Spiel logo & tagline with image of home screen
Spiel app icon

Spiel

An interactive review app for friends to share & store recommendations on anything.

ROLE

Co-founder, Product

RESPONSIBILITIES

Product Design, UI/UX Design, Visual Identity, Product Management

TIMELINE

September 2022 – June 2023

TEAM

Sylvie Goldner, Founder

Pat Thompson, Graphic Designer

Aviv Melamud, Engineer

Kyle Andruczk, Engineer

Ndukwe Armstrong, Engineer

Collection of screens from the Spiel app

Spiel! — Review anything

Spiel is an interactive review app for friends to share and store recommendations on anything. Create a profile, add your friends, find something to review, then give your Spiel! From the quick takes to the deep cuts and the 10/10s to the oy veys, Spiel is the all-in-one place for you to grow closer to the people that matter most.

Spiel friends screen with friends sharing recs

The best recommendations come from your friends

Great friendships are built on great recs. From music and movies to restaurants and bars, people love sharing what they’re up to with their friends. And when it comes to reviews, friends trust each other the most—over and above professional critics.

Yet, existing review platforms source reviews from strangers, and social media platforms meant to connect friends have begun to prioritize discovery algorithms, muddling the substantive connections between friends that made these platforms popular to begin with.

We set out to merge the promise of social media with the utility of a review platform to cultivate a place for friends to share what they love with who they love.

Set of three review cards

Out with the post, in with the review

For many users, social media has become addictive and meaningless. With the rise of discovery algorithms and "For You" pages, there is less emphasis on authentic friend-to-friend interactions that bring users closer to the people they love.

Review platforms have utility because they provide guidance to users. People seek reviews and recommendations for a variety of reasons, but importantly, we found that most users prefer opinions from their closest friends and family members versus professional critics or influencers.

We began to envision a review platform centered around recommendations from friends, such that every time a friend posts, they are sharing something authentic and actionable. Because reviews have inherent utility, we felt they could be a more substantive—and useful—vehicle for connection between friends.

Social media needs a revamp. Review platforms need a facelift.

Common issues with review platforms

We spoke to users about their issues with common review platforms. Younger people expressed the greatest dissatisfaction, citing outdated interfaces and reviews from older generations.

For more avid reviewers, the reviewing experience felt scattered and disconnected. These users had to download a specific review app for a specific category of interest (e.g., Musicboard for music, Letterboxd for movies, and Goodreads for books). While these users enjoyed seeing a variety of reviews, we found that they wouldn't be willing to download three separate apps for three separate categories—particularly if they weren't an avid reviewer in that category.

We began to uncover a potential target user for Spiel: people looking to share casual reviews of any kind with their friends in a more straightforward way.

Heart illustration surrounded by friends

The friends-only approach promotes a casual, groupchat-like experience

From the outset, Spiel promised to enhance social connection by capitalizing on the utility of reviews. Our mission—for users to share what they love with who they love—required that we carefully consider the format and visibility of reviews on our platform.

Because users appreciate recommendations from people besides their friends, we experimented with making Spiel a public platform where anyone could follow anyone.

However, we quickly realized that this was not aligned with our hypothesis—that people would want to share recommendations specifically with their friends.

So, we shifted our strategy in order to test our original theory, restricting Spiel to a private, friends-only platform.

In doing so, we successfully uncovered how users preferred to use Spiel: like a group chat. Our beta test of Spiel as a friends-only platform revealed that when the pressure of publicly posting is eliminated, recommendations are:
• Shared more frequently
• More honest and meaningful
• Interacted with more by other friends

That is, a friends-only Spiel fulfilled our mission as a company and executed our vision of a place where friends connect with each other more substantively.

User reviewing another user's profile picture a 2 out of 10

Review anything — really

A core motivation for building Spiel was keeping reviews flexible. From our research, we found that users were most excited to Spiel about places like restaurants and bars, music, TV shows and movies, and books. These core categories helped bring organization to the app without restricting what can be reviewed.

