In 2020, TV1, a market leader in physical event agencies, faced an unprecedented challenge: the pandemic stopped the in-person events industry overnight. As UX Lead, alongside designer Lucas Cruz, I led the creation of Virtual Experience: a complete platform for online events, built from zero between 2020 and 2022.
TV1 had built its name running large physical events. When the pandemic paused the industry overnight, the agency needed a product, not just a service.
The biggest product effort in the company's history. Two audiences in mind from day one: companies organizing events on the web side, and attendees on a companion mobile app for hybrid moments.
It was also a moment of internal transformation. We moved the entire design process from Adobe XD and Zeplin to Figma, rethought handoff with engineering, and built the agency's first scalable design system.
We weren't just designing screens. We were standing up a product practice inside an agency. Tooling, system, and handoff included.
We built a scalable style guide from zero: color, type, spacing, and iconography tokens organized to carry the whole platform. In the early days of Figma, this required discipline and a lot of manual work, without the variables and plugins available today.
With the foundation in place, we built the project's exclusive component library: buttons, cards, modals, navigation, and elements specific to the event experience. Every component was made to be reusable and consistent across the platform.
We designed every template in the Virtual Experience platform: login and sign-up, event content, agenda and speakers, reception, live event, scheduling and sessions, game, profile, and lobby. Each screen was drawn considering both sides: the organizer's journey and the attendee's experience.
One of the project's biggest challenges was handoff. Without the plugins available today, we manually documented specs for every element across multiple breakpoints. It was also when we introduced Figma to the engineering team, replacing the old Adobe XD and Zeplin flow. A process done the hard way, that paved a new way of working at the agency.
The platform was designed to be customizable per event: primary colors and logo could be swapped to reflect each client's visual identity, delivering a branded experience even within a standardized solution.
To cover hybrid events, we designed a mobile app for attendees: Login, digital ticket, notifications, profile, live Q&A, networking, scheduling, speakers, agenda, and event content. The app wasn't shipped to production: with the gradual return of physical events, the need dissipated. But thinking through both sides of the platform, organizer and attendee, was fundamental for the product's coherence.
Virtual Experience was the moment the agency stopped delivering project after project and started thinking like a product team. Roadmap, system, handoff, shared ownership across design and engineering.
It was also a personal turning point, leading a team through tooling change, audience complexity, and a shifting market, without losing sight of what mattered for the people on each side of the screen.
Impact ✦ Highlights
A complete platform, a brand-new design system, and a new way of working across web, mobile, and the team itself.
From lobby and reception to live event, scheduling, networking, and game. Every screen of the organizer journey.
Two pilot events validated the platform in real conditions, with real organizers and real attendees.
The agency's first proper design system, and the moment design, product, and engineering moved to Figma together.
The Team
Gratitude to Lucas and everyone at TV1 who trusted the bet and helped move the agency from projects to product.