SixCrayons

Over the past few weeks I have taken a keen interest in the latest project from team Decode, ‘Project Truffle’. The guys at Decode have decided to have an open development process for this rather interesting project.

In order to show the design and development process as transparently as possible they have created Blog Lettuce Tomato. Every Tuesday and Thursday they release updates on what’s going down with ‘Project Truffle’.

What is Project Truffle then I hear you say?

Project Truffle is an App that will make finances easier to understand for the masses and ultimately save people money. Sick of big corporate financial comparison sites that only show half the picture, Decode have teamed up with some more inspiring web folks to create a community where the best interests of the people are what really matters.

Here is a video from the team explaining a little more:

As you can see from the video, Decode have brought in former Carsonified teammate Mel Kirk for the social media side of things.  For the design and branding they have another former member of Carsonified Elliot Jay Stocks, leading the visual side of things.

What has got me interested in this project is the way that I am now intrigued to follow the progress of a financial app, even though I am usually not really that interested in this sort of thing. By giving me details of the people involved and why they are all collaborating to make this app special makes me feel connected to the development progress and so interested in what they come up with. The openness of the BLT blog has also been great to read. It feels like a behind the scenes tour of a websites creation, where you can just sit back follow and learn.

By sitting down and discussing the brands they loved, the Project Truffle team were able to decide on what they stood for and were against before starting on the website. Giving them clear direction on their brand identity before briefing a designer.

“We don’t want to be Money Supermarket, we want to be better! The challenge is about to begin and by jove are we ready for it!!!” – Mel Kirk

After long meetings with Elliot Jay Stocks he was let loose on the branding of Project Truffle. It had to include a pig which made his branding process quite enjoyable to read. Have a read of Elliots’ branding process here.

So with all this teasing I was ready to burst! (forgive the pun) What was the actual app and site going to be called?! I was relieved and very pleased to find out its name in the end. Once the initial branding for the Financial App was finished it was announced and put online as a holding page – http://themoneypig.com/

As you can see the branding is easily recognisable and I find it much more inviting and friendly than the usual dull financial website designs. I mean they are using a tiny cute pig! Piglet, Babe, Pumba, Porky Pig, even Miss Piggy! Everybody loves pigs! ‘calm down Harry’

So what’s next?

Well the site is now open for registrations to become a beta tester for the app. That is once they have it ready, but for now you can keep up to date on the app through the BLT blog.

Such a transparent development process takes balls and I for one take my hat off to the guys (and girl) for allowing us all to watch their exciting journey and learn from it.