However, we found that users were also itching to post more unconventional or creative reviews that didn't fit nicely into the core categories, like skincare products or services. To account for these types of reviews, we implemented the "Anything" category. Here, users could type in anything they wanted to review—no restrictions.

Because Spiel was friends-only, we found that users would utilize the "Anything" category the most, posting reviews about their emotional state, their coffee, or a random encounter they had on the street. In line with our previous observation about Spiel feeling like a group chat, the "Anything" category increased satisfaction rates. It brought users back everyday, even when they had nothing novel to review. It also made Spiel more fun and took the pressure out of posting serious reviews.

Familiar features & exciting new additions

With limited time and resources, we had to be choosy about the feature-set for launch. It was essential to balance the fun aspects of Spiel—like posting and commenting—with the useful features, like saving a good rec to a list for later. Thus, we optimized for features related to sharing and storing recs.

Spiel create flow

Creating a Spiel

On Spiel, we want users to give their Spiel—on anything. To do so, we worked to perfect the process of creating a Spiel. We observed user behavior to understand what circumstances lead a user to create a review. There were two primary instances: (i) a user had just done something, like watching a movie; (ii) a user wants to post something, like a favorite album of all time.

The first scenario was more common, so we optimized the create flow in that direction. We presented users with a main create screen that prompted them to choose a category and search for the item they wanted to review. After choosing the item, they could upload media and/or use the stock image, then rate the item and write their review.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Minimal clicks and screens from start to finish.

• Filter carousel for better separation of categories.

• Integrated APIs (e.g., Spotify) for finding and linking to the right item.

• Ability to create a new item for something unique or nonexistent.

• Stock images for API items so that users don't need to provide their own media for certain categories.

Anatomy of the review card

The centerpiece of Spiel: the review card

The most iterated-on aspect of Spiel was the review card—that is, what users actually post on Spiel. Because of how many elements it had to contain, the review card was a unique design challenge. Unlike social media posts, the review card contained extra information, like the item being reviewed and its category. And unlike review platforms, the review card needed to feel as interactive as a social media post.

We chose a UI card for a Spiel post because it is multipurpose and spacious. UI cards nicely summarize important details on the outside and can be expanded to show the full details on the inside.

A core design methodology we abided by at Spiel was the freedom to share any kind of review with friends—from the quick, witty take to the essay-length opinion piece. The review card was flexible enough to accommodate both without sacrificing legibility. For users looking for a faster social media experience, scrolling through review cards is quick and easy. For users looking to engage deeply with a friend's rec, they can peek inside at the full review.

Expanded review card with full review and comments

Designing viscerally

As our mission and vision suggest, Spiel is more than an app for sharing recommendations. Rather, it is a vision for a future where friends connect with each other substantially and find new ways to explore the world.

It was my job to take the promise of Spiel and transform it into a tangible experience. To accomplish this, I worked with our team to ideate, design, and build viscerally. Each step of the way, we made sure to transform our beliefs into imagery and experiences that conjured the feelings we wished to spread amongst friends.

Words that describe Spiel
Spiel color palette
Spiel in-app navbar

From thoughts to feelings to reality

Our visual identity reflects our values as a company and our vision for a world in which friends share what they love with who they love.

To craft the visual identity, I collaborated with my co-founder, Sylvie, to solidify a set of feelings that reflected the energy and promise of Spiel. Then, we worked to identify sources of inspiration. We knew from the outset that Spiel had a "face," but we weren't entirely sure how that would be reflected in the visual identity.

A turning point in the design of Spiel was working with our graphic designer, Pat, to craft character illustrations. At the time, we were struggling to distinguish different categories of reviews from each other. For instance, we had to visually differentiate a movie review from a music review while also keeping the format of each review the same. We experimented with a variety of assets, but the character illustrations felt closest to our vision, so we moved forward with them.

Spiel visual identity with logo and characters

Crafting the visual identity

Based on our research and testing, we derived five core categories for Spiel: (i) places, (ii) music, (iii) TV/film, (iv) books, and (v) anything else. Then, we crafted illustrations for each category. These category characters helped us differentiate reviews while maintaining a balanced and consistent interface.

