PRODUCT & SERVICE DESIGN
Overview
Felt is an app that lets you quickly send thoughtful handwritten cards and photos whenever inspiration strikes.
Whether you’re at home or on the go, just quickly jot or type your message, and Felt will seal, stamp and mail your card within 24 hours. You can also add fun confetti, stickers, or even premium gift bundles to ship with your card.
Making Connections.
The beauty of designing for the Felt app was the brand’s North Star to keep human connection at the core of everything it did.
It would’ve been easy for this kind of thoughtfulness app to become a kitchen sink — full of cards, stickers, and gifts. But, my approach was to keep the medium in mind.
Aiming to bring a typically long-form, focused action like letter writing to smartphones was a huge challenge.
Every tool, every new gift offering, was all about answering a user need and offering the convenience of having a post office that fits in your pocket. The design roadmap at Felt was essentially built on customer service — whether that was enabling talk to type to improve feature accessibility or running a custom stationery service for small businesses. In designing the experience, I had to be ruthless about maintaining the simplicity of the flow and focusing on relevant content.
A Subscription for Professionals
The Custom Stationery service offered within the FeltPro Subscription package, allows the user to white label any card in the design catalog, and gives them the option to add their own custom information to the back of each card.
Writing Toolkit
Technical and Ballpoint Pen Styles with customizable Ink Flow.
Designer Font Library if you’re not in love with your handwriting.
Undo, Redo, and Lasso functionality
Guideline Styles to keep your writing neat.
Real Ink Technology
In Felt, your handwriting looks real, because it is. In 2018, we upgraded our ink tracking capabilities and added more precise control over ink flow and pen style within our writing toolkit.
Super Print Quality
Each card and photo is printed on premium Mohawk papers by a state of the art HP Indigo printer. When you hold one in your hand - it’s difficult to tell that the handwriting was even printed at all.
Draft Storage
Users can select any Draft as a starting point for a whole new card without disturbing the integrity of the original, and have full editing capabilities—wherever they need to
A Pivotal Year
2018 was pivotal in determining future of the app, and was also the year where Felt was my main focus. Major updates were made to unify our binaries, optimize load times, and increase overall usability. The business had big plans to expand and needed to invest in the infrastructure to support them.
In this year, I was responsible for
a new brand strategy, website, and visual system,
leading marketing campaigns & creative teams,
physical product offerings & photography, and
a brand new, mobile-first app design built on react.js.
Highlights from the Fall release included
A new, scalable Design System
Smart Content Tagging for Recommendations
New Gift Offerings & Card Add-Ons
Upgraded Event and Contact Reminders
Expanded support for Contact Importing including international and business addresses.
Smart Reminders
We’ve always had Event Reminders for Birthdays and Anniversaries in Felt, but now we’ve upgraded our system to remind you in advance of any custom event, so you’re always on track. We also integrated a custom task feature, where you can enter any event or tag a contact on a to-do you’d like to remember.
Scheduled Delivery
‘Send Now’ gets your order rolling immediately. All domestic card orders process and ship within 24 hours. But users can also ‘Send Later’ and schedule delivery for any future date.
Contact Import & Sync
Add new or existing contacts from your phone, tablet, or even a spreadsheet. When you sync your Felt Address Book, you’re able to send invites with just a few taps. You can organize your contacts into lists, or store multiple addresses under each contact, allowing you to change up the address style or location.
Notable Features & Awards
Apple’s “New Way” Campaign for iPad Pro
2019
Webby, Nominee for Best UI
2017
Aired on Season Finale of Shark Tank
SXSW Accelerator Finalist in Social Technologies
2015
2016
Project Isaac Winner, Bronze in App Development Invention
2014