Less chit-chat, more action

At a time when we're supposedly more connected than ever, there are an awful lot of lonely people. Gen Z is said to be the loneliest generation, which is not only reflected by rising social media usage but also a broader decline in peer-to-peer interaction. Loneliness is a serious topic and has the same impact on your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day (source: Brigham Young University). In our design thinking process, we found out that Gen Z is willing to get out there but the (social) tools they are currently using are inefficient. There is a lot of buzz on messaging apps but little action when it comes to meeting in real life.

The aim of bananas.app was to bring people together in real-life and encourage meaningful in-person encounters. The app is essentially an efficient planning tool with strong social and gamification components to provide a fun, hassle-free way to arrange a plan. The branding concept is bold and attention-grabbing. Therefore, we chose an easy-to-remember brand name that would give us the necessary room to play around. The tagline 'don't go bananas, go bananas.app' would address the message overkill in endless group chats while reinforcing the brand name. The overall visual language is modern and colorful yet retro.

For the logo, we developed an imagotype with a b-shaped banana on a yellow background. The idea was to create a symbol with a digital-first – or even app-first – approach. The lettermark was constructed using a bold, lowercase typeface that is reminiscent of our favorite childhood toy, the Gameboy (R). For the color system, we used a high-contrast blue and yellow as the primary colors alongside strong accent colors.

The colors we used for bananas.app needed to be eye-catching. That’s why we chose to go for primary colors including red, blue, and green. We gave them a retro hint and added yellow in order to comply with the brand identity. The colorful design can be associated with offline entertainment, contrasting with the otherwise black-and-white coloring of mobile devices.

The typography we use provides a contrast to the eye-catching colors. Urbane is a geometric sans, which stands out due to its clear, classic, and balanced design. We use this typeface for high legibility in every size.

First and foremost, we wanted to gain user validation, so we created a landing page briefly describing the concept alongside a sneak peek into the app. We placed the video in the header in order to capture the user’s attention. Strong and colorful imagery is used for the website. The call to action was to subscribe to a list that would notify users once the product is ready.

From generating a user profile, matching profiles, and creating different types of plans and group chats, we worked on a low-fidelity wireframe before we started elaborating on the high-fidelity mock-ups for all scenarios. Every interaction was designed to be as playful and user-friendly as possible.