Client
Float
Discipline
Naming
Branding
Product Design
Collaborators
Miles Nanton
Nitesh Congreja
Nadya Kim
Daria Vailles
Float is a platform that enables students to manage their essay word count by giving them a doable amount of words per day. Named one of Metro’s 10 Best Apps Students Can't Do Without and App of the Day on the App store. Studio Narli previously known as Mylo has worked with Float in making an app that students can access and update effortlessly. The project encompasses product design, brand identity and naming.
Mylo's Head Designer Miles Nanton led the initiative when he saw his sister in law struggle to finish her essay which was due the next day. "It clearly made sense to me that students weren't able to manage their essay cycles and left it to the last minute. Why not have an app that tell students how much words they need to do per day to stay on top of their word counts." - Miles
Before starting on the design for the app, I met with students from various universities and asked them how they managed their time to get their essays finished on time.
"I had around 10-13 essays and 4 exams this year. Each semester I write my assignment and their deadlines and stick it on the wall in-front of me" - Student
"I would say get a planner and plan what days you can start and write what you will write on that day or talk about this will help you to organise yourself what I do myself is I have a to do list every week and work myself through it and tick it of when I'm done" - Student
"Put all your deadlines into your phone calendar. Plan ahead what you need to do each day to make them on time. Try to finish deadlines a day or so before, so that you have room for editing/proofreading or extra time in case things don't go to plan." - Student
Research taught me that students need little distraction to take them away from their work. So it made sense to focus on an app that kept their focus throughout their essay cycle.
As student wellbeing is beginning to be widely known as something we all must be conscious of , apps can now be made to relieve some of the pressures students can face at university.
The name 'float' came about as a way to remind students of the apps ability to cushion or sustain their workflow. A float is a thing that is buoyant in water which made sense in how it corresponded to how students needed an app that sustains them during their essay cycle.
As part of the project, I chose the font courier for the logo as it was one of the first typefonts Initially created for IBM's typewriters. This font has a long association with typing; something we want students to do daily. Typing would be the key focus and nothing quite like emulates typing than the font 'courier'.
The primary type is set in the sans serif 'Lato' font by Warsaw-based designer Łukasz Dziedzic. The semi rounded details give the font a friendly but serious attraction. ...'The feeling of summer,' says Łukasz and I couldn't agree more.
Students would need to input information concerning their essay. It made sense for a title to be inputed for topic seperation and to distinguish the cards on the screen. The next section of information needed to be how many words they needed to do which would then be broken down in to daily chunks when the card was generated. The third section of information needed to be inputted would be the actual deadline date for the essay. This would need to coincide with the amount of words so it could divide the amount of words by the amount of days they had left.
Once the information was collated it would then be presented in a card on the users home screen. Cards are perfected because they isolate unrelated content on an information heavy area. Minimalistic was key too in defining the home screen. It had to be clean, intuitive and reduce the users cognitive load. Cards are also great because they are very scannable enabling the user with multiple deadlines to scan and get to their current deadline.
It was necessity that students be able to update their cards by tapping on it and inputting how many words they have currently done. It also made sense to give students an extra day to review their work so an extra day is given after the deadline. This is placed just over the 'Done' button to remind students of the extra day they have.
The hierarchy within the cards needed to magnify the 'amount of words per day'. This was weighted bold along with the deadline date. The deadline date is also an important piece of information that required bold application. The name of the essay was considered to be that of less importance on the float so a regular weighing was applied to the Lato font.
The colour palette conveys the sense of trust at the heart of the Float's brand. The brand colour is sky blue that holds synergies with
open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, inspiration, and sensitivity.
I collaborated with Illustrators Daria Vailles & Nadya Kim to bring the brand to life and emphasise its use among students.
3,000 students all over the world now use Float
Float helps students get through their written assignments with minimum angst and maximum efficiency. Enter the title, word count and deadline of your essay and the app breaks your workload down into manageable daily chunks.
What we love: Essay Tennis! This handy little feature connects you with a friend to enhance your motivation. You will serve (geddit?) each other word count targets and try to beat your friend’s output. It creates a bit of healthy competition – and makes sitting in your room working on an assignment feel a lot less lonely.
Quick tip: Use Float’s Campus section to send friend requests to people at the same university or college as you and create your own virtual Campus. It’s a quick and convenient way to connect with your peers about assignments or share thoughts and socialise.
Meet the creator: Float’s CEO and founder Miles Nanton created the app after seeing his sister-in-law struggle to finish her essays on time. It arrived on the App Store in 2019.
Let's work together
We’re a design studio from London. We give startups, brands and organisations a pushup and help them to refine their digital product ambitions.