fair representation
That’s when the word destined began to twist in my mind. Maybe destiny is not luck but clarity.I has to become a dedicated platform where photographers, users and clients connect seamlessly, making the process of hiring and showcasing photography services easy, professional, and transparent.
From that I mapped core flows and information architecture:
Then i made wireframes for each key interfaces
The prototype came alive in Figma:
• Home Feed: a photo-first endless scroll with metadata shows up on tap
• Search: natural language search with filters for style, location, and price, etc.
• Profiles: clean portfolios with high-res work, gear details, packages, and calendars
• Bookings: smooth in-app scheduling and payments
• Marketplace: a space for presets, workshops, and creative add-ons
The heart of Destined is its intelligent search feed.
You can type something as ordinary as: “I need a photographer in Bangalore for a birthday party on 31st October.” And it understands and quietly parse the details like location, date, type, and scale, turning them into structured results.
That is supported by advanced filter tags. Clients can refine by location, gear, lighting type, editing style, price range, deliverables. Every click makes discovery more precise.
Then comes the result feed. A scroll that feels more like swiping through intuition than profiles.Each photographer appears as a card, their best work first, with everything that matters within reach: Ratings, packages, testimonials. Also their style and lighting preferences.
When someone decides, everything is synced inside one calm, coherent space.: messaging, booking, payment, calendar. No jumping between apps or chasing someone down.
Engage with the full prototype.
The name Destined wasn’t planned.
It came from that first conversation in the studio. But over time, it grew new meanings. Clients are looking for their destined photographer. Photographers are chasing the opportunities they feel destined for. Both sides need a space, a design, a system that lets that meeting happen naturally. It wasn’t just a name anymore. It became a quiet belief that clarity creates its own kind of destiny.
Visually, I wanted Destined to feel like a product that breathes. Lilac and light tones bring calmness.Fluid motion adds warmth. Micro-interactions feel like gestures, not clicks.Every corner had to whisper trust. No forced gradients. No unnecessary friction. Just a quiet rhythm that keeps people moving without reminding them they are inside a system.
Testing became a humbling exercise.
• Swipe vs Grid: many users loved both. Quick exploration via swipe. Grid when they already have an idea in mind. So I built both or toggles.
• Metadata: professionals loved seeing gear, style, exposure. Casual users sometimes ignored it. Still, seeing it gave confidence for many.Pricing: clarity here matters.
• Clear price ranges and templated inquiry messages reduced friction and built trust.
People told me: “It does not feel like a freelance app.” It feels like a bridge between Instagram and Behance. That was a win. Not because it was perfect, but because it made something that used to feel lacking and tiring become gentle and found.
Some features were too ambitious for the prototype:
• Real-time calendar sync, escrow payments, and full contract systems
• Advanced marketplace featuresThey are part of the roadmap. Good ideas deserve time to mature.
Small Reflection
What began as a mentor’s passing line became a full-circle moment. A product, a principle, and a quiet reminder that destiny isn’t something that happens to you.It’s something you build, with care, clarity, and curiosity.
When I think about the word Destined now, it doesn’t feel grand anymore.It feels grounded. It reminds me that every design problem starts as a human one: confusion, friction, lack of trust.People don’t want perfect tools.They want honest ones.
That’s what Destined became for me.