Dyamo – A friendly sidekick!
A Hyper Island student project
Dyamo is a Swedish mentorship program for students between the age of 13-16. Their service is based on their app where the mentee and mentor communicate. The students have an anonymous account and are matched with a suitable mentor that will cheer them on and help them throughout their education.
Within the app, there is a chat function and a gamification aspect where the student will earn vouchers when they do their tasks. However, the student can never fail, they just have to try and in that way, they will progress.
Dyamo came to Hyper Island with a wish for a more clear visual identity, a brand book, and for us to take a look at their app.
The process
Week 1: Teambuilding and Discover
We started by sharing our expectations, our previous experiences, strengths, and what we wanted to learn during this project. Then we started our research phase by talking to the client and desk research. We found out as much as we could about them, the market, competitors, and their target group. We also decided upon using the Double Diamond as our work structure and guideline throughout this project to keep track of the process in a structured way.
Week 2: Define
In the define stage, we boiled down all of our findings and started to work on our brand concept. We used the Brand Canvas and developed our client’s new concept with brand values, mission, and vision. From this, we then brainstormed ideas and ended up clustering them coming up with two different concepts for the client to choose from.
Week 3: Develop
During this week we defined our different roles within the team based on experience and desired outcomes of learnings. My responsibility for deliverables were the digital assets and graphic design elements because of my background and me wanting to dive more into product design.
Week 4: Deliver
The deliverables we created for Dyamo consisted of a brand new concept for them; The friendly sidekick! A brand book, a new visual identity, and suggestions on how to develop their current app.
The concept
The potential of the human connection is the core of Dyamo and we needed to ensure that the relationships that are built in this space are strong. These relationships are key aspects for the student’s development and to keep them motivated.
But, in order for the student to reach the stage of development, they should have the space to feel comfortable in this relationship.
That’s why we wanted Dyamo to put the student as the hero of their own narrative by introducing a set of sidekick characters. They will be joining them in the app as a bridge between the student and the mentor, a sidekick, making it more playful and creating familiarity and connection.
The student will have the opportunity to choose their own sidekick based on their interest and personality.
Since the sidekicks are based on imaginative shapes and forms and do not have any human resemblance defined, the student has all the tools to become as fearless as possible to express themselves without compromising their anonymity.
Dyamo is giving the student a mask and a cape to become the hero in this story!
The app
We decided to add some questions during the sign-up to enhance that everyone has superpowers and for the student to find pride in themselves before we ask them what they need help with. We also added a daily check-in where we are using emojis given that this generation is very familiar with communicating visually. This is a lower barrier to open up a conversation about well-being and will give the mentor a better understanding of how the student is feeling.
The team
Gustav Thunberg – Design Lead
Francesca Savio – UX Writer
Evelina Johansson – Ilustrator/Brand Designer
Verena Grahn – Brand Designer
Sebastian Lundkvist – Brand Designer
Myself – Brand/Product Designer