Weekend Art Walk App

Firm: Self

Duration: 10 hrs

Problem

As someone who loves art, I often found myself wanting to see exhibitions on the weekend—but struggling to answer a simple question:

What can I realistically see with the time I have?

Context & Constraints

This project was intentionally scoped as a personal, weekend-built MVP.

Key constraints included:
Weekend-only use case (Saturday & Sunday)
Limited, real-world time windows (e.g. a few hours in the afternoon)
Fragmented and inconsistent event data
No budget, no long-term maintenance plan
Goal of shipping a live, usable prototype, not a comprehensive platform
This was less about scale and more about designing a humane planning experience.

Product Strategy & Key Decision shifts

Scoped the product to Saturday–Sunday only, aligning scope with real weekend planning behavior
Removed accounts, feeds, and social features to reduce friction and cognitive load
Designed discovery around time windows instead of long lists, supporting realistic planning
Introduced a single Featured Exhibition to anchor decisions and reduce choice overload
Prioritized flexible, swappable itineraries, deprioritizing high-commitment workshops while preserving user control

Reflection

Scoped the product to Saturday–Sunday only, aligning scope with real weekend planning behavior
Removed accounts, feeds, and social features to reduce friction and cognitive load
Designed discovery around time windows instead of long lists, supporting realistic planning
Introduced a single Featured Exhibition to anchor decisions and reduce choice overload
Prioritized flexible, swappable itineraries, deprioritizing high-commitment workshops while preserving user control

What I'd do Next

If expanded beyond an MVP, the focus would be on increasing usefulness without adding complexity:
Neighborhood clustering to support walkable art-hopping
Calendar export to make itineraries easier to commit to
Lightweight personalization based on past selections, without accounts
Smart reminders ahead of the weekend to prevent missed events
Careful expansion of data sources while preserving clarity and restraint
Each next step builds on the same principle: support real decisions while respecting users’ time and attention.