The simplest way to make someone’s day — Gifting happiness through a mobile app.

Our exact faces when given this project!

When my group and I were given the opportunity to work on Coffee’s on Me, we were quite literally taking a chance on the unknown. We had no idea what the project was going to be. It was a box full of question marks, but that was the fun! We took a chance and jumped into the unknown, an unknown that turned out to be a brilliant and fun project.

When we met with Ray Kanani, the founder of Coffee’s on Me, he gave us the rundown of what exactly the project was going to be. Ray wanted to perfect and design an app that would essentially send thank you gifts in the form of e-gifts with a message via email. In his former company he and his business partner would send their clients thank you’s in the form of coffees or treats. Ray thought he could expand upon this idea and turn it into something much bigger than just a gmail extension. He shared with us his beta version, and we could see that the idea was quite solid. Right there in that moment, I could think of at least three people I would have wanted to send a sweet sentiment to, along with their favourite tea or coffee from Starbucks (at the moment the only vendor Coffee’s on Me is associated with). Expressing one’s gratitude is universal, there will always be people, whether they’re co-workers, friends, or family, for whom you’re relying on or grateful to for whatever they may have done. Ray is tapping into this target demographic and catering this app to them.

So what is Coffee’s on Me all about? It’s about kindness and gratitude, and showing those who have done you right that you appreciate all that they have done, no matter how small or large the ask was. It’s the thought and sentiment that you’re sending to someone to show them that they are valued by you. You’re sending them a little message and token to say, “thank you, you’re cherished” and that sentiment can make someone’s day. The slogan for the app; the simplest way to make someone’s day, truly does ring true. You value the people in your circle and making them feel good makes you feel good too. Setting this tone throughout the app was something that I payed close attention to, along with the UI designer Kim. We made sure to set the tone with the colours, icons, CTAs and copy used throughout.

It was very important for me to discover who exactly would be inspired to use this app. What type of person they are and define them so that the language throughout would resonate. But I also didn’t want to alienate anyone in creating that language either. I wanted it to feel genuine and friendly so whoever the user was would feel welcome and not preached at for wanting to pay tribute to their recipient.

In creating this tone and discovering who the target user was, as a group we formulated a survey which we would pass around our various social networks and to our friends at RED Academy. This information would help us to curate the type of gifts Coffee’s on Me would expand to offer in the future and the type of messages we could expect users to send (or need prewritten). We asked questions that revolved around the nature of their thank you gifts, what types of gifts they’d send and enjoy receiving as tokens of appreciation, their budget or how much they are willing to spend on a thank you gift. The two most important questions we asked were the following; what did they do to deserve your thanks? And what was the last token of appreciation you gave to someone?

The above is the result of our questionnaire. The options provided were from our personal experiences having Thank You tokens given to each of us.

So what exactly do people give as a typical token of appreciation. After digging through the questionnaire and connecting the dots, many of the participants found that gifting gifts that would bring relatively immediate gratification was the way to go. Now what exactly does that mean? We’re talking about gifts that could be immediately used or consumed within a small amount of time. Something like a coffee or tea, donut or pastry, maybe even treating them to lunch or a beer that day. These gifts are things that they can enjoy right then, they don’t have to wait to enjoy it at a later time or anticipate anything. These gifts are about the right now!

The above are reasons for people wanting to express thanks to someone in their life. As you’ll see there are many different reasons and as a group, we’ve categorized them into the three categories (not shown); general favours, work related assistance, and personal reasons.

Learning people’s intent behind sending the gift was really important and helped to set the tone for the app. Many of the survey participants stated reasons for sending a thank you gift were personal reasons and there wasn’t anything in particular other than just the kindness of being their buddy. Showing a friend love and wanting to brighten their day! Other participants wanted to show their thanks for work related assistance (project help, took workload off their plate) or general favours (looked after pet while on vacation, lent car) that were asked. The kindness of the gesture done by both involved really just shows the type of relationship they have.

From the information and insights gained through the survey and the interviews I was able to begin developing the persona. Or so I thought…

I usually don’t have much difficulty building a persona for a product or brand. It’s a task that I usually find a lot of fun and allows me to piece together all my cumulative research and insights, but this time around I struggled a bit. I was having a hard time developing a character. Then I realized why. Our ideal user for Coffees on Me isn’t one specific PERSON. They could be anybody! The idea of generosity and gratitude doesn’t just apply to a marketing person or a salesman, it’s universal! So I began to build a personality instead of a person. What are the traits that a Coffee’s on Me user would embody. Obviously they would be thoughtful, gracious, sentimental, kind-natured. They would be the type who always cherishes those around them and makes time to say what she’s feeling. I named this personality the Gracious Giver because that was their nature.

Examples of the language and verbage used throughout the Coffee’s On Me app. Keeping the phrasing short, and fun was something that I paid close attention too. I wanted the voice of the app to sound very genuine and uplifting.

