Getting startedOverview

Getting started. Build your first workflow.

Plooi is a visual canvas for design research. This page walks you through the core concepts. Once you have a feel for them, the quickstart gets you to a real fold in under fifteen minutes.

Closed Alpha. You’ll need an invite to sign in. Not on the list yet? Join the alpha →

What Plooi is

A spatial canvas where research, design methods and AI nodes wire together into actual deliverables — personas, journey maps, strategy pillars, storyboards. Every output ships with its source quote pinned, so the team can trust what’s on the page.

Where it shines:

  • Discovery sprints (brief → interviews → themes → personas)
  • Usability audits (screens → heuristic eval → severity sort)
  • Concept sprints (problem → Crazy 8s → storyboards → critic)
  • Service design (journey → blueprint → gap list)
  • Continuous research repos (interviews accreting into living themes)

See Use cases for the full template library.

Core concepts

1) Projects + canvas

A project is your workspace. The canvas inside it is where you arrange nodes, wire them, and watch outputs unfold.

2) Nodes + categories

Nodes are modular building blocks. Five families:

  • Start — pull in raw context
  • Research — desk research, competitor scans, sentiment
  • Strategy — insight synthesis, HMW, JTBD, SWOT
  • Creative — tone, briefs, scripts
  • Production — image, video, audio, music

The full thirty-nine methods are listed at plooi.ai/methods.

3) Models + credits

Every AI fold is powered by a model — Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic. You pick per node, or let Plooi route by capability. Each run shows its credit cost before it spends. See Credits for the unit price and how it scales.

System requirements

Plooi runs entirely in the browser:

  • Modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
  • Stable internet connection
  • An alpha invite (during Closed Alpha)

Next steps

WelcomeQuickstart