Colu's City Currency: Designing Local Digital Economies
Adi Manko Fleisher drove the user experience and user interface design for Colu's city currency platform between 2018 and 2019.
Launched in 2017, Colu provides cities with a technological solution to incentivize local spending and civic engagement through a digital municipal currency. At its core, Colu's platform enables citizens to make payments, get rewarded for supporting local businesses, and drive positive impact within their communities.
As the lead product designer, Adi spearheaded the integration of the city currency concept into Colu's existing community app for Tel Aviv. In close collaboration with city partners like Belfast, her role involved conducting user research, workshopping localized reward campaigns, and deeply understanding each city's unique goals and pain points.
Colu’s city currency: The power behind a city currency is that it can be used to pay for everything, anywhere, anytime, while keeping it in the city
Colu wallet app - a place where users get rewarded for transactions and contributions to the livelihood of their city.
Implementing innovative design solutions, Adi introduced card-based "punch card" interfaces that leverage people's psychological drive to complete sets of rewards. She transitioned the app to an endless scrolling experience, providing a more exploratory feel when browsing local offers and incentives. The digital wallet and personalized reward cards took center stage on user home screens.
City payments and offer
Incentivizing user’s activity with rewards
To drive engagement, Adi designed intuitive purchase flows that seamlessly surfaced additional reward suggestions, incentivizing transactions with local businesses. The evolved app offered a coherent, user-centric hub for accessing a city's digital economy.
This pioneering work laid the foundation for Colu's city currency ecosystem, allowing municipalities to cultivate economic vibrancy while empowering citizens as key stakeholders in their local communities' prosperity.
Local challenges
Goal: Drive local shopping towards healthy living
How: Incentivize citizens to connect & contribute rewards towards the goal
Keep It Green
Goal: Drive a green city impact that suits the citi’s goals
How: Reward citizens for keeping the city green and using green transportation
Pay with Colu
Be a payment partner with Bank account (segregated customer funds, operational) and link bank accounts instead of credit/debit cards
Good deeds
Drive social responsibility and impact by rewarding citizens for social activities
Everyday well being
Support physical and mental well being of students. Partner with City & employers/Universities around Green City goal