Bringing fans closer to their athletes.
A small-scale social app giving an athlete's top 1% fans exclusive access, content, and a community built around genuine connection.
A new kind of fan community.
Vennio was born at ioconic, a venture studio where I joined as Product Design Lead. I owned the end-to-end design of the product, from initial discovery through to MLP launch.
In a social landscape where athletes feel exposed to constant negativity, Vennio instead builds a positive, intimate space for the top fans who genuinely care.
Scope of work
- Ideation facilitation
- User research & surveys
- Affinity mapping
- Low-fi wireframing
- UI design & prototyping
- Gamification design
- Usability testing
- Cross-functional delivery
Partnership
Built in close collaboration with Ansu Fati and his team. His 3,000+ Discord community provided direct user research access from day one.
Discovery & User Research
The core hypothesis: athletes and their top fans would benefit greatly from a smaller, more intimate 2-way community, in contrast to the one-to-many dynamic of mainstream social platforms.
Leveraging Ansu Fati's active Discord server (3,000+ organic members), I ran in-depth surveys and user interviews to map frustrations with existing fan experiences and identify what truly mattered.
Ideation & Wireframing
Alongside research, I facilitated cross-team ideation sessions exploring design problems through HMW statements, affinity mapping, and Crazy 8s sketching. The team voted on directions, which I then developed into low-fidelity wireframes.
Two UI concepts emerged for the core feed: a Circular UI built around the "inner circle" metaphor, and a more traditional Widgets layout. User testing made the choice clear.
Circular UI
Community posts represented as floating circles, embodying the athlete's "inner circle" concept, one of the top-voted outputs from our Crazy 8s sessions.
Circles vs Widgets
I simplified the Circular approach and designed a more traditional rectangular Widgets UI in parallel. When pitted against each other in user interviews and surveys, Widgets came out as the clear winner.
Community Feed
At the heart of the Vennio experience, the community feed would surface content from both the athlete and the fan community. I explored a modular UI, adapting the layout to the types of content the user wanted to see.
Gamification System
Users were highly receptive to earning recognition through active participation. I designed a gamification ecosystem intrinsically tied to every Vennio interaction.
Three currencies, one community.
The system was built around three point types that would accumulate through different kinds of participation, from simply posting to receiving engagement from the athlete directly.
Based on XP and Fan Points earned over time, members would climb from Bronze through to Diamond rank, later renamed "Circles", with the athlete's Inner Circle as the ultimate tier.
Experience Points
Earned by participating in all activities and contributing to the community.
Fan Points
Earned when others engage with your content. Athlete engagement = bonus FP.
Coins
Earned alongside XP and FP, spendable in Vennio's exclusive rewards Vault.
Gamification ecosystem overview
UI Design & Prototyping
With wireframes validated and the visual identity defined, I moved into high-fidelity UI design and prototyping. The MLP focused on six core areas of the fan experience, each designed and usability tested before launch.
Vennio Feed
The heart of the experience: members browse the most active or latest posts, open galleries, respond to polls, and more.
Post Creation
Members could publish images, polls and links to the feed for the athlete and the wider community to see and engage with.
Post & Replies
Every post has its own dedicated section where members can react, comment, and take part in conversations. Some XP is earned per reply.
Profile & Circle
Members could check their current Vennio Circle, total points and Coins, and how much more they need to reach the next rank.
Notifications
In-app alerts whenever the athlete or other members interact with your content. Fan Points are earned for each notification received.
The Vault
A marketplace where members could redeem exclusive digital or physical rewards using hard-earned Vennio Coins. All rewards land in their personal inventory.
Launch & Results
Embedded in a tight cross-functional squad alongside the CEO, engineering lead, and front/backend developers, we successfully launched Vennio on iOS and Android in February 2024. Ansu Fati joined on day one and has been active ever since.
A post-launch survey revealed that Vennio was ranked first by users as their preferred platform for connecting with Ansu Fati and like-minded fans.
March 2024 post-launch survey excerpt