CineLink - A Casting Call Platform
Cinelink
Landing page, Mobile app
2025
CineLink is a specialized casting call platform designed to connect production teams with artists and emerging talents across the entertainment industry.
The platform helps producers discover suitable artists for upcoming projects, while giving artists a dedicated space to showcase their portfolio, experience, and apply for relevant opportunities.
Instead of building a massive, bloated entertainment network right out of the gate, we focused the first phase of this project strictly on the fundamental marketplace exchange: a producer posts a role, an artist discovers it and applies, and a producer reviews the submission. Features like real-time chat, automated scheduling, and contract negotiation were intentionally pushed to later phases so we could nail the core experience first.
My role: Product Designer (UX Research, Information Architecture, Interface Design)
Scope: Responsive web landing page, end-to-end mobile user flows, low-fidelity wireframes, and high-fidelity interactive prototypes
Platform: Native mobile application (iOS and Android) and responsive web views
Status: Pre-launch interactive prototyping and usability evaluation
Context & Problem
Casting and talent discovery in entertainment often happen across scattered channels: personal networks, social media posts, group chats, agency connections, and informal referrals.
Fragmented tooling. Submissions arrive through Facebook groups, Messenger threads, and personal contacts, then get stored in Google Drive folders. Links expire, files go missing, and nothing lives in one place.
Lack of transparency. Young actors have no reliable way to tell a real casting call from a scam posting. Once an application goes out, it disappears — most never hear back either way.
Incomplete briefs. Without a structured format, casting calls routinely go out missing a deadline, a project type, or a clear role breakdown, pushing the cleanup work onto whoever applies.
If you talk to anyone in the entertainment industry, they will tell you that casting is an absolute mess. It currently happens across an incredibly scattered web of personal networks, frantic Facebook posts, private Zalo or Telegram groups, and informal text threads
CineLink aims to solve this by creating a dedicated, trusted platform for both sides of the casting process.
The design challenge was not simply to create another job board. The product needed to feel specific to the entertainment industry, support both producers and artists, and create enough trust for users to share professional information and apply for opportunities.
At the same time, the first phase needed to stay focused. Instead of designing the full ecosystem at once, we defined the MVP around the most important exchange:
A producer can post a role.
An artist can discover it and apply.
A producer can review submitted profiles.
Research & Define
Understanding the two-sided platform
The first step was to understand the two main user groups and what each side needs from the platform.
CineLink serves two very different users:
Because both sides depend on each other, the product needed to balance supply and demand. A producer will only trust the platform if artist profiles feel credible and easy to review. An artist will only return if opportunities feel legitimate, clear, and worth applying for.
This became the core product tension of the project:
How might we create a simple first version of a casting platform that feels trustworthy and useful for both producers and artists, without overloading the MVP with too many social or communication features?
Key user problems
After mapping the initial experience, I grouped the problems into four main areas.
1. Fragmented discovery
Casting opportunities and artist portfolios are often spread across different channels. This creates friction for both sides. Producers have to manually search across networks, while artists may miss opportunities because they are not posted in one reliable place.
2. Lack of structured information
In informal casting posts, important details are often missing: role requirements, project timeline, compensation, location, submission deadline, or required materials. This causes back-and-forth communication and low-quality applications.
3. Trust and credibility
Both sides need confidence before taking action. Artists need to know whether an opportunity is real and professional. Producers need to know whether an artist profile is complete, relevant, and worth shortlisting.
4. MVP scope control
The platform could easily grow into a full networking or talent management product. However, for phase one, the design had to focus on the most valuable core loop: post, discover, apply, and review.
Product goals
Based on the project context, I defined four design goals:
1. Make the platform easy to understand from the first visit
The landing page should clearly explain what CineLink is, who it is for, and why it is different from generic job platforms or social media groups.
2. Help artists build application-ready profiles
Artist profiles should not feel like empty social profiles. They need to support portfolio, experience, skills, and relevant personal details for casting.
3. Help producers post clear and structured opportunities
Project and role postings should guide producers to provide enough information for artists to decide whether to apply.
4. Keep the first phase focused and scalable
The design should support future features like chat, interviews, saved talent lists, and deeper collaboration, but not depend on them to make the MVP useful.
Ideation & Solution
Defining the product structure
I separated the experience into two layers:
1. Public-facing landing page
The landing page introduces CineLink, explains the value proposition, and builds initial trust for both producers and artists.
2. Mobile app experience
The app supports the core marketplace actions: profile creation, project posting, opportunity discovery, application submission, and basic application review.
This separation was important because the landing page and mobile app serve different jobs.
The landing page answers:
“What is CineLink, and why should I trust it?”
The mobile app answers:
“What can I do here, and how do I move forward?”
Information Architecture
The mobile app is structured around the two user types.
The challenge was to support both sides without making the app feel like two completely separate products. Navigation stays simple and role-based, so each user sees the most relevant actions after onboarding.
The design
Landing page design
The landing page needed to quickly communicate trust, professionalism, and relevance to the entertainment industry, structured around a simple narrative: hero, value proposition, how it works, use cases across entertainment fields, a trust-building section, and role-specific calls to action. It's covered in full, with visuals, in its own case study
