thinkin aloud about Postcards
an idea from january ‘16
alternatively named: re-inventing the thank you card?
[need to spend more time thinking of a good name — potentially one that can be a verb]
It all started with Emojis
Insanely popular, a key aspect of communication we use everyday in all chat and social apps. TIL: Oxford dictionary word of the year. We get it Ryan.
I started off by brainstorming, what would be an interesting/useful physical manifestation of an emoji? These visual elements we use to convey so much emotion and nuance…all relegated to our iPhone.
AH, got it! Let’s make a real mini brass key 🔑 —HT DJ Khaled. That would be a cool and unique gift.
Wait, another one! [idea]
Could emojis live as COASTERS? [cause fuck emoji pillows] Could you create a custom coaster set with one large emoji per coaster?
oo00 even better — create a coaster with 4 smaller emojis that you select. create a custom gift to your girlfriend or roommate with the emojis you both use most in conversation.
Hmm, coasters are nice but more like a once and five year kinda gift. And, how the hell am I supposed to source and customize quality coasters?
[slew of crappy ideas and a few days later]
Boom.
Let’s be able to write/distribute physical cards with emojis.
This holiday (as most of us probably did), I wrote cards to friends, family and loved ones. I like hand writing cards, I’ve done it for years. We all know it’s the classic sign of going out of our way, physical is rare and nice to have/touch/keep.
[offering up a holiday card to zach as an example]
But, if I’m honest with myself and evaluate the situation.
- my penmanship sucks.
- my 4–10 lines looks like everyone else’s at first glance.
- with “plain ol words” it gets really hard to convey the nuance, tone, sarcasm, excitement, context and intimacy that we have become so reliant on via GIFs, emoji, facial expressions, etc. these are just tools (not substitutes) to enhance our delivery of the true message.
We use emoticons to help reduce ambiguity and to intensify or tone down our emotional expression. — The Science Behind Emojis
So….
I’d like to easily create physical postcards that allow include EMOJI. (actively finding there is room for additional creative expression)
Oh wait, I already can — I just can’t do it programmatically.
Early versions of physical postcards
Using photoshop + lob.com (printing API service) I’ve got some real (and mixed, this is a beta for god sakes) results.
What follows is a mix of ideas with the thesis that a physical memento is worth sending/receiving and that if I can make it unique, simple and cheap enough — this generation would be all about it.
What follows is an assortment of the various takes I’ve had on the idea (1.6.2016).
The First One
Wanted to see how legit Lob was and if this was possible without a big ordeal or process. Turns out Lob postcards (double sided color) are printed and delivered for $.70. 70 cents, that struck me as a pretty good deal.
Super simple fast test. whoops
oo000 — I like the potential here. :ice cream: :bicycle: :kiss:
The Second One (blank border, hard to see)
Delivered directly to Cristina, her roommate had quite a chuckle picking this up in the mailbox…whut?
To my surprise, Cristina and the roomie quite liked this! Better than my other “creative” ideas — sneaky selfie, fanny pack, etc
Hmmm, let’s try some more.
Another One
With this and future cards, I realized the constraint isn’t the production process (manual upload+lob..could be made easy)..it’s the creativity and mental overhead involved with going from 0–1 with a 4.25" x 6.25" blank canvas.
Given my structured data (cough..cards) experience, I thought there must be a better way to give anyone creating this an easier way of doing it.
Potential Insight — Almost all experiences worth remembering, processing and taking action on (thanking, sharing) are rooted in a social media post…social media post → 90% photos, 10% other interesting contexts.
Could we take the digital documentation of a feeling (insta post, special tweet, email, swarm checkin) and turn that into a physical keepsake?
Could a user simple paste in a url to a tweet or instagram photo and we’d basically just take that card/rich preview (think slack urls or twitter cards) and make that the front of the card?
I did yoga with Jonathan last night and he graciously treated to dinner for a few things that I had pointed his way.
Wanted to thank him and change it up a bit.
Looking forward to seeing his reaction — he knew I was thinking about this idea but I think the check-in screenshot is a unique take.
Jonathan’s is a good example of a similarly aged, digital person where I wanted to hit a threshold of “That was thoughtful of Ryan” but a hand written card doesn’t feel quite right for $50 dinner…an email gets brushed off…and a text is odd.
Another One
Who better to use as a sappy guinea pig that your gf.
This was created using photoshop elements — surprisingly difficult to do.
This felt like a different use case…could I quickly capture the moment of an event so that either of us could keep it on a bookshelf, desk or refrigerator?
Another One
I’ve spent A LOT of time with Michael in the past year. I didn’t quite feel like a card from Papyrus would be the tool (yes, it’s technically thanking them for being a special xyz but it’s more so a small and deliberate mutual acknowledgement of a good thing going) to express that.
(inside joke here but I randomly zoomed in on his swarm profile photo and caught this cryptic stare which we’ve all found funny)
This should get a chuckle out of him.
Again, hard to think of another way to strike the right message.
Before I lose you
A few more examples to follow. But more important is that I’ve discovered a pretty solid hack for the creation portion of these cards.
I’ve moved away from desktop and photoshop elements. I’ve settled on three potential input mechanisms that could routinely work for a mobile user (I’m willing to do the unsexy and clunky way to scratch my own itch).
- Rely on mobile screenshots to populate the front cover. User settles on the post or photo they want. [screenshot] [upload]
- Use proposed rich embed idea above…drop in link and we’ll give you the visual card.
- Use Byte.co to create rich and creative front covers.
Byte has been the most interesting so far. You can’t quite describe what they’re going after without seeing it in action but you can think of it as Geocities meets MSFT Paint for mobile expression.
Dom Hofmann (former vine co-founder) is behind Byte.
I’m finding Byte to be pretty compelling for this use case. What really makes it more interesting is that there is a robust API so if I wanted to make this a less manual create-print step, it can be done (get byte photo url..send to lob api with address). NBD…was curling and viewing my authenticated bytes yesterday
So here are a few examples of quick Byte creations — that are being printed as we speak.
Another Byte
This is when I domain squatted Zach on byte.
Byte allows you natively grab Instagram photos from any user…playing around with a collage. via “computers”
This use case really stood out to me. Sahil Kathawala and I had a fun coffee and I wanted to really slow down, process and recap what we discussed. He’s got some exciting stuff ahead so I whipped a quick Byte and little does he know — he’s got a fun card on the way.
What I’m finding as I dig deeper and try this more across a variety of people and circumstances is maybe the power is just with Byte…and that a photo of my byte collage/recap/creation is a worthy item to be emailed or texted…and that printing may be a worthwhile but rarer action.
Example: visually recapping group of friends who came out for drinks this week.
So where does this leave us
- I need to create more of the physical cards and get them in the hands of people (reading this) who have shown interest from the sideline…
- Kenny and I will start to explore a seamless byte →lob flow
- Would love to hear any gut feedback or reactions..or interesting in brainstorming more from a product perspective
Started with emoji, now we’re here.
