Solving gifting uncertainty through personalized digital-to-physical card experiences.
Role
Industry
Timeline
The Challenge
Kizo approached our team with a significant challenge: How might we create a digital gifting experience that solves the universal problem of gift uncertainty while maintaining a personal touch?
The Kizo gift card is a flexible gifting option that gives recipients access to over 60 of India's freshest brands, from lifestyle and fashion to pet care and travel. This solves a fundamental gifting problem - the uncertainty of whether someone will like what you've chosen for them.
The Kizo card is far from being generic or impersonal. Gift-givers can add a video or text message to their gift, and also have it sent to the recipient in the form of a physical gift card, which is also customisable. Gifts can also be sent by groups of friends – just invite your friends and Kizo handles the rest for you.
Understanding the Problem Space
Before jumping into design solutions, I conducted comprehensive research to understand:
The pain points people experience when gifting
What makes a gifting experience feel personal rather than generic
How to simplify complex multi-step processes without losing essential functionality
Through stakeholder interviews with the Kizo team (founded by fashion designer Payal Khandwala and husband Vikram Ramchandani), I gained clarity on the app's purpose and vision. Follow-up conversations with prospective users revealed frustrations with traditional gifting and preferences for more flexible options.
A key insight emerged from preliminary user testing of the initial wireframes: users found the gifting process too lengthy and confusing, leading to journey abandonment. They also struggled to differentiate between brand-specific gift cards and the generic Kizo card - an issue that ultimately led to consolidating these into a single Kizo gift card redeemable across multiple brands.
The Design Process
Benchmarking and Analysis: I conducted extensive competitive analysis across gifting, shopping, and payment apps. This revealed two critical patterns: successful apps emphasized social sharing capabilities and personalization options like card templates, photos, and videos.
Strategic Simplification: To address the complexity issues, I broke down the app into fundamental features and eliminated non-essential steps. Despite needing to collect recipient information and preferences, I made this process more engaging by implementing:
Friendly, conversational language
NLP-based input fields for natural interaction
Step trackers and progress bars to provide context
Friendly alerts to reduce accidental drop-offs
Journey saving to allow users to return to incomplete processes
The Solution
The final design balanced functionality with personalization:
Personalized Experience: Unlike typical gift cards, Kizo allows senders to add videos, photos, or text messages, making each gift feel thoughtfully curated. The app also supports physical gift card delivery for a tangible gifting experience.
Group Gifting: I designed a collaborative gifting feature where friends can contribute to a single gift - the user simply invites friends and the app handles coordination.
Simplified Interface: The UI maintains a minimalist approach with white backgrounds and dark text, allowing brand imagery to take center stage. This clean canvas is punctuated by colorful, quirky illustrations from collaborator Shweta Malhotra, adding personality without overwhelming the experience.
Intuitive Flow: The redesigned user journey follows a clear 5-step process for both sending and redeeming gift cards:
For senders: Select recipient → Choose amount (₹100-₹20,000) → Personalize → Complete
For recipients: Accept gift → Select brand → Choose redemption amount → Activate → Use unique code
Results and Learnings
This project taught me valuable lessons about balancing simplicity with functionality in gifting experiences. The most significant challenge was creating an interface that felt personal despite being digital, requiring thoughtful implementation of personalization features and conversational design elements.
The clean, brand-focused design approach proved particularly effective in user testing, with users appreciating how the minimalist interface highlighted the premium brands available through the platform.
