Send custom greetings and postcards with the Dakiyaa app
Back in the day, when the Internet was still in its infancy, sending greeting cards and postcards to your loved ones was quite a widespread practice. I used to be sent a postcard from my aunt who lived in the US, almost every month. I treasured them and I still have the collection with me.
Once the use of the Internet became widespread, cards and postcards also took a virtual form. But, this time around, its adoption wasn't that great. Yes, there were e-cards and e-postcards, but it wasn't like having the real thing in your hand. At the same time, the Internet has also reduced the frequency of the number of visits to the post office. It's been many years since I went to a post office.
So, the Internet alternatives aren't good enough, and people have become too lazy to the post office to send the physical cards. Addressing both these problems, is the Dakiyaa app. You can choose from templates of greeting and postcards, or upload your own design and customize it to your liking. Once you're done, you can choose contacts you want to send it to, using Facebook or your contact book and for a fee, Dakiyaa will print it and send the physical copy to your destination.
Cool concept, right? Well, we used the iPhone app for a while and here's what we think.
What is it about?
The user workflow of the app is well-defined by the app - there aren't unnecessary options that overwhelm a first-time user. The user is first provided with the choice of greeting cards or postcards. Once you've made a choice, you're given templates that you can choose from. If you have a template of your own, you can upload that as well.
Next up, you can customize it with photograph which you can choose from your gallery and insert it into the card template. You can also alter colour schemes of the card itself (preset ones though). Once you're done, you can choose to send it to a favoured contact, from your phonebook or your Facebook friend list.
As the app syncs with your Facebook account, it also syncs with your Facebook calendar, so it reminds you to send cards on people's birthdays etc.
Our take
As a concept, I think Dakiyaa is onto something. It allows you to send those personalized greeting and post cards at almost no extra effort on the user's end. Having said that, there are some places where the app can be better. For example, if you haven't logged in with Facebook, searching on the contact list crashes the app. Also, Dakiyaa could definitely do with a Google sign in, so as to make the most of its calendar feature.
Dakiyaa has also started running some campaigns for Raksha Bandhan, indicating some effort towards marketing. It will be interesting to see how people will adopt Dakiyaa. I think this is an interesting concept.
Download the Dakiyaa app for iOS
