TLDR: Firstly named ‘Making a Lemonade’, the idea was to create a daily register of positive news. A friend and I decided to evolve the concept of this side project to ‘On a Cheerful Note’ — an application where people would check the application, receive newsletters and notifications, and collaborate with the system openly. Visual keys emerged right after naming it. We would display text on post-its notes, as those friends and family leave to each other.
The problem: Yes, there are websites and social media profiles out there. But the bigger problem is the environment that good news live in. To get there, you must dodge dozens of ads or skip growth-hacking discourses on confusing websites. In the end, you’re flooded by Marketing, and the spirit of the experience is lost. My goal was to provide the simplest frame for daily news reading, with a cute touch. Simple, fast, and effective in putting smiles on users’ faces.
Structure and visuals: Starting to I sketched a structure of sections and what actions would be available on each page or page group. Later, I designed wireframes to understand navigation better. Visuals came after this process. As this project has previous versions, different compositions are present bellow:
User Interface Designs
Right after naming the idea the look-and-feel became clear in mind. I should display visible blocked letters mimicking newspaper headlines in combination with personal post-it notes, as those little pieces of care we left to friends and family.
“I just want to get some interesting news without the ‘growth hacking mindset’ they come related in Social Media. I’m tired of people selling courses.”
Adam, 24, Student
Adam is looking for daily positive content to help him to overcome personal health issues. A consumer of motivational profiles in Social Media he is always wary about intentions behind creators.
“This is a great idea. In fact, I was considering creating something similar. Now that it’s done, I want to collaborate.”
Brenda, 22 · Student
Brenda is a jack of all trades and when she finds good initiatives she wants to help. She intends to collaborate andshare the news with Admins to help the project to grow stronger and reach other people that may loveit justt ass she does.
Takeaways: stimulating association
Instead of a simple form or a link pointing to a given email I decided to prompt questions and link requirements on the form of a chatbot simulation. Users would face direct questions asking them to fill in a form without precisely doing it.