As we implemented and tested the illustrations, we found that they were best utilized infrequently. Instead of attaching an illustration to each individual review on Spiel, we reserved them for specific flows in the app, like when creating a review.

The visual identity coalesced around the character illustrations. For our primary color, we led with a bright, bold red that differentiated us from most social media apps and brought us more in line with review platforms. Our logo typeface is reflective of an old-school candy store—another source of inspiration for Spiel. Paired with the "Places" character illustration and painted against a creme secondary color, our full logo is charming, friendly, and fluid. In app, it was important to use a dynamic, rounded typeface. We chose Nunito for its readability and airiness.

Designing with intention, backed by a strong vision

Ultimately, we designed Spiel to reflect our vision of a world where friends share what they're up to in a meaningful, substantive, and useful way. Spiel's visceral design mirrors the team's passion at the same time as it is in tune with what users want out of social media.

In releasing Spiel to the world, we hope to inspire friends everywhere to share what they love with who they love.

Rating meter showing 10 out of 10

Launch!

Spiel launched on the iOS App Store on May 25, 2023.

It currently has over 6000 downloads and 100 five-star reviews.

Copyright © 2024 Jared Shelby. All rights reserved.

Spiel logo & tagline with image of home screen
Spiel app icon

Spiel

An interactive review app for friends to share & store recommendations on anything.

ROLE

Co-founder, Product

RESPONSIBILITIES

Product Design, UI/UX Design, Visual Identity, Product Management

TIMELINE

September 2022 – June 2023

TEAM

Sylvie Goldner, Founder

Pat Thompson, Graphic Designer

Aviv Melamud, Engineer

Kyle Andruczk, Engineer

Ndukwe Armstrong, Engineer

Collection of screens from the Spiel app

Spiel! — Review anything

Spiel is an interactive review app for friends to share and store recommendations on anything. Create a profile, add your friends, find something to review, then give your Spiel! From the quick takes to the deep cuts and the 10/10s to the oy veys, Spiel is the all-in-one place for you to grow closer to the people that matter most.

Spiel friends screen with friends sharing recs

The best recommendations come from your friends

Great friendships are built on great recs. From music and movies to restaurants and bars, people love sharing what they’re up to with their friends. And when it comes to reviews, friends trust each other the most—over and above professional critics.

Yet, existing review platforms source reviews from strangers, and social media platforms meant to connect friends have begun to prioritize discovery algorithms, muddling the substantive connections between friends that made these platforms popular to begin with.

We set out to merge the promise of social media with the utility of a review platform to cultivate a place for friends to share what they love with who they love.

Set of three review cards

Out with the post, in with the review

For many users, social media has become addictive and meaningless. With the rise of discovery algorithms and "For You" pages, there is less emphasis on authentic friend-to-friend interactions that bring users closer to the people they love.

Review platforms have utility because they provide guidance to users. People seek reviews and recommendations for a variety of reasons, but importantly, we found that most users prefer opinions from their closest friends and family members versus professional critics or influencers.

We began to envision a review platform centered around recommendations from friends, such that every time a friend posts, they are sharing something authentic and actionable. Because reviews have inherent utility, we felt they could be a more substantive—and useful—vehicle for connection between friends.

Social media needs a revamp. Review platforms need a facelift.

Common issues with review platforms

We spoke to users about their issues with common review platforms. Younger people expressed the greatest dissatisfaction, citing outdated interfaces and reviews from older generations.

For more avid reviewers, the reviewing experience felt scattered and disconnected. These users had to download a specific review app for a specific category of interest (e.g., Musicboard for music, Letterboxd for movies, and Goodreads for books). While these users enjoyed seeing a variety of reviews, we found that they wouldn't be willing to download three separate apps for three separate categories—particularly if they weren't an avid reviewer in that category.

We began to uncover a potential target user for Spiel: people looking to share casual reviews of any kind with their friends in a more straightforward way.

