Drops: Making luxury impossible to miss

You’re halfway through your Dubai itinerary.

Burj Khalifa, desert safari - done!

Coffee in hand, you remember, you've always wanted to experience the sunset yacht cruise. You brace for a hefty price… but as soon as you open Headout app, it’s listed for just AED 49!

That’s why we built Drops—a limited-time, app-only experience that lets you snag luxury at unbelievably low prices.

But there’s a catch (a fun one, we promise)—it’s first come, first serve, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

Why Drops?

At Headout, we’re all about making experiences magical. But magic isn’t always planned. Often, it shows up unannounced—like that one perfect deal on a last-minute yacht cruise you didn’t know you wanted... until it vanished.

We noticed a pattern: once travelers booked their main activity, they often stopped exploring. The app went quiet. But their curiosity? Still alive and kicking.

So we asked ourselves: How do we bring back that sense of daily discovery while making serendipity a part of the product?

We toyed with a few ideas: daily spin wheels, gamified streaks, giveaway raffles. But they all felt noisy. Gimmicky. Unfocused.

So we zoomed in on the real thrill in making a quick decision with big rewards, And then came Drops. A fast-paced, app-only feature that drops ridiculously good deals at a fixed time. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

How it works

Every week, we drop a handful of highly coveted experiences at a jaw-dropping flat price at a specific time. Think: yacht cruises, skip-the-line Burj Khalifa views, VIP tours of Burj al Arab. Users open the app and race to book it before the tickets sell out.

And trust us, they do sell out.

Swifter than tickets for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour.

Everyone’s a (little bit of a) winner

Every day, users would flock to the app at a fixed time to claim their Drop. Winners with the fastest fingers rejoiced upon scoring their dream experience at ridiculously low prices.

Now here’s the twist.

We didn’t want Drops to feel like a win-or-walk-away feature.
Because for every user who scores the deal, there are hundreds who don’t.

So we asked: How can we make missing out a Drop feel like a small win too?

We gave them Headout credits because we wanted everyone to feel like a winner, even if they didn’t grab a Drop. Users who participated but didn’t win the Drop received Headout credits, valid for just 24 hours. This added a mix of FOMO and delight, giving users an extra reason to come back and use their credits before they vanished!

We also ensured all bases were covered when it came to non-winners and users who just missed out on participating.

If a user entered the Drops booking flow but missed out on the Drop, along with receiving credits they were nudged to complete booking for the same experience with the credits applied.

If they chose to drop out, we would direct them to the city page so that they could find another experience that fits their fancy!

Users who came to the app during a 5 minute window after Drops had sold out were informed of the Sold Out status of the current Drop, along with the next upcoming Drops, so they wouldn’t lose hope and would return for the next one.

And the outcome? A feedback loop of discovery, urgency, and delight.

The anatomy of a Drop

For our first-ever Drops launch, we picked two cities: Dubai and London, both known for their over-the-top experiences.

The results? Most Drops sold out in under 30 seconds. If you blinked, you missed it. (Sorry, not sorry.)

Designing Drops wasn’t just about making it functional, it had to be exciting and unmissable. Every interaction was crafted to enhance urgency and keep users engaged:

To crank up the adrenaline, we added:

1. Unmissable discovery: Drops were highlighted immediately on app launch, ensuring users wouldn’t miss them.
2. A schedule highlighting all upcoming Drops, so users know when to set their reminders (or ditch their meetings.)
3. Persistent countdown timer: A ticking timer on the product cards ensured users felt the pressure to act fast.
4. A ‘Winners’ section to celebrate those who made it in time.
5. Three distinct states: Upcoming Drops, Live Drops, and Sold out Drops, to keep users in the loop about what’s coming next and what they missed out on.

An overarching theme was the use of bright, attention-grabbing colors to differentiate Drops from regular experiences. There would be a prominent color shift on the banner from light candy to green when a Drop is live, signifying that it’s go time!

The glow up

Seeing the insane response, we doubled down for Drops v2, focusing entirely on Dubai and refining everything from visuals to messaging. Here’s what changed:

Bolder visuals & a fresh new logo, because we wanted Drops to look as exciting as it felt. Shoutout to Zanetta who conjured up a whimsical logo with elements and colors that stand out like never before.

Bigger, louder savings-focused messaging, because prices this low deserve to be screamed from the rooftops.

For this, we leveraged:

1. Animated boosters to signify savings and make the deals look even more enticing, we introduced subtle animations that guided users’ attention.

2. A stunning product tour on app launch, so no one accidentally misses out on Drops, crafted by the motion design wizard Roshan.

Drops as a design philosophy

Drops wasn’t a happy accident. It’s a design decision, a response to some core user tendencies:

• People crave spontaneity, especially when traveling.
• They want permission to not plan everything.
• And they love feeling like they outsmarted the system.

We designed Drops to deliver all three—while quietly building a habit loop inside the app.

What’s next?

We’re just getting started. The plan is to make Drops a full-fledged long-term app-only property, running across multiple cities, making it the reason travelers keep coming back to Headout—whether they’re mid-trip or planning their next adventure.

And maybe most importantly—we’re designing a system for spontaneity. One that respects your time, rewards curiosity, and never lets aspirational experiences feel out of reach.

Luxury at an impossible price? Check. A reason to keep coming to the app? Check. The thrill of beating everyone else to a killer deal? Triple check.

Stay tuned. The best is yet to drop. 🚀

A big shoutout to Ramakrishna for all the design brainstorming and direction, and to Mukul and Debanwita for building this space for me to document my thoughts!