WAM
TEAM:
Charlotte Sverdrup - Co-founder (Design)
Becky Wightman - Co-founder & CEO
Stuart Clark - CTO
Meryn Willetts - Strategy advisor
Karishma Kaul - Marketing
Peter Lizamore (Project leader)
Hanne Martinsen (UX designer)
Kent-André Nøkleby (Developer)
TOOLS:
Innvision, Adobe Suite, WIX
In 2020, my partner and I entered Hack the Crisis Norway, a 48-hour public hackathon, with an idea aimed at helping local businesses generate income during lockdown. We won the competition, securing funding from Innovation Norway to develop an app called WAM. Along the way, we were fortunate to collaborate with talented professionals from Microsoft, Accenture, and the design agency Agens.
After testing, we successfully launched WAM to the public. This experience sparked my passion for UX/UI design—I found the creative process deeply fulfilling. Six months into the project, I enrolled in a UX course at Noroff School of Technology to further develop my skills.
The Challenge
COVID-19 put an increasing strain on the livelihoods of local business owners and many small business owners were struggling due to lower revenues and regulatory changes. Social distancing meant that independent businesses needed help to stay afloat during the Covid-19 crisis but didn´t necessarily know how.
Solution
Create an app whereby users could send small, affordable, virtual gifts to their friends (such as a coffee or a cake) which could be exchanged for the real thing at one of our partner cafes or stores when they reopened after the covid restrictions were lifted. Businesses got paid for the gifts immediately - at a time when they needed income the most - and the recipient of the gift had something to look forward to after lockdown.
UI design: Hanne Martinsen.
Design process
I led the design of our website, app, and logo, as well as our photography and film projects. I created the initial app wireframes, conducted both quantitative and qualitative research, and collaborated closely with Agens on iterative improvements to the app.
Our vision was to create an app that was vibrant, playful, and easy to use, drawing inspiration from pop art and embracing bold, colourful design.
Partner stores
Each store featured three products on our app, allowing users to choose from a curated selection.
We successfully onboarded a total of 30 stores to the WAM app, including:
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Stockfleths (11 locations)
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Paradis Gelateria (3 locations)
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Supreme Roastworks
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Haralds vafler
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Retrolykke
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Creperie de Mari
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Il Caffé
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Fuglen (2 locations)
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Teaology (3 locations)
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The Cakery
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Olivenlunden (2 locations)
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Gulating
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Ivars sykkelsjappe
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Dapper
The receiver
Recipients received a text with a link to view their gift, along with the sender's name for easy verification. Text messages doubled as a marketing tool to boost awareness, helping us build a self-sustaining platform for future gift exchanges.
