Twocents began with a simple idea: people often have useful feedback for local businesses, but no natural way to share it. A bad playlist in a café. A weird smell. A too-long wait. The kind of stuff you wouldn’t say out loud or post online, but you’d happily mention privately if it was easy and respectful.
I was brought in as the sole designer — to take this idea and turn it into something real. I worked alongside a product partner and a dev team to create the brand, the product, the voice, the materials — all of it. This wasn’t just a sprint. It was a designer’s playground with real-world rigor.
From Suggestly to Twocents
When I joined, the product was called Suggestly — and designing around that name was brutal. There was no soul in it. I created a viable brand direction, but it always felt like I was forcing meaning into something that didn’t have any. The visual system was working, but the name wasn’t carrying the weight.
Eventually we rebranded to Twocents, and everything unlocked. The tone shifted from “corporate feedback tool” to something casual, direct, and familiar — offering someone your two cents.
Centsei (and the Death of Bulby)
During the Suggestly phase, I had created a cheerful lightbulb mascot named Bulby — a way to inject warmth into an otherwise flat identity. But when we moved to Twocents, Bulby no longer made sense. It was genuinely hard to let go — we were all surprisingly attached to him.
So I started sketching new ideas. I took the Twocents logo mark — a circular speech bubble with a small notch — and started riffing on how it could become a character. In a working session, while joking through mascot names, “Centsy” quickly turned into Centsei after I scribbled a ninja-style headband on the logo. It stuck instantly. The team loved him. The mascot wasn’t just a gag — it became a central part of the brand’s energy.
(The original Centsei scribble was taken directly from the file where he was created - that is the real sketch)
Designing the Experience: New, but Familiar
We wanted the act of giving feedback to feel like building something — so the UX was structured in clear, step-based progression: choose a category, write your two cents, check the sentiment, decide whether to stay anonymous. It was modeled around known behavioral UX research about form completion — keep people moving, make each step feel achievable.
But because the structure was so different from what users were used to, I anchored the interface in familiarity: iOS-style buttons, recognizable input fields, interaction patterns people already understood. The logic was solid — but in practice, the original execution didn’t work. Early users were confused. Inputs weren’t clearly inputs. Space wasn’t clearly structured. Feedback loops were too sparse.
It was a strong reminder: even senior designers can get tunnel vision. I stripped out the ambiguity, added visual and behavioral clarity, and rebuilt the UI without losing its edge.
Beyond Digital
This wasn’t just a surface-level design exercise. I designed the entire product experience — not just the user-facing feedback flow, but also the backend admin dashboard, which preserved the tone of each message exactly as it was written. On top of that, I created marketing assets, landing pages, printed materials, animations, and even a custom CAD-designed card holder for QR/NFC slates — which we had commercially 3D printed and distributed. It was the most complete end-to-end execution of my design career to date.
My Role
Sole designer responsible for the entire brand and product experience
Created the visual identity, mascot, marketing assets, and custom hardware
Designed all UX flows and UI — from wireframes to production-ready design
Partnered with the product lead to shape tone, positioning, and product strategy
Outcome
We launched in under three months. It was four people and a dev team, moving fast. Since then, the product has seen consistent growth in a well-defined local market, is in discussions with large enterprise partners, and is approaching a promising seed round. The work resonated. The branding stuck. And Centsei lives on.