Products
Via
Freedom to choose how you wait.
In one paragraph
In most queues, a number on paper is the only proof you exist. People don’t know if leaving the room will cost them their place, so they stay. Via lets them wait in person or on their phone, and switch at any moment without penalty.
The distance
The system knows exactly where you are in line. You don’t. A paper ticket says 042 and nothing else: not how many people are ahead, not whether stepping outside will cost you your turn. So people stand in rooms they don’t need to stand in. The task is easy. Understanding it is not.
A fila continua. Você não precisa ficar nela.
“The queue goes on. You don’t have to stay in it.”
The working
I started from the rule that decides everything else: legal priority (elderly, disabled, pregnant people, families with infants) is the product’s identity, not a filter added later. Every screen had to keep that promise visible.
The second rule: nobody should need a smartphone. People join by QR code, at a kiosk or tablet, or through staff, and they’re called by a TV panel and by voice.
Then I reviewed it, harshly, four times.Receipt4 rounds“Brutal review” roundsMethodDocumented review rounds in the product repository.SourceVia repository docsChecked Each round was written down: what broke, what changed, what I chose not to fix yet.
Accessibility runs in CI: axe on every page, plus contrast and type scale checks on the design tokens, so a failing colour can’t merge. One warning colour did fail AA during the build. The gate caught it before anyone else did.
What shipped
A guest side (join, status, kiosk, display board, counter) and an organiser side (organisations, venues, invitations, FAQ, printable QR posters). AI help is on by default and genuinely optional. WhatsApp and SMS are designed and arriving later; today’s channels are web, kiosk, counter, the display board and voice call outs.
The first pilot was a church Family Day.
Receipts
- Four documented review rounds before the pilot.Receipt4 rounds“Brutal review” roundsMethodDocumented review rounds in the product repository.SourceVia repository docsChecked
- Ticket number legible at 15 metres on a 60 inch board.Receipt15 mBoard legibilityMethodTicket number readable on a 60 inch board from 15 metres.SourceVia brand docs, “The board is the brand”Checked
- axe in CI, with contrast and type scale token gates.
Lessons paid for twice
- A number is an interface. Test it on the real screen, at the real distance.
- Priority by law belongs in the data model, or it gets lost in a setting.
- If people can’t tell whether leaving costs them their place, they won’t leave.