At Steamclock, we got a lot of requests for mobile apps. But not every business needs one – so we made a simple microsite to help prospective clients (and non-clients) figure out if they really need a mobile app, via a fun & interactive checklist.
In the spring of 2021, our small but mighty design team had a few weeks in between client work to come up with a fun marketing side project. The goals were to make something entertaining, shareable, and appealing to our largely product/tech audience, while also communicating Steamclock's value proposition of building high quality mobile apps for growing businesses. What a fun challenge it was.
After a high-level brainstorming session with the team, I then further ideated and wireframed a bunch of concepts. Some were more silly than others – but we ultimately landed with "Should You Build a Mobile App", a microsite with a contrarian message. Instead of trying to convince product teams that they needed a mobile app, we aimed for the opposite: don't build a mobile app, unless there's a solid business case for it.
To help prospects determine if their business case was strong enough, we made an interactive checklist with various valid reasons for building an app. Things like: push notifications, retaining users, communicating with hardware, keeping people logged in – all that fine jazz.
Overall, the project was a success. People loved it, shared it, and new clients have even referenced it while reaching out. And as an added bonus, we even use it to screen our in-bound leads too.
I designed and prototyped the website from wireframes to high-fidelity visuals using Figma, before handing things off to our designer-developer Brady to build the static site using Jekyll. I also used a super combo of Figma, Illustrator, and After Effects to make a Lottie animation for each checklist item, for some added delight and polish.