THE POWER OF KINDNESS MOBILE APP INTERFACE

CASE STUDY

INTRO.

 

Something that I really value is kindness and I feel that it goes unnoticed way too often. I decided to create a kindness card tracking app prototype as a way to help promote kindness because hey, there’s never enough kindness in the world.

Essentially, each kindness card is first activated at a restaurant, cafe, or fast-food joint when someone purchases a suspended meal - a meal that is purchased in advance for a stranger in need. From there, the person who was generous enough to do that will activate their kindness card through the app and input their act of kindness in the description box. Once that card is activated, it's up to that person to pass on the card to some kind stranger and they would have to repeat the same steps. By doing this, people will be able to track the journey of their kindness cards and read other people's stories.

APPROACH.

 

Inspired by the compliment cards that are passed on from one person to another, I knew that I wanted to take a similar approach but take it even further. Shown below, is the Original compliment card I received from a friend that ultimately became the inspiration of this app.

As I did my research to see if someone had already come up with a similar idea, I came across the organization, The Kindness Card Experiment, an initiative that was established to recognize, reward, and spread kindness in New York City and beyond. What’s interesting about this experiment is that people who are a recipient of one of the cards will have an option to either redeem $10 or to have the organization donate $10 to a charity of their choice. I loved this! So, building off of this initiative, I did something similar (just without the rewards). Shown below, is the landing page of The Kindness Card Experiment website.

CONCEPT.

 

Essentially, every Kindness Card would first be activated when someone purchases a suspended menu item — something that is paid for in advance for a stranger in need. Luckily, I happened to remember this concept from a post that I had seen on Pinterest several years ago. Yes, Pinterest is a great platform for inspiration. :)

Once something is purchased off the menu for someone else, that person would receive a Kindness Card that they would have to activate through the app. During the activation process, they would have to input their Kindness Card number, name (or anonymous name), location, and a brief summary of what they did to receive the card. After that point, it’s that person’s responsibility to pass the card onto some other kind person and they would repeat the same process. If everyone who received a card were to follow through with all of these steps, people would then be able to track the journey of their cards.

NAVIGATION OUTLINE.

 

What were the possible steps that people were going to go through when using the app? What was the navigation of the app going to look like? In order to get a better feel for the overall structure, I sketched out a mobile app navigation outline so that I knew what pages I wanted to include.

SKETCHES.

 

With a solid foundation of what I envisioned, I then began sketching out the layout of my app.

WIREFRAMES.

 

After sketching out the layout on paper, I went to Adobe XD to begin wireframing.

DESIGN COMPS.

 

Now to the really fun part: adding the colors and visuals to the design. My original design had a lot more darker shades of blue so I decided to step away from that and use lighter colors instead. I chose to stick to a blue color palette because it gives off feelings of calmness and peacefulness.

STYLE GUIDE.

 

PROTOTYPE.

 

After creating a prototype in Adobe XD, I then recreated everything in Tumult Hype so that I could add more features to it. Within HYPE, I added swipe features, simple transitions, and HTML text entry widgets to the prototype to make it more interactive for users.

TOP

© ELLIE HOYT © 2018

As I did my research to see if someone had already come up with a similar idea, I came across the organization, The Kindness Card Experiment, an initiative that was established to recognize, reward, and spread kindness in New York City and beyond. What’s interesting about this experiment is that people who are a recipient of one of the cards will have an option to either redeem $10 or to have the organization donate $10 to a charity of their choice. I loved this! So, building off of this initiative, I did something similar (just without the rewards). Shown below, is the landing page of The Kindness Card Experiment website.

Essentially, every Kindness Card would first be activated when someone purchases a suspended menu item — something that is paid for in advance for a stranger in need. Luckily, I happened to remember this concept from a post that I had seen on Pinterest several years ago. Yes, Pinterest is a great platform for inspiration. :)

Once something is purchased off the menu for someone else, that person would receive a Kindness Card that they would have to activate through the app. During the activation process, they would have to input their Kindness Card number, name (or anonymous name), location, and a brief summary of what they did to receive the card. After that point, it’s that person’s responsibility to pass the card onto some other kind person and they would repeat the same process. If everyone who received a card were to follow through with all of these steps, people would then be able to track the journey of their cards.

As I did my research to see if someone had already come up with a similar idea, I came across the organization, The Kindness Card Experiment, an initiative that was established to recognize, reward, and spread kindness in New York City and beyond. What’s interesting about this experiment is that people who are a recipient of one of the cards will have an option to either redeem $10 or to have the organization donate $10 to a charity of their choice. I loved this! So, building off of this initiative, I did something similar (just without the rewards). Shown below, is the landing page of The Kindness Card Experiment website.

As I did my research to see if someone had already come up with a similar idea, I came across the organization, The Kindness Card Experiment, an initiative that was established to recognize, reward, and spread kindness in New York City and beyond. What’s interesting about this experiment is that people who are a recipient of one of the cards will have an option to either redeem $10 or to have the organization donate $10 to a charity of their choice. I loved this! So, building off of this initiative, I did something similar (just without the rewards). Shown below, is the landing page of The Kindness Card Experiment website.

As I did my research to see if someone had already come up with a similar idea, I came across the organization, The Kindness Card Experiment, an initiative that was established to recognize, reward, and spread kindness in New York City and beyond. What’s interesting about this experiment is that people who are a recipient of one of the cards will have an option to either redeem $10 or to have the organization donate $10 to a charity of their choice. I loved this! So, building off of this initiative, I did something similar (just without the rewards). Shown below, is the landing page of The Kindness Card Experiment website.

As I did my research to see if someone had already come up with a similar idea, I came across the organization, The Kindness Card Experiment, an initiative that was established to recognize, reward, and spread kindness in New York City and beyond. What’s interesting about this experiment is that people who are a recipient of one of the cards will have an option to either redeem $10 or to have the organization donate $10 to a charity of their choice. I loved this! So, building off of this initiative, I did something similar (just without the rewards). Shown below, is the landing page of The Kindness Card Experiment website.

As I did my research to see if someone had already come up with a similar idea, I came across the organization, The Kindness Card Experiment, an initiative that was established to recognize, reward, and spread kindness in New York City and beyond. What’s interesting about this experiment is that people who are a recipient of one of the cards will have an option to either redeem $10 or to have the organization donate $10 to a charity of their choice. I loved this! So, building off of this initiative, I did something similar (just without the rewards). Shown below, is the landing page of The Kindness Card Experiment website.