Project Scope
Project Scope: Snappie - Personalized Postcards
The Snappie project aimed to develop a mobile application that enables users to create and send personalized physical postcards to their loved ones using their own pictures and custom messages.
The core functionality encompassed a user-friendly interface for uploading photos, composing messages, and providing recipient address details. The project also included the integration of payment processing for the postcard service, alongside the capability to apply promo codes.
Problem definition
Digital messaging is instant, but a physical postcard carries more emotional weight. The friction sits in the operational steps around that moment: choosing a photo, composing a message, entering recipient details and completing payment can quickly feel like a long form instead of a personal gesture.
Design priorities
- Keep exploration lightweight before asking for commitment.
- Reveal structured forms only when the task requires them.
- Preserve context as users move between chat, creation and payment.
- Provide visible feedback at the point of payment and completion.
THE CHALLENGE
How might we keep the joy of sending a postcard while removing the friction of creating, addressing and paying for a physical product on a phone?
Approach
Designing the experience from emotional intent to operational completion.
The early work focused on product requirements, task analysis and interaction modelling. The process separated the lightweight moments where users explore the service from the structured moments where accuracy, trust and completion matter.
01 DISCOVER
Understand the job to be done
Clarified why users would choose a physical postcard, what they need to know before starting, and the key questions surfaced by the product: cost, examples, service information and creation.
02 DEFINE
Turn requirements into a service flow
Mapped the journey from entry to successful payment, identified form-heavy moments, and defined when the conversational shell should give way to focused task states.
03 DEVELOP
Explore interaction patterns
Created wireframes and low-fidelity flows for chat navigation, personal details, postcard composition, recipient information, promotion and payment. Iteration focused on hierarchy, progressive disclosure and touch targets.
04 DELIVER
Create a coherent mobile language
Produced the high-fidelity states using Ubuntu typography, the yellow travel-inspired identity, consistent blue actions, reusable field patterns, modal focus and explicit success feedback.
- Make it feel personal
- Reveal complexity progressively
- Confirm every commitment
The product should feel closer to composing a message than completing an order form. Asks only for the information needed at each moment, then move the user forward. Preview, payment states and a clear success message reduces uncertainty around a physical fulfilment service.
Core user journey
One continuous path, with optional exploration before commitment.
The interaction model keeps the main conversation visible until a task needs focused attention. That creates a sense of continuity without forcing users to complete every step inside a chat interface.
01
Open
Brand-led opener
02
Choose
Create, cost, example or about
03
Identify
Personal details
04
Create
Photo, message and recipient
05
Adjust
Promo code if available
06
Pay
Card details and submission
Final Solution
A guided mobile service that stays friendly without hiding the work.
The finished flow uses the conversational interface for orientation and lightweight choices, then switches to dedicated modal states for accurate data entry. This keeps the emotional tone of Snappie while making creation, delivery and payment predictable.
Branded entry: A simple opener establishes the travel-inspired identity before asking the user to act.
Home and orientation: The home state introduces the proposition and gives a clear route into creating a Snappie.
Conversational menu: A chat-style menu answers common questions and lets users inspect an example before committing.
Personal details: Personal information is separated into a focused form state, reducing noise in the conversation.
Postcard creation: Photo, message, recipient name, country and address are grouped into one clear creation task.
Promo code: Promotion is optional and isolated so it does not interrupt the core creation sequence.
Card payment: Payment is treated as a high-trust step with explicit card fields, clear actions and visual separation.
Solution details
The interaction model is the product strategy.
Instead of forcing every task into the same UI pattern, Snappie uses the right interaction for the right level of complexity.
01
Hybrid conversation + forms
Chat creates warmth and orientation. Focused forms take over when accuracy matters, avoiding an awkward “form disguised as chat” experience.
02
Progressive disclosure
Users can ask about cost, inspect an example or learn about the service before entering personal or payment information.
03
Task-focused modals
Personal details, creation, promo and payment each become a bounded task with a clear title, input hierarchy and primary action.
04
Trust through feedback
Previewed content, explicit payment fields and a dedicated success state give users confidence that a real physical order has been submitted.
Impact
The outcome is a complete, understandable service flow rather than a collection of attractive screens.
The available project material does not include production analytics, so the impact below reflects the design outcome and the behaviours the experience is intended to improve. Launch metrics are separated from design claims to keep the case study evidence-based.
01
Clearer end-to-end path
The eight states make the journey from first contact to successful payment explicit, with a visible next action at each key moment.
02
Lower cognitive load
Conversational exploration and structured forms are separated, so users do not process every decision and every field at once.
03
Stronger transaction confidence
Payment is visually isolated from creation, while cancel/submit controls and a success state provide clear commitment and closure.
04
Consistent interaction language
Repeated headers, fields, primary/secondary actions and modal behaviour create familiarity across personal, creation, promo and payment tasks.
Post launch
A measurement plan for the next iteration
| Completion | Start → successful confirmation rate |
| Drop-off | Abandonment by details, creation and payment step |
| Efficiency | Median time from Start to Submit |
| Reliability | Photo upload, validation and payment failure rate |
| Exploration | Use of cost, example and About options before creation |
| Retention | Repeat postcard creation and resend behaviour |
Outcome
From photo to postbox, without losing the human feeling.
Snappie turns a multi-step fulfilment and payment journey into a friendly mobile experience. The design preserves the emotional intent of sending something personal while giving users the structure, feedback and confidence needed to complete a real physical order.
