cinema£5
cineworld stratford
thursday, 19:00
4 of 6 going
start here.
what is sidequest?
it is an app for making plans with people your age, near you, that actually happen.
same city.
different plans.
you open it and you get a small stack of things happening this week. cinema on thursday. karting on saturday. library then costa on sunday. you swipe through them.
the ones you would actually go to, you swipe right. when enough people have swiped right on the same one, the group is made, a chat opens, and the plan is on.
that is the whole app.
the short version
what it actually is
the easiest way to explain sidequest is to rule out the three things people assume it is.
not a group chat
group chats are where plans go to die. everyone says they are down, nobody picks a time, it fades. sidequest starts from a real plan with a real time and a real place, then builds the group around it.
not a feed
there is nothing to scroll for an hour. you see what is on near you this week, you make a decision, you close the app. if you have swiped the stack, you are done until tomorrow.
not a dating app
you match with a plan, not a person. groups are four to six people, filtered to your age range, and everyone in them joined for the same reason.
five steps, once.
how you use it
from opening the app to standing outside the cinema. this is every step, in order.
01open it
you set your age, your area and the things you are into. no profile to fill in, no bio to agonise over. that is the whole signup.
02swipe the stack
a small stack of plans near you. left if it is not for you, right if you would go. every card shows the place, the day, the time, what it costs and how many spots are left.
03the group forms
when the spots fill, everyone who swiped right is in. you see who else is coming before you commit to anything, and groups stay at four to six so nobody gets lost in it.
04sort the details
a chat opens for that plan and nothing else. where to meet, who is getting there first, what time you are leaving. it goes quiet again once the plan is done.
05lock it in
some plans take a small deposit. it is held, not spent, and it comes back if the plan is cancelled. it is there for one reason, which is that people turn up when they have put something in.
a normal week.
what people use it for
the plans are small and cheap on purpose. the point is not a big night out, it is the thing you would have done anyway, done with people instead of alone.
karting£15
kapital karts, stratford
saturday, 18:30
5 of 6 going
study then brunchfree
redbridge library, then costa
sunday, 11:00
3 of 6 going
5-a-side£5
powerleague stratford
friday, 17:00
6 of 6 going
gym£5
romford road gym
monday, 17:00
2 of 6 going
bowling£10
hollywood bowl, stratford
saturday, 18:00
5 of 6 going
late night food£8
and the ones nobody plans.
someone posts food at ten at night and four people are sat down by half past. those are the good ones, and they are the ones a group chat never manages.
four quarters, stratford · friday, 22:00
more sidequests, fewer group chats.
the real build.
every screen
ten screens, start to finish. nothing here is a placeholder.
how it looks, and why.
the design
the app is black so the photographs do the talking. everything else is one job, one colour.
colour
ink
#0a0a0a
everything sits on this
cream
#f5f4ef
all type
orange
#ff6432
the mark, cinema
lime
#d8f74a
anything you tap
pink
#f36dce
social, going out
purple
#b589f5
karting, activities
blue
#83c8f5
sport
yellow
#ffe94a
study
each kind of plan owns one flat colour, so after a week you know what a card is before you read it. cinema is orange, activities are purple, sport is blue, study is yellow.
type
nunito, mostly heavy
and caveat for the notes in the margin.
rounded, friendly, and readable at small sizes on a phone in the dark. the handwriting never carries information you need. it is there to sound like a person, not a brand.
the mark
sidequest*
the asterisk is the footnote. the sidequest is the small thing you do on the side of the main thing, so the mark is the punctuation you use for the small thing at the bottom of the page.
voice
- lowercase, always.
- short sentences. one idea each.
- no exclamation marks and no hype.
- say the price and the time. never say “experiences”.
how it is put together.
the structure
five tabs, and one path that every plan follows from being posted to being over.
five tabs
- 01
discover
the stack. plans near you, this week, filtered to your age range. this is where you spend almost all of your time.
- 02
map
the same plans, pinned. useful when you care more about how far it is than what it is.
- 03
create
post your own. title, place, date, group size, age range, one line of description. it goes into other people's stacks.
- 04
chats
one chat per plan you are in. it opens when the group forms and it quiets down after the day.
- 05
profile
what you are into, what you have been to, and who you have met. the number that matters is attendance, not followers.
the life of one sidequest
posted
someone creates a plan, or a venue does.
in the stack
it appears for people in range and in the age band.
swiped
people swipe right until the spots are gone.
formed
the group locks at four to six and the chat opens.
paid
deposits are held where the plan needs one.
gone to
the day happens.
logged
it moves into past sidequests and counts toward your year.
posted on monday, done by saturday.
that is it. that is the app.
we are opening it in london first, one area at a time. join early and your account stays free for good.
no payment. no catch. just plans.