Heart illustration surrounded by friends

The friends-only approach promotes a casual, groupchat-like experience

From the outset, Spiel promised to enhance social connection by capitalizing on the utility of reviews. Our mission—for users to share what they love with who they love—required that we carefully consider the format and visibility of reviews on our platform.

Because users appreciate recommendations from people besides their friends, we experimented with making Spiel a public platform where anyone could follow anyone.

However, we quickly realized that this was not aligned with our hypothesis—that people would want to share recommendations specifically with their friends.

So, we shifted our strategy in order to test our original theory, restricting Spiel to a private, friends-only platform.

In doing so, we successfully uncovered how users preferred to use Spiel: like a group chat. Our beta test of Spiel as a friends-only platform revealed that when the pressure of publicly posting is eliminated, recommendations are:
• Shared more frequently
• More honest and meaningful
• Interacted with more by other friends

That is, a friends-only Spiel fulfilled our mission as a company and executed our vision of a place where friends connect with each other more substantively.

User reviewing another user's profile picture a 2 out of 10

Review anything — really

A core motivation for building Spiel was keeping reviews flexible. From our research, we found that users were most excited to Spiel about places like restaurants and bars, music, TV shows and movies, and books. These core categories helped bring organization to the app without restricting what can be reviewed.

However, we found that users were also itching to post more unconventional or creative reviews that didn't fit nicely into the core categories, like skincare products or services. To account for these types of reviews, we implemented the "Anything" category. Here, users could type in anything they wanted to review—no restrictions.

Because Spiel was friends-only, we found that users would utilize the "Anything" category the most, posting reviews about their emotional state, their coffee, or a random encounter they had on the street. In line with our previous observation about Spiel feeling like a group chat, the "Anything" category increased satisfaction rates. It brought users back everyday, even when they had nothing novel to review. It also made Spiel more fun and took the pressure out of posting serious reviews.

Familiar features & exciting new additions

With limited time and resources, we had to be choosy about the feature-set for launch. It was essential to balance the fun aspects of Spiel—like posting and commenting—with the useful features, like saving a good rec to a list for later. Thus, we optimized for features related to sharing and storing recs.

Spiel create flow

Creating a Spiel

On Spiel, we want users to give their Spiel—on anything. To do so, we worked to perfect the process of creating a Spiel. We observed user behavior to understand what circumstances lead a user to create a review. There were two primary instances: (i) a user had just done something, like watching a movie; (ii) a user wants to post something, like a favorite album of all time.

The first scenario was more common, so we optimized the create flow in that direction. We presented users with a main create screen that prompted them to choose a category and search for the item they wanted to review. After choosing the item, they could upload media and/or use the stock image, then rate the item and write their review.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Minimal clicks and screens from start to finish.

• Filter carousel for better separation of categories.

• Integrated APIs (e.g., Spotify) for finding and linking to the right item.

• Ability to create a new item for something unique or nonexistent.

• Stock images for API items so that users don't need to provide their own media for certain categories.

Anatomy of the review card

The centerpiece of Spiel: the review card

The most iterated-on aspect of Spiel was the review card—that is, what users actually post on Spiel. Because of how many elements it had to contain, the review card was a unique design challenge. Unlike social media posts, the review card contained extra information, like the item being reviewed and its category. And unlike review platforms, the review card needed to feel as interactive as a social media post.

We chose a UI card for a Spiel post because it is multipurpose and spacious. UI cards nicely summarize important details on the outside and can be expanded to show the full details on the inside.

A core design methodology we abided by at Spiel was the freedom to share any kind of review with friends—from the quick, witty take to the essay-length opinion piece. The review card was flexible enough to accommodate both without sacrificing legibility. For users looking for a faster social media experience, scrolling through review cards is quick and easy. For users looking to engage deeply with a friend's rec, they can peek inside at the full review.

Expanded review card with full review and comments

Designing viscerally

As our mission and vision suggest, Spiel is more than an app for sharing recommendations. Rather, it is a vision for a future where friends connect with each other substantially and find new ways to explore the world.

