ISAAC WOOTEN
SocialCrunch

SocialCrunch

An anonymous question game from Chicago. Its identity, concepts and prototype, designed at ÄKTA in 2010 and 2011, and the brand world they implied.

2010–11
Design Director, ÄKTA Web Studio
TechStars
TechStars Chicago, 2013
11 → 15
Eleven screens, fifteen brand surfaces
↗
Brand book
Result

SocialCrunch asked what nobody would say out loud. A Chicago start-up built around one question, where do you stand? You connected with Facebook, swapped your identity for an anonymous one, and answered what you never would in public (money, sex, religion, politics, pop culture), then saw how your friends and everyone else answered. Mashups crossed two questions to find what neither shows alone. At ÄKTA, where I was design director, we designed it in 2010 and 2011: the identity system, light and dark concepts and the prototype. The company went on to TechStars Chicago in 2013. What it taught me: anonymity is a design problem before it is a technical one. People answer honestly only when the interface makes them feel unseen.

The brief

A game about the questions people won’t answer out loud has to feel private before it can feel fun.

The mood board set the system: crunch red and night navy with blues, teal and cream, a squared techno sans for the interface and a slab for the questions, glossy pill buttons and a set of flat icons. The prototype puts it on a night-out photograph and asks for nothing until you are anonymous: Start, then Connect via Facebook, Anonymize and a new identity. Questions sit in a masonry feed of photo cards with two pill answers; mashups unlock as you answer, and a result lands as one big question, one line about your friends and a pie chart.

Where do you stand?

The whole product in four words, and the last line on every screen.

Anonymous by design

Your identity swapped for a hash before the first question; silhouettes, never names.

Mashups

Two answers crossed into a third question nobody would ask outright.

A crowd of dots

The mark: many coloured answers resolving into one arrow.

The work

The SocialCrunch prototype: a left rail of News Feed, Questions and Mashups, a list of popular mashups such as Does salary keep your sexual lust in check, and a result card, Do you believe in ghosts? 59% of your friends believe in ghosts, over a pie chart, all on a dark photograph of friends.
A result: one question, one line about your friends, one chart.
The prototype’s start screen: the SocialCrunch wordmark and dot mark over friends lying in the grass at night, We will tell you facts about your friends you never, ever knew, and a red Start button.
Start.
The anonymize step: Connect via Facebook, Anonymize, A bit about you, with a current identity turning into a hashed new identity, and a red Continue button.
Anonymize before the first question.
The mashups list beside a photograph of friends lying in the grass: show all, unlocked or locked, sorted by recent, popular or friends, with red lock icons on the mashups still to unlock.
Mashups: two questions crossed, unlocked by answering.
A dark concept: You will be anonymous on SocialCrunch, categories down the left, and a masonry feed of question cards such as How many of my friends believe in God, each tagged by colour.
Concept, dark: the feed.
The same concept in light, with green, blue, purple and orange category tags on the question cards.
Concept, light.
A second dark concept with the category rail collapsed and a denser grid of question cards.
A denser feed.
A second light concept, the question cards in colour-coded columns.
And in light.
The mood board: an SC monogram, primary, secondary and tertiary colours (red, navy, white, black, blues, teal and cream), patterns and textures, a colour range, Pill Gothic, Rockwell and Museo type, button styles, icon styles and two early concepts.
The mood board: the system before the screens.
socialcrunch.com, dark theme: Where do you stand? over a masonry feed of photo question cards with yes and no pill answers.
socialcrunch.com, dark.
socialcrunch.com, light theme: the same feed of question cards on white.
And light.

Brand system

Seen again years later, the mood board was already most of a brand. I locked what it held (crunch red and night navy, answer blue, teal and cream, a squared techno sans with a slab for the questions, the dot-cluster mark and the SC monogram, night photography under a dark interface) and followed it into print, product, photography, a social kit, data, a campaign and a storefront.

  • SocialCrunch. Brand world: a phone on a bar at night, its pill answers glowing, as a stream of coloured dots and glass pie charts rise from itBrand world · rendered from the locked brand DNA
  • SocialCrunch. Logo variations sheet
  • SocialCrunch. Wordmark and dot-cluster construction
  • SocialCrunch. Brand guidelines sheet
  • SocialCrunch. Business cards, night black with red edges
  • SocialCrunch. Packaging: a box of question, mashup and anonymous-identity cards
  • SocialCrunch. Merch collection
  • SocialCrunch. Lifestyle photography: candid night-out moments with phones
  • SocialCrunch. Social kit: avatar, banner, feed posts and a story
  • SocialCrunch. Website hero, Where do you stand?
  • SocialCrunch. Mobile app screens: questions, mashups and a result
  • SocialCrunch. Campaign key visual: friends laughing in the grass with question cards, Where do you stand?
  • SocialCrunch. Data visualisation system: line, bar and donut charts, a stat tile and a table of questions
  • SocialCrunch. Billboard over a Chicago street at night, Where do you stand?
  • SocialCrunch. Storefront at night, the dot mark over the door

The concepts and prototype are the work. The brand world is a 2026 study made with my own tool from them, not work for SocialCrunch.

We will tell you facts about your friends you never, ever knew.

SocialCrunch, 2011

Role

Design director at ÄKTA, 2010 to 2011. A 2026 study for the brand world.

Identity system

Palette, type, buttons and icons on one mood board, the wordmark’s dot mark and the SC monogram.

Concepts

Light and dark feeds of question cards, categories down the side, anonymity first.

Prototype

Start, anonymize, the mashups list and the result, over night photography.

Fifteen surfaces

From the locked brand DNA: logo system, guidelines, cards, packaging, merch, photography, a social kit, data, web, app, a campaign, billboard and storefront.

  • Product design
  • Identity
  • Design direction
  • UI design
  • Brand DNA extraction
  • Brand systems

Next

The game lives in the archive with the rest of the studio years.

Browse the archive →