Caboodle started as my thesis project at Stellenbosch and became something much bigger than I planned.
The question was simple: how do you design a digital platform that actually serves intersectional queer communities in South Africa? Not just a dating app, not just a social network — something that understood the specific challenges of being queer in this context. Safety, visibility, community, identity. All of it.
I spent months doing ethnographic research in Cape Town — interviews, observation, participation. Learning how people were already building community, what tools they were using, where those tools fell short. The design grew directly from those conversations.
Covid hit during the project, which changed everything. Suddenly digital space wasn’t optional — it was the only space. That urgency made the work more relevant but also more difficult. How do you design for belonging when everyone is isolated?
Caboodle became a real platform with real users. It proved that interaction design, when grounded in genuine research and empathy, can create spaces that actually matter to people.