Case 03 / 18
Syzl
A marketplace that had to fit in one hand.
- Sector
- Foodtech · Marketplace
- Year
- 2024
- Scope
- Product · Brand · Website
Syzl is Airbnb for kitchens. Food entrepreneurs browse certified commercial spaces, compare them, and book the one that fits. Three things stood in the way of that being easy. The app was hard to use on a phone. The design system underneath had drifted too far to fix one screen at a time. And the brand was not distinct enough for anyone to remember which marketplace they had used.
Booked standing up, one-handed
A food entrepreneur books a kitchen the way anyone books anything now. Standing up, one-handed, between two other things.
By 2024 Syzl's product had been built in the opposite order. Desktop first, with the phone left to cope.
Fix the foundation before the facade
Three problems, and the order of the fixes mattered more than any single one.
Product first. The browse, compare and book flows were redesigned and tested on a phone, because that is where the bookings happen.
Then the design system underneath, repaired rather than patched. A marketplace ships changes every week, and every week of drift makes the next fix cost more.
The brand came last, on purpose. A new logo and palette are the cheapest part to admire and the least useful thing to own if the product is still hard to use. It carried from the app through to a marketing site written for a first-time renter.
Gev Design made our app so much easier to use, especially on mobile, and our users love it. They also gave us a fresh new brand and site that really show who we are. The team was awesome to work with and felt like part of our own team!
Easier in one hand
Syzl books on a phone, on a system the team can keep shipping from, wearing a brand you can spot in a search result. Three problems that all looked like a rebrand, fixed in the order that made the rebrand worth doing.
This case covers the 2024 system. Syzl has grown since, and now sells AI tools for running a food business alongside the kitchen marketplace.
