HeyInterests is a social discovery startup created to help adults build genuine friendships through shared interests.
Unlike dating apps built around romantic matching or social platforms built around feeds and followers, HeyInterests helps people discover communities, join small groups, attend activities, and connect with people who already enjoy the same things.
The company needed a launch website that could introduce the idea, make the problem feel personally relevant, explain how the product works, and turn interested visitors into waitlist members.
The Challenge
HeyInterests was introducing a product that did not fit neatly into an existing category.
It was not a dating app, a traditional social network, or simply an events platform. It combined interest-based discovery, group matching, messaging, communities, and real-world activities.
The website therefore had to answer several questions quickly:
- Why is making friends as an adult so difficult?
- How is HeyInterests different from dating apps and social media?
- How does someone actually meet people through the platform?
- Will the experience feel safe, natural, and low-pressure?
- Why should someone join before the app officially launches?
A purely feature-focused website would have felt generic. A purely emotional website would not have explained the product clearly enough. The solution needed to balance emotional storytelling with practical product education.
My Role
I owned the website across copywriting, design, and development.
My responsibilities included:
- Website structure and customer journey
- Positioning and messaging hierarchy
- Conversion-focused website copy
- UI/UX design and visual direction
- Responsive Framer development
- Interaction and animation design
- Waitlist-focused conversion paths
- Mobile optimization and quality assurance
- Final launch preparation
Handling all three disciplines allowed the message, design, and final implementation to remain consistent from the first section through the final call to action.
Creating an Emotionally Relevant Product Story
The copy needed to make visitors feel understood before introducing the product.
Instead of beginning with a list of features, the website starts with a familiar problem: adult life becomes busy, existing friendships become harder to maintain, and social media creates the appearance of connection without necessarily creating meaningful relationships.
The narrative then reframes the problem. Visitors are not necessarily bad at making friends—the environments where friendships once happened naturally have gradually disappeared.
Once that emotional context is established, HeyInterests is introduced as a practical solution: a way to find people through activities, interests, and smaller communities where conversations can begin more naturally.
Structuring the Conversion Journey
I organized the page around a progressive journey:
- Establish the emotional problem
- Show visitors that the problem is shared
- Introduce HeyInterests as the solution
- Explain the product and its features
- Demonstrate why small groups reduce social pressure
- Show the emotional and practical benefits
- Differentiate the app from dating platforms and social media
- Explain the free offer and founding-member benefits
- Address concerns through FAQs
- Guide visitors toward joining the waitlist
This structure allows the page to sell both the emotional outcome and the practical product experience.
Designing a Warm and Human Experience
The visual direction needed to feel social, optimistic, inclusive, and energetic without looking like another dating app.
I created a design system that combined:
- Warm lifestyle imagery
- Interest and community cards
- Friendly, conversational typography
- Product-interface previews
- Clear section contrast
- Expressive but controlled layouts
- Repeated conversion moments
- Responsive behavior across desktop and mobile
The visuals support the central idea that joining HeyInterests can make someone’s life feel more active, social, and connected.
Development and Interaction
I translated the final direction into a responsive Framer website with reusable components, polished interactions, and a clear waitlist journey.
Motion was used to create energy and reveal communities, interests, product features, and lifestyle moments without distracting visitors from the message.
The website was built to support both the immediate pre-launch campaign and future updates as the platform expanded into new locations, features, and membership options.
The Result
The finished website gave HeyInterests a complete launch-ready digital presence across messaging, copy, design, and development.
Instead of presenting the company as another generic social platform, the website communicates a focused promise: helping adults meet people they can genuinely connect with through the things they already enjoy.
The project delivered:
- A clearer category and product story
- A distinctive, human brand voice
- A complete conversion-focused homepage
- A scalable visual and component system
- A responsive production website
- A direct journey from first visit to waitlist signup
The result was not simply a more attractive website. It was a complete system for introducing an unfamiliar product, building emotional relevance, explaining how it works, and capturing early demand.