It was my job to take the promise of Spiel and transform it into a tangible experience. To accomplish this, I worked with our team to ideate, design, and build viscerally. Each step of the way, we made sure to transform our beliefs into imagery and experiences that conjured the feelings we wished to spread amongst friends.

Words that describe Spiel
Spiel color palette
Spiel in-app navbar

From thoughts to feelings to reality

Our visual identity reflects our values as a company and our vision for a world in which friends share what they love with who they love.

To craft the visual identity, I collaborated with my co-founder, Sylvie, to solidify a set of feelings that reflected the energy and promise of Spiel. Then, we worked to identify sources of inspiration. We knew from the outset that Spiel had a "face," but we weren't entirely sure how that would be reflected in the visual identity.

A turning point in the design of Spiel was working with our graphic designer, Pat, to craft character illustrations. At the time, we were struggling to distinguish different categories of reviews from each other. For instance, we had to visually differentiate a movie review from a music review while also keeping the format of each review the same. We experimented with a variety of assets, but the character illustrations felt closest to our vision, so we moved forward with them.

Spiel visual identity with logo and characters

Crafting the visual identity

Based on our research and testing, we derived five core categories for Spiel: (i) places, (ii) music, (iii) TV/film, (iv) books, and (v) anything else. Then, we crafted illustrations for each category. These category characters helped us differentiate reviews while maintaining a balanced and consistent interface.

As we implemented and tested the illustrations, we found that they were best utilized infrequently. Instead of attaching an illustration to each individual review on Spiel, we reserved them for specific flows in the app, like when creating a review.

The visual identity coalesced around the character illustrations. For our primary color, we led with a bright, bold red that differentiated us from most social media apps and brought us more in line with review platforms. Our logo typeface is reflective of an old-school candy store—another source of inspiration for Spiel. Paired with the "Places" character illustration and painted against a creme secondary color, our full logo is charming, friendly, and fluid. In app, it was important to use a dynamic, rounded typeface. We chose Nunito for its readability and airiness.

Designing with intention, backed by a strong vision

Ultimately, we designed Spiel to reflect our vision of a world where friends share what they're up to in a meaningful, substantive, and useful way. Spiel's visceral design mirrors the team's passion at the same time as it is in tune with what users want out of social media.

In releasing Spiel to the world, we hope to inspire friends everywhere to share what they love with who they love.

Rating meter showing 10 out of 10

Launch!

Spiel launched on the iOS App Store on May 25, 2023.

It currently has over 6000 downloads and 100 five-star reviews.

Copyright © 2024 Jared Shelby. All rights reserved.

Spiel logo & tagline with image of home screen
Spiel app icon

Spiel

An interactive review app for friends to share & store recommendations on anything.

ROLE

Co-founder, Product

RESPONSIBILITIES

Product Design, UI/UX Design, Visual Identity, Product Management

TIMELINE

September 2022 – June 2023

TEAM

Sylvie Goldner, Founder

Pat Thompson, Graphic Designer

Aviv Melamud, Engineer

Kyle Andruczk, Engineer

Ndukwe Armstrong, Engineer

Collection of screens from the Spiel app

Spiel! — Review anything

Spiel is an interactive review app for friends to share and store recommendations on anything. Create a profile, add your friends, find something to review, then give your Spiel! From the quick takes to the deep cuts and the 10/10s to the oy veys, Spiel is the all-in-one place for you to grow closer to the people that matter most.

Spiel friends screen with friends sharing recs

The best recommendations come from your friends

Great friendships are built on great recs. From music and movies to restaurants and bars, people love sharing what they’re up to with their friends. And when it comes to reviews, friends trust each other the most—over and above professional critics.

Yet, existing review platforms source reviews from strangers, and social media platforms meant to connect friends have begun to prioritize discovery algorithms, muddling the substantive connections between friends that made these platforms popular to begin with.

We set out to merge the promise of social media with the utility of a review platform to cultivate a place for friends to share what they love with who they love.

