Eight: Business Card Manager

What it does

Eight is a digital solution for an age-old networking problem: managing business cards. The app allows users to scan physical business cards to digitize contact information instantly. It also serves as a professional network, allowing users to create and share their own digital business cards, organize contacts, and stay updated on their network's career moves.

Where it shines

Eight excels in its thoughtful onboarding process. Instead of forcing users down a single path, it offers a crucial choice at 00:13: scan a card or enter details manually. For those who choose the latter, the app provides a delightful live preview of the digital card being created (00:32), offering immediate visual feedback. After onboarding, the app uses a contextual tutorial overlay (02:09) to introduce core features without pulling the user out of the main interface, which is a much smoother learning experience.

UX highlights

Inclusive Onboarding: The option to manually create a profile (00:16) ensures users without a physical card aren't left behind.
Live Previews: During profile creation, a digital card at the top of the screen updates in real-time, making a standard form feel more dynamic.
Contextual Nudges: For users who onboarded manually, a persistent banner on their profile (03:47) prompts them to scan their real card, encouraging adoption of the core feature.
Permission Priming: A custom warmup screen (00:04) explains the value of notifications before the system prompt appears, likely increasing opt-in rates.
Structured Profile Editing: The profile is broken down into clear sections like Career History, Education, and Skills, making it easy to add detailed information progressively.
Clear Feature Differentiation: The premium screen (05:37) uses a simple but effective table to compare Free and Premium features, making the value proposition of upgrading clear.

Monetization & growth

Monetization is based on a premium subscription model, which is presented to the user when they explore certain settings or features (05:25). The app offers a 7-day free trial for first-time users. The premium page clearly outlines the benefits, such as digitizing both sides of a card, CSV data downloads, and priority processing. Two plans are offered: a monthly option and a discounted annual plan marked as the 'Best deal!' (05:38). The paywall is not aggressive and appears to be user-initiated rather than a hard gate during onboarding.

Who it’s for

This app is designed for professionals who frequently network and collect business cards, such as salespeople, business development managers, and conference attendees. It solves the problem of organizing and accessing a large number of physical cards. The digital card exchange feature also makes it useful for modern professionals who prefer a paperless approach to sharing contact information.

Notes & opportunities

The onboarding flow is quite long and data-intensive, with multiple steps required before reaching the main app. While thorough, this could be a point of friction. For instance, asking for Date of Birth (01:55) might feel unnecessary for a business app and could be moved to an optional profile step later. The app could also test demonstrating the 'magic' of card scanning earlier in the flow to hook the user with its primary value proposition before asking them to complete a detailed profile.