After developing the characteristics of the user it became much easier to set the tone of the app. Developing the language and the CTAs was a lot of fun. I wanted to keep it sweet but still have a little humour and whimsy built in. I didn’t want to make any of the language feel boastful, or snobbish. I also didn’t want to make it seem too girly either. The end result I feel sounds very reminiscent of a time when the world was much gentler, and more giving; almost 1950’s Leave it to Beaver. The user needed to feel uplifted and that they were doing something good. Asking questions like “Whose day are you going to make today?” or “Ready to send some love?” not only speak to an uplifting and cheerful tone but no matter the scenario or user they’ll feel good about sending their recipient a gift via Coffee’s on Me.

Renaming Coffee’s on Me was another task we were given. One that we all wanted to have the privilege of saying we had a hand in. How awesome would it be to say that you named something! I personally thought it would be so cool, so I went to town on trying to discover a name that would speak to our user and say, “this is an app for people who are caring, appreciative and are sentimental.” We must have generated at least 50 different names, all of which were vetoed by some if not every other group member. We tried various words for gratifications, appreciation, different languages for Thank you, and none of them were sticking.

Some of the names that we came up with as we were brainstorming different names to replace “Coffee’s on Me”. The yellow highlighted names were the ones we tested with users; we wanted to know what they thought of when they heard the names; what associations they made to see if they aligned with the app’s meaning.

We took a break from the naming and let the app form and develop. It wasn’t until the Tuesday evening before the project was due when the name Poppins came into fruition. Jeff and I were bouncing around names and ideas. Earlier in the day I had been trying to find literary characters that embodied the characteristics of a user for the app. Looking at characters who had given grand gestures or whom were exemplary of great character. I had been describing the parameters of my search to Jeff, and that’s when he chimed in, “What about Mary Poppins?” OH MY GOOD GRACIOUS! YES!!! Poppins! That’s it! I had gone from zero to 60 in two seconds flat! I was so excited. It sounded fun, it was cheerful, she was EXACTLY who our user should embody. That was it! I shared the news with the rest of the group and they too loved the name. It was only after Jeff had mocked up the logo name (as Poppins) did he learn that P-O-P-P-I-N-S was already taken. But Poppns without the I, is not so that is the name we’re sticking with (and yes, you do have to pronounce it with an english accent! If you’re not, then you’re saying it wrong).

Now with a fun name like Poppns the app too had to be fun and easy to use. So in designing the app we tried to keep its functionality as simple and intuitive as possible. We knew the basic functions would be to have the user select their recipient. There would need to be some sort of connection to their email contacts that would be built in. Then the user would have to choose to write their message, film it or take a photo to say their thank you. From the research conducted it was found that many users appreciate a little help in writing thank you messages, so we’ve built in pre-written messages (based on the scenario in which the user is paying homage to their recipient) that the user can use, expand upon or delete and compose their own message. Finally would be the gift selection. The user would choose from the marketplace (marketplace sounded more welcoming and far less commercial than shop or store.) vendors what they wanted to send along with their message. They could scroll through the categories or do a quick name search for the store they thought would gift their recipient a smile.

The user testing for the order in which the screens would appear. Giving the participants the 3 screens to order in the way they would go about choosing which task to perform first, next and last. I would record the order so as we could design the app accordingly. The participant’s responses helped us design screens, and think about the information we needed to provide to the user even before they get to these screens.

The order in which the user would perform these tasks was something as a group we couldn’t agree on. I would have had the tasks arranged as choosing the gift first, then the recipient, then the message last. Others thought it should be recipient, message, then gift. We did a simple, but effective contextual inquiry among 20 different participants. The participants were asked to arrange 3 low fidelity screens (recipient screen, market place screen, and message screen) in the order in which they would perform each task to send their recipient a gift of thanks. There were no wrong answers but a clear majority was determined. About 15 of the users all agreed that the task order should be choosing the recipient first, next the gift and finally writing their message. It made sense, if you open the app with an intention set then these tasks would be easy and straightforward to conduct in that order.

Once the order of the tasks was laid out, everything else just seemed to fall into place. The overall UI of the app was very clean and fresh. It reflected the bright and cheerful tone of the language. After all the names, the personality building and the user flow testing, as a group we were able to build a fun app that is meant to make any user feel good about sending a friend or coworker a virtual gift. Coffee’s on Me (soon to be renamed as Poppns) is truly the simplest way to brighten your day.

I had a lot of fun creating this app with my group members. This app really resonated with me not only as a creative and UX designer, but also from a user’s perspective. I am the target user for this app, so everything from the renaming, UI, order of the flow, and language of the app needed to feel right to a user similar to myself. I have experience in creating a brand’s voice, but never have I done it for an app. It was a lot of fun discovering the tone and realizing that with it came so many other factors. I feel that this app’s core values would resonate with so many other users and would be a real success (especially when new vendors are added too!). It’s a genuine idea for an app and even from the survey results we compiled, giving thanks and showing appreciation is something that is universal to so many. Poppns could be the next big thing and has the potential to help so many give thanks and really make someone’s day.

Check out the prototype and get excited for the app! It’s in the works!