Chingari Circles
Empowering 90M+ users to build deeper, more personal connections beyond the public feed on Chingari.
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My Role
Product Design Lead
Collaboration
Product Managers
Engineers
UX Researcher
Key Stakeholders
Timeline & Status
6 Weeks
Overview
Chingari is a public, short-form video social platform with over 90M+ users, built on an engage-to-earn Web3 model powered by its native GARI token. The platform enables creators and viewers to participate in content creation, discovery, and monetization at scale.
Circles aimed to introduce as a private community layer within Chingari, designed to foster deeper relationships by enabling creators and viewers to share exclusive updates, content, and conversations in a more personal setting than the public feed.
THE PROCESS
Skip to final design
IDEATION & PRIORITIZATION
Next project:
Contributions
1
Led the end-to-end design of the Circles MVP, driving the team toward solving key user and business challenges within a 6-week timeline
2
Partnered closely with product managers, engineers, and researchers to iteratively refine the product strategy.
3
Defined and implemented a foundational design system, ensuring visual consistency and scalability across Circles.
CHALLENGE - HMW
Empower users to share content beyond short videos, with a selected group of close friends or followers, ensuring privacy and fostering tighter community bonds within chingari.
SOLUTION
Designing dedicated circles, a private social space where creators and viewers can connect deeply, share exclusive content beyond short videos and engage in meaningful interactions within their own community.
IMPACT
Within 4 weeks of the MVP launch, early adoption data indicated that 29% (5.9M) of active users either posted or joined at least one circle.
Additionally, 36% of Circle participants spent nearly 2× more time interacting with Circle content compared to Chingari’s public feed.
Research - Understanding the scenario.
Method
12 User Interviews (creator & Viewers)
Review of existing engagement patterns/data across Chinagri feeds, comments, DMs and live interactions.
1
Public feeds prioritize reach over relationships
Interviews revealed that users perceived public interactions as performative and noisy, making deeper conversations difficult to sustain.
2
Private interactions increase engagement depth
Analysis of DMs and live room participation indicated significantly higher time spent per interaction compared to public feed browsing.
3
Intentional friction increases perceived value
Users associated invite-only or opt-in interactions with trust and exclusivity.
USER GOAL
Enable users to share personal thoughts and diverse content formats—such as text, images, and interactive posts—in a trusted space without the pressure of the public feed.
BUSINESS GOAL
Increase meaningful engagement and retention by supporting deeper, repeat interactions beyond short form videos and the public content ecosystem.
DESIGNING
User Flow
I mapped the end-to-end flow to minimize friction while ensuring users clearly understood audience, visibility, and context at every step.
ITERATIONS
Usability Testing + Improvements
I conducted usability testing with users and internal teams to validate the proposed design solutions. Feedback was used to refine interaction patterns and improve clarity without disrupting existing user behavior.
FINAL DESIGN
Circles Feed
A private feed where users can view and engage with content shared exclusively within their Circle.
Create or Edit post
Enable users to share thoughts and content within a selected Circle with confidence and clarity around visibility
Circles on Profile
Provide a centralized view of a user’s Circles, making private communities discoverable and manageable from their profile.
Key Learnings
1
Early MVP constraints force better prioritization
2
Designing successful community spaces requires explicit clarity, not assumed trust.
3
Depth of interaction often matters more than reach in social products