Commissioned by Het Narrengilde, I worked as a freelance designer on My Profnar: an app that helps users look at organisational dilemmas from a different perspective.

The app uses a built-in chatbot that offers a fitting response and a new perspective based on the user's input. The challenge wasn't just designing the application, but above all making this concept accessible. Users need to be able to enter their dilemma in an approachable way, without the process feeling complicated or overwhelming.

On top of that, the interface had to match Het Narrengilde's distinctive, recognisable identity.

To understand the target group and how the app would be used, I analysed existing chatbot applications and looked at how they guide users through a conversation and input process.

Many existing chatbots are broadly applicable and focus on things like customer service or task automation. An application specifically aimed at organisational dilemmas turned out to be less common. This confirmed the opportunity to develop a more specialised, personal chatbot experience.

Based on available documentation and interviews with Het Narrengilde's management, I developed a persona. Because My Profnar is meant for a broad group of users, it was important that the app was intuitive to understand and easy to use, regardless of the user's digital experience.

During the design process I explored different ways for users to enter their dilemma and related information.

An important design decision was how the user is guided through this process. User tests showed that a step-by-step, chronological structure worked most naturally. Instead of showing all information at once, the user selects the different dimensions and their own role within the dilemma step by step.

This approach creates more focus and makes a relatively complex input process clearer.

Through usability testing I gathered feedback from users and other UX designers. This surfaced two important points for improvement.

Users said they needed a help function that gives extra explanation when a question is unclear. It also turned out the 'Ask My Profnar' button wasn't always clearly placed or labelled. Some users clicked it before all the required information had been filled in.

Based on these insights, I further developed the prototype and integrated the help function. This provides extra context for the different questions during the input process.

The result is a user-friendly app where users can enter their organisational dilemma step by step and then receive a new perspective through the built-in chatbot.

The interface combines the chatbot's functionality with Het Narrengilde's recognisable identity. Breaking the input process into clear steps keeps the interaction clear and accessible.

The renewed version of My Profnar has since launched and is available in the App Store.

This project showed me how important it is to look not just at what a technology can do, but especially at how a user engages with it.

A chatbot can offer a lot in terms of content, but without clear structure and good guidance, the interaction can still feel complex. By building up the input process step by step and actively testing with users, I was able to translate the technology into an experience that's more accessible and understandable.

I also learned how important it is to translate an abstract concept — like 'a court jester who gives you advice' — into concrete interactions, functionality and a visual identity that together form one clear user experience.