Desiging Plixxo: Influencer marketing platform for brand collaborations.
Project Overview
By March 2017, POPxo had been manually managing small influencer campaigns for over a year, helping brands connect with influencers to promote their products and services online. While these campaigns successfully supported marketing efforts, the manual processes were time-consuming and difficult to scale.
At the same time, India's emerging influencer culture presented an untapped opportunity. We thought of Plixxo as an influencer marketing platform which would help connect brands with influencers and help expand the business.
My Role: As the UI/UX Desginer, I was responsible for the end-to-end user experience, from foundational research and strategy to information architecture, wireframing, and final design. I led the effort to understand the deep-seated problems faced by both brands and creators and translated those insights into a product that would ultimately define the market.
Building Plixxo's MVP
We used a structured approach to build Plixxo's MVP — starting with market research and user feedback, then defining core features, prototyping, and iterating. We wanted to build a live platform we could take to market fast.
Social Media Influencers
We invited content creators to our office and interviewed them to understand their needs and workflow as part of a brand campaign.
Brands
We spoke with brands and their marketing teams to understand the types of social media campaigns they run and the metrics they care about most.
Internal Stakeholders
We brainstormed ideas as a team to shape the platform and set up a dedicated Plixxo team to manage social media campaigns end to end.
Adapting Influencer Habits
Influencers were used to working directly with brands. Getting them to use Plixxo meant showing clear value, making signup easy, and offering strong support.
Collaborating with Brands
We needed a system that made communication with brands easier and replaced manual processes to manage a social media campaign online.
Scaling Payment Systems
With thousands of influencers onboard, we needed a reliable payment system to handle bulk payouts, stay compliant, and work for users with different financial setups.
Simplifying with Purpose
Balancing ease of use with powerful features for both influencers and brands was a key challenge. We had to keep things simple without compromising on functionality.
Key Challenges
We tackled challenges around scalability and campaign execution to ensure the platform could support high-volume, real-time activity.
The picture below shows our core campaign flow for brand campaigns.
UX Strategy & Design Process
The research insights directly informed our product strategy and my design process. The core strategy was to build a "Trust Engine"—a platform where every feature was designed to increase confidence and reduce friction for both sides.
Information Architecture (IA)
I designed two distinct but interconnected information architectures. For brands, the IA was task-based (Create Campaign, Find Influencers, View Reports). For influencers, it was opportunity-based (Browse Campaigns, Manage Collaborations and payments). This separation ensured that neither user was overwhelmed by features not relevant to them.
User Flows
I mapped out the critical user flows. The most important one was the end-to-end campaign participation flow. This flow was the backbone of the entire platform, designed to guide both brand and influencer through every step, from application to payment, ensuring no steps were missed.
Wireframing & Prototyping
I moved from low-fidelity wireframes (to quickly iterate on layout and flow) to high-fidelity, interactive prototypes in InVision. These prototypes were essential for usability testing and for communicating the intended experience to the development team.
The Campaign Participation Flow
This was the most critical piece of UX for the influencer. I designed a visual, step-by-step mobile interface that guided them through every required action—from accepting a brief to submitting content links for approval. It replaced the chaos of spreadsheets and WhatsApp with a simple, foolproof checklist, making it easy for them to manage multiple campaigns professionally.
Launching Plixxo's Debut Campaign
Plixxo made a sweet debut with Cadbury's #RealDosti campaign on Friendship Day in India, and it remains one of the most memorable campaigns I worked on .
500+
Posts
168 bloggers, 183 college ambassadors, and 100+ Instagram influencers and insiders participated, creating a massive wave of engagement.
1M+
Social Media Reach
Collectively, the campaign reached over 1,040,578 social media users, showcasing the power of influencer-driven marketing in India.
10K
New Users
Collectively, the campaign reached over 1,040,578 social media users, showcasing the power of influencer-driven marketing in India.
Proving Plixxo's Impact
The Cadbury campaign proved our platform could manage large-scale campaigns and help brands grow their reach. This success led to partnerships with other industry leaders and showed how Plixxo delivers real marketing impact.
60,000+
Total Influencers
Plixxo community grew exponentially from the time of its launch.
1M+
Influencer Reach
Plixxo influencers reached over 70 million users every month through their content.
300+
Awesome Campaigns
More than 300+ sharp, relevant, impactful brand campaigns were executed.
Milestones in Plixxo's Journey
By the end of 2019, Plixxo had grown rapidly, connecting influencers from every city and town with brands across categories. Bloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers, and Twitter influencers all came together on one platform powered by social media — creating new earning opportunities for everyone.
What I learned
Designing Plixxo taught me that a successful platform is not just a collection of features, but a carefully architected system of trust. By focusing relentlessly on the user's deepest needs—for control, security, and empowerment—we were able to design an experience that didn't just facilitate transactions, but built a thriving community and a new industry standard.
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