Bookla: Keeping Latvian Businesses Open During COVID-19

Client

Bookla

Role

Product Designer

Date

2019 — 2023

Bookla was founded in 2019 like an in-house initiative by Chili Labs, a top agency, specialises in native app development for iOS and Android in Baltics.

In 2019, Bookla was launched as a SaaS booking and appointment-scheduling platform to help businesses to improve their booking operations and grow effortlessly.

When the COVID-19 lockdown hit Latvia, businesses struggled to stay open while complying with strict restrictions.

Bookla quickly adapted to provide contactless booking solutions, visitor tracking, and access control tools, allowing businesses to continue operating safely.

Bookla's Key Products

• An admin panel, tablet & mobile app for business.

• A marketplace with services, a web widget, mobile apps and other booking solutions for customers.

• Contactless booking solution like self-service kiosk.

My Role

• Took full design ownership at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown.
• Scaled packaged products to meet the urgent needs of businesses.
• Designed and maintained the features for Business & Customer apps (Android & iOS).
• Developed a self-service kiosk and web widget for seamless contactless bookings.
• Maintained and expanded the Design System to ensure consistency across platforms.

Team

• 2 Product Designers (after the COVID-19 lockdown started — 1)
• Product Manager
• iOS Developer
• Android Developer
• Backend Developer
• Frontend Developer
• QA

Business Problem

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way businesses operated overnight.

Companies had to:

• Limit the number of customers to maintain social distancing.

• Keep visitor records to enable contact tracing.

• Offer contactless bookings & check-ins to reduce human interaction.

• Adapt quickly, as most businesses were not technically prepared for digital solutions.

Bookla focused on helping businesses manage in-person bookings, so lockdowns put its entire business at risk.

If businesses couldn’t operate, Bookla wouldn’t have customers.

Bookla needed to act fast

— not just to support its clients but also to ensure its own survival.

So Bookla quickly updated the platform to solve new challenges. It stayed useful and kept running while helping businesses follow government rules and keep serving their customers.

Hypothesis # 1

Businesses want to continue operating in the face of pandemic restrictions.

Idea

Create contactless booking solutions: (QR-based check-ins, digital visitor logs) to help businesses comply with safety regulations while staying open.

Hypothesis #2

Businesses need an easy way to manage customer flow and avoid overcrowding.

Idea

Implement an automated capacity management system — a feature that limits available booking slots based on real-time occupancy.

Hypothesis #3

Service providers prefer an integrated booking solution on their website rather than redirecting customers to external platforms.

Idea

Develop a customizable web widget that allows businesses to embed the booking system directly into their websites

Hypothesis #4

A centralized system for COVID-19 certificate storage will speed up verification and improve user experience.

Idea

Implement a COVID-19 certificate storage feature in the Bookla app, allowing users to save and present their proof of vaccination for quick check-ins.

Process

We anchored our UX strategy in Jakob’s Law Law. Users spend most of their time on other websites, so they expect your platform to work similarly to familiar ones. So we used established design patterns to test hypothesis rapidly.

Also from the begin Bookla started to build its own Design System. It was focused on attention to detail, component states, and future reusability. We created it according to Material Design 2 guidelines. In 2019 it was represented the most modern standard for Material Design.

1. Understanding Business & Customer Needs

We conducted secondary research and user interviews to identify key pain points:

• Businesses needed a simple, ready-to-use solution that didn’t require extensive setup.

• Customers wanted to use services that they love safety.

• Access control solutions were necessary to prevent overcrowding and validate COVID-19 certificates.

2. Designing the Right Solutions

Based on research, we developed a comprehensive booking ecosystem:

1) Self-Service Kiosk & Collaboration with hardware provider → Allowed businesses to offer contactless check-ins.

2) Web Widget → Let companies embed a booking system directly on their website

3) COVID-19 Certificate Storage → Enabled customers to store and present their certificates.

Defining the Problem

Research

Secondary research,
user research

Generating a list of ideas

User flow, JBD, user stories

Prioritise and Choose an Idea

Impact/Effort Matrix, communication with the team

Define How Could We Measure the Success

Design a Range of Solutions

Design, creating the prototypes in Figma, user testing

Gooming

Pitching the solution to developers

Finalising the Design for Development

Updating Design System

Only if the task cannot be solved without it.

Close Communication With Developers on Every Stage of Development

Design Review

Getting the Feedback

What problem are we trying to solve?

3. Implementation

I worked closely with developers to ensure smooth integration across platforms. And conducted design reviews to optimize usability & accessibility.

This confirmed our hypothesis:

RSU anatomy museum faced with pandemic restriction.

Sigulda sports centere faced with pandemic restriction.

Design

A complete online booking system was built, including access control hardware and self-service kiosks, allowing businesses to stay open during COVID-19. These tools gave customers a safe and easy way to book and check in without physical contact.

Self-Service Portal for Business

Easy-to-Integrate Web Widget

Self-Service Kiosk

In-App Bookings & Check- In