FilmEx is a mobile-first consumer platform that helps emerging Filipino filmmakers find, book, and connect with industry mentors. I designed the complete booking flow across 8 screens, from discovery and profile browsing all the way through scheduling, confirmation, and community engagement.
Emerging filmmakers had no dedicated platform to find, evaluate, and book mentors. Discovery was scattered across Facebook groups and informal meetups. Scheduling was manual. And there was no structured way to build trust before committing to a session. The design problem was not just access. It was creating a transaction experience that felt safe enough to actually use.
Everyone starts out as a rookie and every rookie would need a veteran/mentor to train them. Not every experienced person is open to taking someone as their apprentice.
Kat, 27The industry is small but it's hard to penetrate, especially if you're shy and an introvert.
Daryll, 26Networking isn't easy for someone who's shy, especially if you really have to get yourself out there. Not everyone in the industry is super nice either, so that's where it gets tricky.
Jhoanna, 298 out of 8 filmmakers interviewed said they didn't know where to find mentors or opportunities.
Spoke with 8 aspiring filmmakers aged 18–30 to understand their goals, frustrations, and how they currently find mentors and opportunities.
Discovered that a transactional matching model wouldn't work for this community. Relationships build through shared work and mutual visibility, not profiles and DMs.
Designed around a progression: personalized onboarding, a discovery hub, and a community space. From "here's who I am" to "here's what I'm working on" to "here's where we grow together."
Tested with 6 participants across remote sessions. Identified two critical iterations: reordering mentor bio information and adding progress indicators for task confidence.
Designed 8 screens covering the complete user journey. Mentor browsing, profile evaluation, session type selection, scheduling, and booking confirmation. The focus throughout was reducing drop-off at each stage and making the next step feel obvious.
Every screen in the flow was designed to reduce friction and build trust progressively. Users should never feel lost or pressured at any point in the transaction.
The onboarding flow introduced FilmEx's value proposition across three screens before asking for any commitment. Email sign-up and Google login were offered side by side to reduce friction for users who wanted to get started quickly.
The discovery screen surfaced mentors through two entry points: personalized recommendations based on onboarding inputs and a browse grid with specialty and rating filters. Community favorites were highlighted separately to surface social proof early in the decision process.
The profile screen led with the mentor's story and credentials before showing pricing. Experience level, specialties, and a portfolio link were prioritized over cost because trust had to come before the transaction.
The booking screen broke the scheduling decision into clear steps: date selection, time slot, session purpose, package tier, and skill focus. Each step was isolated to reduce cognitive load and prevent users from abandoning the flow before confirming.
The review screen surfaced all booking details in a single glanceable view before confirmation. Date, time, duration, session type, mentor, and total cost were all visible at once. This screen tested as the highest confidence moment in the entire flow during usability testing.
Post-booking, users landed in a community space with events, groups, and skill workshops. This screen was designed to drive return sessions by giving users a reason to stay engaged with the platform beyond their initial mentor booking.
Key iterations reduced friction at the mentor profile and scheduling screens. Those were the two highest drop-off points we found in testing. The 85% success rate reflected not just task completion but how confident users felt at each stage of the transaction.
Designing for a community you have proximity to is both an advantage and a responsibility. The cultural context I brought accelerated my research, but I had to stay rigorous about not assuming my experience represented everyone's. I also noticed a pattern across FilmEx and Key for Business: users completing tasks weren't the same as users feeling confident. That distinction has changed how I approach usability testing permanently.
Designing a consumer booking flow taught me that trust is a conversion problem. Every screen between discovery and confirmation is a chance to lose the user. The decisions that mattered most were the ones that made the next step feel obvious and low-risk.
