Case study · Social entertainment

Ola Chat

One design system behind two social apps, Partying and Veeka.

Client

Ola Chat, Singapore

Timeline

Jun 2021 – Apr 2026

Markets

Southeast Asia, Middle East

Engagement

Embedded design lead, Department-style

Hand holding a phone showing the Partying sign-in screen in lime green, glowing on a black background

Overview

Ola Chat runs live-audio and social apps for users across Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Two products, Partying and Veeka, were growing at the same time with separate teams and no shared design language.

The job was to build the design infrastructure that let a small team ship fast in both apps without the UI drifting apart.

Challenge

Turn two drifting interfaces, where one card or button existed in four to six versions, into one system that also handles right-to-left languages.

What we did

01Built a token-based design system shared by both apps
02Designed core flows: onboarding, feed, live rooms, chat
03Made layout rules RTL-aware for Arabic markets
04Defined a motion language with code-ready values
05Drew the Partying icon set and illustration style
06Replaced redlines with interactive handover prototypes

Product designDesign systemMotionIllustration

Designed for apps people install by the million.

Product scale, public figures

24M+Combined installs, Partying and Veeka

2Apps running on one design system

4.3★Veeka rating on Google Play, 38K reviews

22Ola Chat offices worldwide

Sources: Google Play, AppBrain, Ola Chat company profile.

Partying · Online party park

A friendly front door for a party app.

Lime, a ghost-shaped mark and hand-drawn props. Every first screen had to feel like walking into a party, not filling in a form.

Onboarding explorations, three directions tested side by side.

Partying app in hand surrounded by a hand-drawn flamingo, leaves and sparkles

Partying app icon on an iPhone home screen

For You feed and the animated icon set.

Veeka · Live voice rooms

Rooms that feel live at night.

Dark surfaces, seats around a host, gifts that cross the screen. Same components as Partying, different theme tokens.

Collage of dark Veeka screens: events, rewards and rankings

Live room, gifts, entrance effects, chat, profile and events.

Design system

Built once, themed twice.

Tokens for colour, type, spacing and motion. Over 60 components with every state documented. Switching apps is a theme change, and RTL is a layout property.