· apps · Jayeen · Wrapidly
Why a set designer built two apps
Both started as problems I lived with, one at my own wedding and one on every set I work on.
People ask me why a set designer would build apps. The honest answer is that both started as problems I lived with: one at my own wedding, and one on every set I work on.
Jayeen: because I planned a wedding
Arab weddings are big. Hundreds of guests, invitations passed on through the family, replies collected one phone call at a time, and a seating plan that keeps changing until the night before. Planning my own, I had a spreadsheet, a pile of WhatsApp chats and a phone that never stopped ringing.
Our guests already live on WhatsApp, so I wanted to meet them there. Jayeen (جايين) sends every guest a personal invitation on WhatsApp, shows the couple each reply as it comes in, helps them plan the tables, and checks guests in at the door. It works in Arabic, Hebrew and English, because that's how our families talk. It's live at jayeen.app.
Wrapidly: because of every production I've worked on
Between theatre productions I work on film and TV sets, as set dresser, location scout and coordinator, and on tour as a stage manager. On every production I see the same thing: the crew list in one spreadsheet, the shooting schedule in another, transport in a WhatsApp group, hours on paper, payments somewhere else, and a coordinator holding it all together late at night. Nothing talks to anything.
Wrapidly puts it in one place: crew, the shooting schedule, transport, hours and payments. Every crew member gets their own page, rides reach the driver on WhatsApp, and it works in Hebrew and Arabic, the way productions here actually run. It's in early access at wrapidly.app.
Why it's still design
Designing a set and designing an app are closer than they look. In both, you start from the people who will move through the space, work out what they need at each moment, and get the details right, because that's where things break. A set has to work for the actors, the camera and the crew. An app has to work for the bride's aunt and for a driver at five in the morning. I sketched both the way I sketch a set: the flow first, then the look.
Theatre and film are still my main work. The apps are what happens when a designer gets tired of spreadsheets.