card connect.

No more missed connections.

Do you know what I hate? Wallets.

First off, as a woman, it is an especially difficult thing. You see women's pants are infamous for having tiny pockets that can barely hold a phone, let alone a wallet. And purses! Not my thing. I mean if I’m being honest they can hold a lot and are useful, but I get tired of carrying something around on my shoulder. For the time I did have a wallet, it gets so full so fast. During the summers, I go to farmers' markets and pick up business cards after business cards. If I meet someone at a talk or even a museum, I collect their business card. The more I gather, the larger the wallet gets. However, there comes a time when the wallet needs to be cleaned out and those cards end up being misplaced.

It seems that nowadays some people are even ditching the wallet idea because everything is right there at the tip of their fingers. We have progressed to the point where you can order and pay for your Starbucks drink without having to hand the barista anything! Don’t you think it’s time to digitalize business cards?

card connect. is an application that allows its user to create, distribute, and store virtual business cards that will allow for better management and maintenance of opportunities — and most importantly, no more lost cards!

Let’s do some research…

In order to further understand the importance and use of business cards, I interviewed 5 people of varying ages and careers. The following questions were surveyed:

Do you have a business card?

Why do you have a business card?

Is it important to have a business card?

How often do you give out your business card?

How often do you receive business cards?

Where do you keep the business cards you receive?

How often do you lose the business cards you receive?

How often do you end up using the business card?

It was no surprise to me that the undergraduate students I interviewed did not yet have a business card but were thinking of creating one in the near future. However, although these undergraduates did not have a business card they found themselves receiving them quite often at career fairs as well as everyday events.

For those I interviewed out of college, they all have their own business cards. They all answered that they find themselves giving out their business cards often as well as receiving them often, typically in an exchange. One thing that was a bit surprising was a more negative view towards turning business cards digital. Some thought it would be much more efficient while some said they were used to physical business cards and would not want to learn a new system.

As for losing business cards, it seems as though everyone has experienced it.

User Personas

From the knowledge I gathered from my interviews I was able to come to the conclusion of two user personas:

Person I

• College graduate entering the field of design, excited to create their first business card
• Their main interest is connecting with other designers and using digital skills to maintain and manage connections and opportunities
• Their current behavior is using email or portfolio website to gain interest from employers, clients, partners, etc
• Input information to business card

Person II

• Reluctant to going digital because they have been using physical business cards for years
• Their main interest is engaging a younger audience who is more likely to be using digitized business cards for connections
• The current behavior is using physical paper business cards to make and keep connections with clients, partners, buyers, etc
• Input information from business card to the application

Goals

1. Easy and efficient for digital newcomers
2. Quick add features for timely connecting
3. Wallet view that allows the user to see the business cards in their digital wallet
4. Quick links to users email, phone, website, portfolio, etc
5. 24/7 chat to help users if needed

User Stories

As a new user, I can:

Sign up for a new account

Create a profile including image, industry, country, about, contact, and past work

Simplify my profile into a small digital business card

As a returning user, I can:

Search for an individuals/companies business card

Efficiently scan other business cards and add

View and organize my wallet

Use the help function if needed

Wireframes

First Prototype

For my first prototype, I tried to keep a very simple minimalistic style. Since I’m trying to appeal to an audience that may be reluctant to switch to a digital business card, I want the process to be as simple as possible for them.

The feedback I received on the prototype was less critique on the style and design choices and more critique on the amenities of the application. I certainly did not cover all of the ten usability heuristics for user interface design.

Second Prototype

As I worked towards the final prototype, something that I needed to include and was critiqued on was my lack of user control and freedom, error prevention, and help and documentation.

I worked towards making sure there were back arrows and areas to undo certain functions for the user, putting error prevention that gives a message to the user when they do something wrong such as inputting the wrong password, and including a 24/7 chat that is accessed through the user's profile for any help needs.

The full prototype can be viewed here.

This article was written in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Fall 2020 section of DMD 3035 — Interaction Design at the University of Connecticut, Digital Media & Design Department.