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CASE STUDY · UI/UX · CONCEPT

// Akram Tissi.UI/UX · Product:

L’flous. Daaba.

The money. Now.

Daret, an app for the Moroccan savings circle. Designed for the people who run it from memory.

ROLE
Research, UX, UI, copywriting
TYPE
Self-initiated concept
PLATFORM
iOS
YEAR
2026
The Daret case study open on a laptop sitting on an orange velvet chair: five app screens in a row, from the green title card to pot day.
Five Daret screens in a row on warm grey: the green title card, the home screen, collection day, Grandma mode and pot day.
01 · THE ORIGINAL SYSTEM

My grandmother has run darets for years. Ten to twenty people, cash in hand, a draw to decide the order. No app, no spreadsheet, no notebook. Everything lives in her head, and it works.

For anyone who has never been in one: a daret is a rotating savings circle. Everyone pays the same amount each round, and one person takes the whole pot. Next round, someone else. Nobody earns interest. Everybody earns trust.

A woman in a patterned headscarf at a table, holding up a phone showing the Daret home screen.
THE ORGANIZER
02 · WHAT I LEARNED

I didn’t run a big study. I asked the person who has been doing this longer than any app has existed.

An iPhone on a mint ground, angled against a metal frame, showing the Daret home screen with both circles running.
  • Three rhythms.200 dh weekly, 500 dh every two weeks, 1000 dh monthly.
  • Two at once.She usually runs two circles side by side.
  • 10 to 20 peoplein each circle.
  • The order.A draw, adjusted for need.
  • Late payers.Strict rules, human solutions.
  • Reminders.A phone call, or a visit.
  • The money.Cash, hand to hand.
  • The system.Memory. Only memory.

Sample size: one grandmother. Margin of error: none. She remembers everything.

03 · INSIGHTS
Two iPhones overlapping on a pale green ground, both showing the member list with each person's payment status.

Six things the interview settled, and the screens that had to answer them.

  1. 01

    Her memory is the whole system. Brilliant, and a single point of failure.

  2. 02

    Two circles, two rhythms, one head. The home screen has to hold both.

  3. 03

    The draw makes it fair. Need makes it human. The app needs room for both.

  4. 04

    Late is a conversation, not an error.

  5. 05

    Reminders are personal. A cold notification would break what a phone call builds.

  6. 06

    Cash stays cash. The app keeps the record. It never touches the money.

04 · THE HONEST TWIST

She uses an old phone. She was never going to download this app.

So she became the expert, not the user. Daret is designed for the next organizer: someone who runs circles the way she does, with a smartphone in her pocket and less patience for remembering twenty-four people’s payment history.

05 · PRINCIPLES

  • Readable first.

    Money in huge numerals. Body text never under 16px.

  • One primary action.

    One ink button per screen. Everything else steps back.

  • Never color alone.

    Every dot state has its own shape. It survives grayscale.

  • Funny, never vague.

    The copy can roast you. The numbers stay exact.

06 · KEY FLOWS
The Daret home screen: Salam Zhor, two circles side by side with their round counts, and a dark card showing 12,000 dh going to Lbouchtawia in three days.
HOME

Two circles, one glance.

Both circles side by side, each with its own rhythm. The dark card answers the only question that matters: who collects next, and how much.

A circle detail screen: 12,000 dh at the top, then a grid of dots where each row is a member and each column is a round, with a green diagonal marking every pot day.
THE DOT GRID

The whole circle on one card.

Rows are members, columns are rounds. The green diagonal is everyone’s pot day. One glance replaces a memory.

Collection day: 9 of 12 have paid, shown as a huge numeral over a progress bar, with Weslatni buttons beside each member who still owes.
COLLECTION DAY

Two taps replace memory.

The organizer taps Weslatni (I got it). The member confirms: Bs7? (True?). Nobody argues with a record both sides signed.

The remind screen: a slider set from Drif to 3adi to Grandma mode, a dark card reading Bo3aza. L’flous. Daaba. Ana f l’bab, and a Sift voice note button.
REMIND

Grandma mode.

The hardest part of a daret isn’t the money. It’s asking for it. So the app asks for you, in three tones: Drif (polite), 3adi (normal), and Grandma mode (final notice). Voice note is the main action, because that’s how reminders already happen.