Set of three review cards

Out with the post, in with the review

For many users, social media has become addictive and meaningless. With the rise of discovery algorithms and "For You" pages, there is less emphasis on authentic friend-to-friend interactions that bring users closer to the people they love.

Review platforms have utility because they provide guidance to users. People seek reviews and recommendations for a variety of reasons, but importantly, we found that most users prefer opinions from their closest friends and family members versus professional critics or influencers.

We began to envision a review platform centered around recommendations from friends, such that every time a friend posts, they are sharing something authentic and actionable. Because reviews have inherent utility, we felt they could be a more substantive—and useful—vehicle for connection between friends.

Social media needs a revamp. Review platforms need a facelift.

Common issues with review platforms

We spoke to users about their issues with common review platforms. Younger people expressed the greatest dissatisfaction, citing outdated interfaces and reviews from older generations.

For more avid reviewers, the reviewing experience felt scattered and disconnected. These users had to download a specific review app for a specific category of interest (e.g., Musicboard for music, Letterboxd for movies, and Goodreads for books). While these users enjoyed seeing a variety of reviews, we found that they wouldn't be willing to download three separate apps for three separate categories—particularly if they weren't an avid reviewer in that category.

We began to uncover a potential target user for Spiel: people looking to share casual reviews of any kind with their friends in a more straightforward way.

Heart illustration surrounded by friends

The friends-only approach promotes a casual, groupchat-like experience

From the outset, Spiel promised to enhance social connection by capitalizing on the utility of reviews. Our mission—for users to share what they love with who they love—required that we carefully consider the format and visibility of reviews on our platform.

Because users appreciate recommendations from people besides their friends, we experimented with making Spiel a public platform where anyone could follow anyone.

However, we quickly realized that this was not aligned with our hypothesis—that people would want to share recommendations specifically with their friends.

So, we shifted our strategy in order to test our original theory, restricting Spiel to a private, friends-only platform.

In doing so, we successfully uncovered how users preferred to use Spiel: like a group chat. Our beta test of Spiel as a friends-only platform revealed that when the pressure of publicly posting is eliminated, recommendations are:
• Shared more frequently
• More honest and meaningful
• Interacted with more by other friends

That is, a friends-only Spiel fulfilled our mission as a company and executed our vision of a place where friends connect with each other more substantively.

User reviewing another user's profile picture a 2 out of 10

Review anything — really

A core motivation for building Spiel was keeping reviews flexible. From our research, we found that users were most excited to Spiel about places like restaurants and bars, music, TV shows and movies, and books. These core categories helped bring organization to the app without restricting what can be reviewed.

However, we found that users were also itching to post more unconventional or creative reviews that didn't fit nicely into the core categories, like skincare products or services. To account for these types of reviews, we implemented the "Anything" category. Here, users could type in anything they wanted to review—no restrictions.

Because Spiel was friends-only, we found that users would utilize the "Anything" category the most, posting reviews about their emotional state, their coffee, or a random encounter they had on the street. In line with our previous observation about Spiel feeling like a group chat, the "Anything" category increased satisfaction rates. It brought users back everyday, even when they had nothing novel to review. It also made Spiel more fun and took the pressure out of posting serious reviews.

Familiar features & exciting new additions

With limited time and resources, we had to be choosy about the feature-set for launch. It was essential to balance the fun aspects of Spiel—like posting and commenting—with the useful features, like saving a good rec to a list for later. Thus, we optimized for features related to sharing and storing recs.

Spiel create flow

Creating a Spiel

On Spiel, we want users to give their Spiel—on anything. To do so, we worked to perfect the process of creating a Spiel. We observed user behavior to understand what circumstances lead a user to create a review. There were two primary instances: (i) a user had just done something, like watching a movie; (ii) a user wants to post something, like a favorite album of all time.

The first scenario was more common, so we optimized the create flow in that direction. We presented users with a main create screen that prompted them to choose a category and search for the item they wanted to review. After choosing the item, they could upload media and/or use the stock image, then rate the item and write their review.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Minimal clicks and screens from start to finish.

