Nightlife Out
A founder-built nightlife platform that answers “where are we going tonight” with what is actually open and on, not a static directory.
- Industry
- Nightlife / Consumer Web
- Year
- 2024
The live site, usable inside this window. It only loads when you ask, so this page stays quick.
The challenge
Deciding where to go out is a timing problem, and most tools treat it as a lookup problem. A search result gives you a name and a set of hours. A social feed gives you posts you have to decode. Neither answers the only question that matters at 9pm on a Friday: what is open, what is on, and where is worth going right now.
Goals
- Answer “where should we go tonight” in a single interface instead of across a search engine, three social accounts and a group chat
- Make what is happening now the default view, so the platform reads as live rather than as a directory that happens to list bars
- Build for a phone held in one hand, at night, on cellular data — the actual conditions the product is used in
- Structure venues and events as separate but linked data, so listings can grow without the interface being rebuilt around them
- Ship it as a web platform, so trying it costs a tap rather than an app store download
The approach
The product is built around time rather than around a list of places. Venues and events are modelled separately and linked, so a bar is a permanent record and a night at that bar is a dated one that expires on its own. Browsing is filtered by when you are going before anything else. Everything is server-rendered on the web, so any venue or event can be linked, shared into a group chat and opened instantly.
Design decisions
- The interface is dark by default. This is a product used at night, in low light, with phone brightness turned down — a bright interface is the wrong instinct carried over from daytime apps.
- Listings lead with the image and one line of context. Somewhere to go is chosen on look and feel first, and a card dense with metadata slows down a decision that is being made quickly.
- Time filters come before category filters. Tonight, this weekend and upcoming are the questions people actually ask; music genre and venue type are how they narrow down afterwards.
- Primary actions sit within thumb reach on mobile, because the product competes with a conversation already happening in the room.
- Motion is used for transitions between views and kept short. On cellular data, outside, animation that delays content is a cost with no return.
What we did
- Venue records with their own pages, covering what the place is, the kind of night it runs and where to find it
- Event and what’s-on listings attached to venues, dated so past nights fall off without anyone pruning the list
- Time-aware browsing — tonight, this weekend and upcoming — as the primary way through the platform
- Filtering by the kind of night out, so bars, clubs, live music and one-off events can be narrowed rather than scrolled past
- Search across venues and events for people who already know the name they are looking for
- Location details and map handoff, so a listing turns into directions without leaving the flow
- Shareable URLs for every venue and event, built for the group chat rather than for a feed
- Server-rendered pages with structured venue and event data, so search engines and AI assistants can read what a place is and what is on there
Built with
- Next.js
- React
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Framer Motion
- Node.js
- Vercel
The outcome
Nightlife Out runs as a live product. Venues and the nights happening at them sit in one time-aware interface, on the web, so there is nothing to install before someone can use it. Every venue and event has its own page that can be sent to a group chat and opened immediately, and the structure holds as more listings are added.
Services delivered on this project
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