An urgent turn request: Bghit nouba dyali qbel, with reason chips for a wedding, rent, Eid and the doctor, plus a Secret option.
URGENT TURN

Need, made official.

A member can ask to go earlier. The reasons are real life: a wedding, rent, Eid, the doctor. And Secret, for everything else. The organizer decides. She already knows.

Pot day: a full deep green screen with 12,000 dh in huge white numerals and the line Lyoum nouba dyalek, Lbouchtawia.
POT DAY

Nhar l’farha.

The day of joy.

The only full-green screen in the app. Green is saved for the pot, so when it shows up, it means something.

07 · ALL SCREENS
  • The splash screen: DARET in heavy black type on warm grey, with the dot grid above it.
  • The home screen with two circles running side by side and the next pot shown on a dark card.
  • The empty home screen: Madayrch daret. Mrta7 hakka? with a button to start a circle.
  • Setting up a circle: Dial ch7al? with cards for 200 dh weekly, 500 dh every two weeks, 1000 dh monthly and a custom amount.
  • The dot grid: members down the side, rounds across the top, the green diagonal marking each person’s pot day.
  • The member list with each person’s status and a button to remind whoever is late.
  • Collection day with 9 of 12 paid and a Weslatni button beside each outstanding member.
  • The reminder screen with the tone slider and the voice note as the main action.
  • An urgent turn request with the reason chips and a secret option.
  • Pot day, the only full green screen in the app.

Ten screens. One dot grid holding them together.

08 · DESIGN SYSTEM

A warm, quiet base. Ink does the work. Green is saved for the pot.

Inter · Deep green #157A40 · Mint #BFEFC8 · 32px cards · 44px minimum tap target · WCAG AA

The colour page: background, ink, grey, deep green, mint, white and text grey, each with its hex value and what it is for.
The contrast page: eight text and background pairings, each with its measured ratio and its WCAG rating.
The type page: one family, Inter, at display, money, title, card title, body and tag sizes with their weights and tracking.
The numerals page: 12,000 dh set huge in white on black, with the unit small and grey beside it.
The dot language page: four dot states, filled ink for paid, deep green with a ring for the upcoming pot, filled light grey for pending and an outline with a slash for late, shown again in greyscale.
The dot grid page: the whole circle on one card, with rows as members, columns as rounds and the green diagonal explained.
The buttons page: primary and secondary buttons, buttons on green, chips, a tone slider and the icon-only navigation.
The cards page: bento cards with 32 pixel corners, one dark card per screen holding the number that matters.
The voice page: the same reminder written in three tones, Drif, 3adi and Grandma mode, in Darija with its English meaning.
An iPhone home screen, close up, with the Daret icon among the system apps: a three by three grid of dots with one ringed in green.
09 · VOICE

The interface speaks Darija, written in Latin script, the way people actually text. Sarcastic on top, exact underneath.

Madayrch daret. Mrta7 hakka?
No daret yet. Comfortable like that?
3 nass mazal ma khallsou. Classique.
3 people haven’t paid yet. Classic.
Kola chher · 1000 dh · Ghir l’borjwa
Monthly · 1000 dh · Bourgeois only
“Ghedda nchallah” ×3
“Tomorrow, God willing” ×3
Jab l’flous f mika dial swant.
Brought the money in a plastic bag of coins.
Bo3aza. L’flous. Daaba. Ana f l’bab.
Bo3aza. The money. Now. I’m at your door.
Matlgolihach l’3a2ila kamla.
Don’t tell the whole family.
DEMO: Ma kayn la flos la walo.
DEMO: No money here, no nothing.
10 · IN MOTION

A showreel of the Daret interface: the splash, both circles on the home screen, the dot grid filling in, collection day, the reminder tones and pot day.

11 · WHAT I’D TEST NEXT
  • Would organizers trust a two-tap confirmation over their own memory?
  • Is Grandma mode funny, or too much, when your aunt is the one receiving it?
  • Can someone who has never used a finance app set up a circle without help?
  • A lighter version for organizers like her: SMS reminders on a basic phone.

Jedda kat3qel 3la kolchi.

Grandma remembers everything. Now the app does too.
Write to meNEXT PROJECTNoor Studio