• Filter carousel for better separation of categories.

• Integrated APIs (e.g., Spotify) for finding and linking to the right item.

• Ability to create a new item for something unique or nonexistent.

• Stock images for API items so that users don't need to provide their own media for certain categories.

Anatomy of the review card

The centerpiece of Spiel: the review card

The most iterated-on aspect of Spiel was the review card—that is, what users actually post on Spiel. Because of how many elements it had to contain, the review card was a unique design challenge. Unlike social media posts, the review card contained extra information, like the item being reviewed and its category. And unlike review platforms, the review card needed to feel as interactive as a social media post.

We chose a UI card for a Spiel post because it is multipurpose and spacious. UI cards nicely summarize important details on the outside and can be expanded to show the full details on the inside.

A core design methodology we abided by at Spiel was the freedom to share any kind of review with friends—from the quick, witty take to the essay-length opinion piece. The review card was flexible enough to accommodate both without sacrificing legibility. For users looking for a faster social media experience, scrolling through review cards is quick and easy. For users looking to engage deeply with a friend's rec, they can peek inside at the full review.

Expanded review card with full review and comments

Designing viscerally

As our mission and vision suggest, Spiel is more than an app for sharing recommendations. Rather, it is a vision for a future where friends connect with each other substantially and find new ways to explore the world.

It was my job to take the promise of Spiel and transform it into a tangible experience. To accomplish this, I worked with our team to ideate, design, and build viscerally. Each step of the way, we made sure to transform our beliefs into imagery and experiences that conjured the feelings we wished to spread amongst friends.

Words that describe Spiel
Spiel color palette
Spiel in-app navbar

From thoughts to feelings to reality

Our visual identity reflects our values as a company and our vision for a world in which friends share what they love with who they love.

To craft the visual identity, I collaborated with my co-founder, Sylvie, to solidify a set of feelings that reflected the energy and promise of Spiel. Then, we worked to identify sources of inspiration. We knew from the outset that Spiel had a "face," but we weren't entirely sure how that would be reflected in the visual identity.

A turning point in the design of Spiel was working with our graphic designer, Pat, to craft character illustrations. At the time, we were struggling to distinguish different categories of reviews from each other. For instance, we had to visually differentiate a movie review from a music review while also keeping the format of each review the same. We experimented with a variety of assets, but the character illustrations felt closest to our vision, so we moved forward with them.

Spiel visual identity with logo and characters

Crafting the visual identity

Based on our research and testing, we derived five core categories for Spiel: (i) places, (ii) music, (iii) TV/film, (iv) books, and (v) anything else. Then, we crafted illustrations for each category. These category characters helped us differentiate reviews while maintaining a balanced and consistent interface.

As we implemented and tested the illustrations, we found that they were best utilized infrequently. Instead of attaching an illustration to each individual review on Spiel, we reserved them for specific flows in the app, like when creating a review.

The visual identity coalesced around the character illustrations. For our primary color, we led with a bright, bold red that differentiated us from most social media apps and brought us more in line with review platforms. Our logo typeface is reflective of an old-school candy store—another source of inspiration for Spiel. Paired with the "Places" character illustration and painted against a creme secondary color, our full logo is charming, friendly, and fluid. In app, it was important to use a dynamic, rounded typeface. We chose Nunito for its readability and airiness.

Designing with intention, backed by a strong vision

Ultimately, we designed Spiel to reflect our vision of a world where friends share what they're up to in a meaningful, substantive, and useful way. Spiel's visceral design mirrors the team's passion at the same time as it is in tune with what users want out of social media.

In releasing Spiel to the world, we hope to inspire friends everywhere to share what they love with who they love.

Rating meter showing 10 out of 10

Launch!

Spiel launched on the iOS App Store on May 25, 2023.

It currently has over 6000 downloads and 100 five-star reviews.

Copyright © 2024 Jared Shelby. All rights reserved.