Lost Post
A Daily Dose of Worldwide Curiosity.
The Project
Lost Post is an iOS app that asks the whole world one question each day. Your answer goes out as a postcard to one other person anonymously, and in return you get someone else's postcard.
We built this app as a passion project born from nostalgia for the old days of the internet, when every sign on was new, mysterious, and fun. You might find a strange Flash game, or a forum filled with people 4,000 miles away. We wanted to create something that we could look forward to every day, without feeling obligated. Something that would give a moment of creativity and mindfulness. Something that would connect others to real people in a way that social media fails at.
It's visual language is heavily inspired by ephemera, with light textures and nods to skeuomorphism, with a postcard themed coating.
Deliverables
Industries
Date & Timeline
Collecting
Part of the fun of Lost Post is learning about other cultures and perspectives. Every postcard comes with a stamp from the sender's country, and users have a stamp book to collect these in over time.
- Rewards and Easter Eggs: To reward participation, we built a streak and achievement system that unlock hidden easter eggs and customization options. Responding after 11pm your time? You'll unlock a little moon sticker you can place on your postcard.
These achievements happen organically and reward curiosity.
Crafting Customization
A user's postcard was their only sense of self. We wanted to empower and encourage everyone, even users who didn't consider themselves creative, to express themselves visually through their postcard design.
We created a limited palette of colors, patterns, and stamps users could combine into an array of different designs. Users can simply swipe through card patterns, choose a background and foreground color, and pick a few stamps.
The system avoids the trap of both ugly creations (RGB sliders aren't for everyone). It's also simple enough to encourage every user to give it a try. The customization screen also included a shuffle option.
- The Logic of the Shuffle: A system is only as good as the good it produces, and random doesn't produce the most aesthetic results without some rules.
My shuffle algorithm:
- Chooses a primary color randomly from our pre-defined colors
- Chooses a color scope randomly based on defined weights
- Chooses a color harmony randomly and applies it to the color scope based on the primary color
This ensures that even a randomized postcard looks intentional.
Building Community, Annonymously
Even though it's anonymous, part of the joy of writing is knowing your message made it to someone, and maybe even meant something.
Having this bit of engagement feeds back into the ritual of writing. Write a bit, get something to read, and see what your reader thought. To that end, it was important to encourage users to respond, and to keep that interaction quick and positive.
Games with highly competitive communities like Overwatch had to solve this too, so we took inspiration directly from them. Simple, pre-made choices to convey an emotion right after reading a postcard. Like, funny, heartfelt, and insightful. Just enough to convey a thought, encouraging users that their writing meant something to someone.
Results & Methodology
We handled the entire product lifecycle: concept, visual design, SwiftUI development, and backend architecture. The app launched at #7 on Product Hunt, gaining 550 downloads in week one. More importantly, it maintained 25% Day-30 retention, proving that users value digital experiences that prioritize quality over quantity.
Available on the Apple App Store.
Ritual & Connections
Overall, Lost Post is about curiosity. Curiosity for other cultures and perspectives, for creativity, for collection, and for interaction. Every design decision in the app was about building and re-enforcing rituals and loops that feed into one another and engage curiosity.
Every feature and engagement loop is based on one of these motivators, with each having systems that feed into the others: