BRANDING SYSTEM REDESIGN
Providing Synergy to GatherDC's Branding Ecosystem
Significantly shortened onboarding time for 4 new staff members as of May 2022
Team
Tools
Timeline
Solo Project
Google Website Builder, Optimal Workshop, Miro, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Zoom
4 Months (January – May 2022)
OVERVIEW
ROLE + IMPACT
By completing this project, GatherDC now has user-friendly access to any of its branding needs.
This reduces interruptions to other business workflows, encourages consistency in branding and messaging, and ultimately improves brand presence.
Conducting User and Design Research and developing User Personas
Creating Concept Maps and Ideating
Testing Information Architecture and developing high-fidelity prototypes
How was this accomplished?
PROBLEM STATEMENT
GatherDC has an established set of brand guidelines and rules that management knows but has yet to be put together in a way that allows new team members to learn efficiently upon hire.
Management struggled to create a cohesive and synergetic branding "Bible" that effortlessly combined current guidelines with easy access for all team members.
Helping GatherDC ensure that their guidelines were available in a functional, cohesive, and comprehensible way was the main driver when entering the research phase.
RESEARCH
The selected methods aimed at discovering:
pain points in the current system
requirements of GatherDC's ideal system
the team’s workflow
the needs of the MarComm team
USER INTERVIEWS
I conducted six semi-structured interviews using story-telling prompts and after analysis, I was able to identify three personas. You can see one below.
Goals
Insights
Users had trouble finding critical information in the guidelines and on the Google Drive
Team members would all interact differently with the system depending on their role
What a day in each team member's life looked like, and what they desired it to be
After the interviews, I had an idea of how the GatherDC team felt about their current system – but I still needed to understand how they categorized branding concepts. To do this, I created a card sort.
CARD SORT
Based on the best merge method analyzed by Optimal Workshop dendrograms, I created a visual summary that is below.
Completing the card sort allowed me to see how the current system overlooked the critical needs of the GatherDC team and how the team conceptualized the system's organization.
To create concepts for the Sort,
I took inventory of all content components in GatherDC’s current system by pulling lower-level items such as
"Logo Files" to the same level as top-level items like "Branding" to see how info overlapped.
RESEARCH IN A NUTSHELL
The research revealed the similarities and differences between the current system and how the team wanted it to function.
The Card Sort helped me understand how the team thinks about their existing system structure, where the system had repetitive information, and where the gaps were.
Most importantly, I had identified all possible pain points so I could confidently move forward into ideation.
IDEATION & DESIGN
CONCEPT MAPS WITH TESTING
INSIGHTS
A hierarchal content structure, rather than a flat model, would be a better fit for the system.
Discovered specifics that needed adjustment to fit the new system, such as adding “do’s and don’ts” to each concept
Step 1:
Take the Card Sort results and map them into different system hierarchies.
Step 2:
Use insights from the research phase to make data-driven decisions while organizing the Concept Map sketches.
Step 3:
Take options to the team and perform testing to select the information architecture that embodies the team's mutual mindset.
PROTOTYPING
After completing Design Research, I finalized a Creative Strategy Outline, then created three medium-fidelity prototypes for the team using the Google Sites platform.
Creative Strategy
Use hierarchy-based index model so that users can easily see, access, and utilize content across the system.
Keep the design of the system fresh, linear, and usable
with vertical sidebar navigation.Maintain familiarity by using GatherDC branding to style
the new system
We decided on the "scroll" prototype because it was the most familiar and had a more "document type" feel for the guidelines.
UX Design Decisions
Single-level top navigation to facilitate accessibility for users
Pages are broken into sections for readability and user comprehension
Providing a sub-navigation on each page to allow more user control and flexibility to jump around.
Guidelines, info, and helpful hints are consistent across the platform to increase user understanding.
CLIENT INVESTMENT & TESTING
DESIGN
To view the complete system, you can click here.
Pushback On Testing
The GatherDC team was insistent that a usability testing phase wasn’t necessary.
I wanted to ensure management knew how to maintain a new evergreen resource.
Ultimately, we settled on:
management completing basic usability testing
an hour-long information session to teach the system managers how to edit, update and maintain the new system.
As our project timeline ended, I was concerned that the client was left hanging, despite their insistence that they were ready to dive in. The system's design was complete, but the GatherDC team still had content gaps to fill.
I checked back three months after the project ended and received the following feedback:
"So far - the site is working well for us.
We onboarded some new comms staff while we were putting the site together, and it's been a success for them.”
- Alexandra, Managing Director
PROJECT OUTCOMES
Business Results
A reliable and easy-to-access reference for GatherDC's branding needs, which ultimately will reduce interruptions to workflows, encourage consistency in branding and messaging, and improve brand presence.
GatherDC management can grow and move around the organization without fear that the knowledge of guidelines will leave with them.
UX Results
Four staff members joined the team after project completion, and all successfully used the system to learn about GatherDC's branding guidelines.
The system significantly shortened the onboarding time for new employees entering the GatherDC team.
Navigating to find information is now more accessible and catered to the mindset of the team.
REFLECTIONS
Part of my contribution to the project was to plug existing guidelines and content into the new system and ensure it aligned with the hierarchy of the new system. I spent a lot of time proofreading and editing, and as the project ended, we needed to leave more time for testing, and the client insisted on it being unnecessary.
In the future, I would prioritize and advocate for more testing and encourage the team to take on plugging in the content on their own or extending the project.