Role
Product Designer
Date
2024 - 2025
How an app became the go-to digital hub for Brazil’s street Carnival. From the first idea to MVP delivery, this project walks through user research with partygoers and blocos, showing how vibrant design can solve real problems.
Why the project was born
I grew up among the street blocks of Olinda, Brazil. In 2024, I turned this passion into a challenge: how can design make life easier for both carnival-goers and organizers in Brazil’s street carnival?
The project was developed during a mentorship with Designer Fernanda Tarrasco at The Design Mentoring Project, from April to December 2024, focusing on the whole UX and UI process - from research to MVP.
Discovery
Desk research: the carnival from above
I started by investigating how people organize, how carnival impacts the city, and how city halls and blocks communicate routes. The main problem identified: people have a hard time organizing their plans and finding their favorite blocos, since the information is fragmented and decentralized. Alternatives like Instagram, spreadsheets, and WhatsApp groups exist, but don’t solve the lack of centralized, up-to-date info.
The problem (before it became two)
At first, I focused on the pain points of carnival-goers, but soon realized organizers were also heavily impacted – just for different reasons.
Carnival-goers
Without a single platform, carnival-goers can't efficiently plan or share their street carnival routes.
Benchmarking: what apps (don’t) solve today
I analyzed five carnival apps and identified several gaps: few offer real-time maps or support points, most are local (not national), and almost none meet organizers’ needs. There’s a lack of curation around bloco styles and post-carnival events, and even the basic features often fail.
Real-time maps are rare - only “Onde Está Meu Trio?” offered this and it made a big difference.
Public support services are barely visible.
Basic features (like saving favorites) often don’t work well.
Apps are mostly local, not national.
There’s little to no information for organizers - apps see them only as content providers, not users.
Organizing the information: the CSD matrix
With the CSD matrix, I organized certainties (lack of centralization makes everything harder), assumptions (mistrust in information), and doubts (criteria for choosing blocks, how people get info, the role of city government).
Certainties: Fragmented info makes planning harder. Collaborative spreadsheets are common. People use social media to ask for updates.
Suppositions: Partygoers distrust the information due to its inconsistency. Public policy affects block schedules.
Doubts: What are the main criteria for choosing blocks? How do people actually check for updates or route changes?
User research: listening to those who make the party happen
Carnival-goers
Interviews with 6 people from different cities showed that everyone had changed plans due to cancellations, build their own itineraries, trust their own groups, and use Instagram as the main info source. The real problem happens before leaving home, not during the party.
Findings:
Everyone had to change plans because of block delays or cancellations.
Planning is done in groups. Usually, one person makes the itinerary, others just follow.
Most use Instagram for updates, but don’t fully trust it.
The real struggle is before leaving home - once on the street, people adapt.
Organizers
Interviews with two Olinda organizations revealed issues around funding, block competition, and lack of centralized communication. I realized the app could help by providing engagement data and making it easier to plan and avoid schedule and route conflicts.
Findings:
Financial support from city hall is limited, usually covering just musicians.
Organizers pay for most logistics out of pocket or through donations.
No unified place to communicate with their audience. Updates are done via social media, which doesn’t reach everyone.
Schedule conflicts with bigger blocks and different bloco types (sound trucks vs. orchestras) affect their visibility and revenue.
Some blocos intentionally avoid publicizing routes to avoid crowd issues.
Definition
The problem expands: from goers to organizers
The scope expanded to include pain points from both carnival-goers and organizers, both affected by lack of urban planning, investment, and centralization.
Organizers
Because there’s no public investment or urban planning for Carnival routes, and no unified platform to share bloco schedules, organizers struggle to fundraise and plan logistics for their parades.
Personas: who are the Fervo carnival-goers and organizers?
I created 4 carnival-goer personas and 2 organizer personas to keep solutions relevant for each group.
Ideation
User journey: where Fervo fits in
Mapping the user flow made clear that:
For partygoers, the main stress is planning before Carnival actually begins. The app should make this phase easier, more social, and reliable - transforming chaos into a fluid and inspiring experience.
For organizers, the user flow highlighted the need for a real partner: Fervo centralizes information, saves time, and increases block visibility, helping with everything from communication to resource mobilization.
Feature ideation
Brainstorming based on real pain points. For goers: discovery, planning, belonging. For organizers: centralization, saving time and money, turning support into results.
MoSCoW prioritization: what made it into the MVP
Prioritized what was essential for launch, without losing sight of future evolution.
For partygoers: onboarding, bloco discovery, planning tools, sharing routes, donations.
For organizers: block registration, product listing, route updates, and alerts.
Structuring user flow and app navigation
Clear user flow to map the journey for both goers and organizers, considering the core MVP features.
Carnival-goers
Onboarding and personalization
Block exploration
Itinerary planning
Social interaction
Supporting blocks and donations
Organizers
Complete block registration
Product showcase
Detailed profile
Real-time updates
Conflict detection
First drafts: wireframes
Structured the experience in wireframes before thinking of visual details.
Delivery
Moodboard, identity, and design system
The moodboard guided the creation of an authentic visual identity, rooted in energy, collectivity, and Brazilian culture. The design system emerged organically, with strong typography, vibrant colors, and consistent components.
Typography: Strenuous (main) and Poppins (secondary)
Colors: palette inspired by carnival costumes and icons
Icons: Material Design for easier MVP
Components: vibrant and functional buttons, inputs, chips, and cards
Time for… Fervo!
The screens came to life, reflecting Fervo’s energy and identity.
From challenge to transformation: Juliana and Fervo
Developing Fervo challenged me as a designer and showed the impact of building a product from scratch. The product is still at an early stage, but I already see transformative potential, combining creativity and strategic vision.
