Placie - Australia’s first Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) product

Majority owned by carsales.com Ltd and developed in Australia, Placie is a one-stop transport app for consumers to save time, money and effort, using real-time data to schedule and book multimodal journeys via one account.

Carsales engaged Principals Branding agency to create a memorable name and visual identity, as well as deliver a user interface kit for developers that ensured Placie could be adapted seamlessly across a range of digital platforms.

MY ROLE

Design director leading work & aligning key stakeholders across Principals agency & Carsales Product & Engineering teams.

TEAM

2 x Creative Directors
1 x Product Manager

STAKEHOLDERS

Creative Directors across brand at Principals Branding Agnecy, and senior leaders at Carsales.com.au across engineering & marketing.

THE PROBLEM

Smartphones made apps our go-to when planning how to get from A to B. Placie was created by Carsales to bring all of those apps together, so that users could compare, plan and pay for trips from the one place – and choose between saving money or time.

COVID-19 has shifted Aussies’ transport behaviours and consumer habits. Research shows approximate 50/50 split in taxi (53%) and rideshare (47%) bookings – with consumers being led by price and convenience, over transport modes.

With the ability to compare and book taxi and rideshare services within the one app, consumers now have visibility on current pricing equilibrium between the two modes.

THE SOLUTION

Carsales not only needed to create a brand that would capture the attention of an app-weary public, but they needed to get to market quickly. We took a digital-first approach to deliver a user interface kit for developers that ensured Placie could be adapted seamlessly across a range of digital platforms.

Deep collaboration between the two teams ensured we defined UI elements, typography, colour schemes, and interaction patterns to ensure consistency across the app.

This combined with regular design & engineering reviews to confirm feasibility, performance implications, or modifications due to platform limitations, ensured we could meet the tight deadlines imposed.

Combined with some lean research & user testing, we went to market with a product that had high confidence internally that we would meet our users needs & expectations.

The next iteration of Placie plans to expand the transport mode offering to integrate with e-scooters/bikes, Parking, Car Rental and Car-sharing.

Note: Due to confidentiality, this is a snapshot based on shipped product and publicly available information. If you’d like to gain more insight into my role in this work , please get in touch, I'd love to have a chat