Relevance of the Problem

The main concept is the idea of creating an app that remembers all important occasions for family, friends, and loved ones, offering greeting cards and allowing users to quickly send them to recipients.

Why is this needed?

In Eastern Europe (particularly in Russian-speaking communities), women aged 55+ (mothers, aunts, and grandmothers) actively use greeting cards as a form of communication within the family. It's important for them to send e-cards for any occasion, and because this is their familiar way of expressing themselves, they expect similar attention from younger relatives.
Since different generations of the family use different social media platforms, there’s a need for a separate app that tracks and reminds users of important dates. Additionally, many families and relatives live in different cities, each with its own important dates and other special occasions. There are also one-time memorable dates, where someone should be congratulated only once (e.g., graduation, wedding, the birth of a child, a new job, etc.).
Some people place great importance on dates, while for others, they are easy to forget amidst their daily tasks and concerns. Besides reminding users of the dates, there’s a need to make it easy to send a greeting immediately. Moreover, the message should feel personal and not too generic. There’s a desire for customised greetings made especially for the person. However, this often requires effort to come up with a thoughtful message or find cards/memes that suit the occasion.
The relevance of this idea and the popularity of greeting cards is further supported by the fact that the three most popular greeting card apps ( in Russian, for the Eastern Europe region) each have over a million downloads.

Challenge

The goal is to help people maintain family connections and personal relationships more easily by focusing on important dates.

Create an app that remembers your sister’s husband's birthday for you or helps you send a personalized Easter greeting to your grandmother in a language she understands—virtual cards.
The app should allow users to create and send a thoughtful greeting in minutes, making it seem like they remembered the occasion and chose something personal.
It will remind users of important dates and generate personalized cards to help nurture social and family bonds across distances.

Analysis & Planning

I started by analysing the structure and functionality of several popular Russian-language apps, as my target audience primarily speaks Russian.

Postcards for any occasion. by Otkritki Online (1+ million downloads)
Postcards and greetings. by Otkritki OK (1+ million downloads)
Postcards for any occasion. by IcePower (1+ million downloads)

The apps differed slightly in visual design but were very similar in architecture and functionality.

Each app offered a wide selection of greeting cards, and all had calendars pre-marked with various holidays and memorable dates.
None of these apps fulfilled the key function of remembering important dates for the user and creating personalised cards (such as adding a name or custom text, or uploading a background).

Since reminder functionality is typically handled by calendar apps, I also analysed calendar-based apps designed to remind users of birthdays.

Birthday Calendar by DevWolf (1+ million downloads)
No option to create greeting cards. The calendar interface is inconvenient, although adding dates is easy. Users can leave notes with gift ideas for specific dates.
Birthday Reminders by Team Birthdays (500k+ downloads)
Combines a calendar with reminders and greeting card creation.
The free version lacks basic features, such as notifications. There is too much paid content, and reminders are a paid feature. This is a significant drawback, as users typically want to test a product before committing to a paid version.

Another useful app for analysis was Postcards by Greeting Island, which specialises in creating invitations and offers templates for various occasions.

After reviewing these apps and their functionality, I identified key features required for the project:

A calendar with the ability to add holidays and memorable dates
Options to select greeting cards for these dates
A library of cards for various holidays and occasions
A reminder and notification system for important dates
The ability to create custom cards using pre-designed templates
Free access to all basic app features (with ads)

With these features in mind, we can move on to describing the user persona and user journeys.

Persona

Persona:
Name: Lena
Age: 32
Moved to Brussels from Russia 3 years ago, communicates with family online. She uses a WhatsApp family group, but different generations and family members prefer different social networks and messaging platforms—some primarily use email. Lena’s husband is Spanish, and her colleagues are from various cultures.

Sometimes Lena misses important dates for her relatives, leading to hurt feelings or complaints. She occasionally forgets to congratulate colleagues on weddings or friends on holidays important in their cultures.
Lena uses various messaging platforms and social networks to communicate with different groups of relatives and friends. She is tech-savvy, works for an international company, and is an active smartphone user.

User Scenarios

Morning Reminder:
Lena wakes up, checks her phone, and receives a notification that today is her grandmother’s birthday. She opens the link in the notification, which takes her to the app’s recommended greeting cards. She sees a few birthday cards, with 1-2 free templates, and an option to customize the text (e.g., add a name, change the message). After selecting a card, she can download or send it via WhatsApp, Telegram, Gmail, Facebook, etc. She chooses an option, watches an ad, and after that, the app allows her to send the card. The app confirms the greeting is sent and that there are no other important dates today.
Custom Card Creation:
Lena learns that one of her husband’s cousins just got her driver’s license. She opens the app and selects the option to create a card. A template list appears, and she chooses a free one. She edits the text in Spanish, changes the background, and saves the card to her phone to send it.
Adding a New Date:
Lena decides to add her brother’s birthday to the app. She opens the calendar, selects the date, and records it. Then, she chooses the notification format for the date.

User Flow diagrams

After comparing the architecture of similar apps, I began experimenting with my own version of the architecture and interface structure using a paper prototype.

Since my goal is not to develop a full application, but rather to create a concept and idea, I will focus on the most important user flows for now.

Adding a New Date. User Flow diagram.