Real Estate Tech
Branding & Product Design
Design & Business Problem
FINRA had a trusted partner relationship in which a client was returning after a few years to get a new software solution. Rebuilding trust with this client was critical on top of creating exceptional, enjoyable user experiences. The stakes were higher and it was important to show a high level of expertise and professionalism. In addition to software design, the client needed to modernize their user experience and develop a brand that reflected their core values.
Thought Leadership & Engagement
We included thought leadership into the early phases of the project by facilitating engaging branding workshops that involved the client directly in the creative process. These workshops not only enhanced our client's confidence but also enabled us to leverage their valuable insights, ultimately resulting in a brand strategy that was not only impactful but also firmly aligned with their vision and objectives.
Simultaneously we were tasked with overhauling the user experience for login. The previous experience was confusing, full of text and visual noise and complexity. We worked from a UX flow and took a modern approach starting with medium fidelity mockup highlighting the improvements to the experience. We took feedback from stakeholders and tech partners to adapt our experience based on feedback, technical constraints and a phased approach. We were agile in our approach, we move fast and are always ready to pivot.
Quick & Agile UX Work
Combining all of the pieces of the visual design into login mockup screens helped display how the brand pieces would work together. Client communication throughout the process was frequent and interactive which led to a design review process where the first draft was approved immediately. It was much easier to meet the client expectation with such close collaboration.
Branding and Visual Design
Strategy: Build Trust
To establish trust with the client, we focused our efforts on capturing their ethos and conveying their brand vision. To secure the business, we crafted conceptual diagrams for a pitch deck, designed to illustrate our approach, giving the client a clear and compelling view of our strategy and ability to ideate quickly. The simplicity and elegance of the approach instilled confidence in our capabilities, playing a pivotal role in securing the contract.
Design System & Theming
We worked closely with our developers to set up an architecture to support the theming of our design system. This would allow us to share components, features and enhancements across both brands maximizing our efficiency. We didn’t just focus on color, we examined spacing, layouts, elevation and style to ensure maximum flexibility for the future. We went though the process of checking each of the colors in the established palette to ensure they met 508 compliance.
This foundational work ensured we didn’t need to re-build or manage a separate design system for the client but share a tech and design stack that could support both. Our engineers were close partners in deciding our approach and which areas to focus on in our theming work. A benefit of this theme work was the ability to support additional themes which could be used for further brand work in the future, legacy systems intending to onboard and for accessibility efforts.
First Try Win
Approval of a first draft without any revisions is exceptional and our team got there through persistent transparent communication with the client and a strong relationship built on trust. The initial brand proposal kick-started our design system integration and paved the way for the future software design efforts.
Results
Design System Setup
We focused our effort on creating a timeless brand because the client wouldn't be able to update their brand very frequently. We took a flexible and scalable approach learning from the work we had done for our primary brand design system and applying those learnings in the new space. We worked with the developers to create a theme base for our design system to allow enhancements from one space to carry over to the other, maximizing our efforts and efficiencies.
Research & Ideation
Our strategy included conducting comparative and competitive analysis which informed our design process and helped us identify best practices, design trends and user expectations. We balanced these learnings against the client's desire to create a timeless brand knowing they wouldn’t be able to update it frequently.
Competitive Analysis
We presented moodboards to the client to gather feedback and validate whether our direction aligned with the client's vision. The moodboards were well received and helped propel the next round of explorations. We facilitated a workshop around stock photography and illustration to define photography standards in alignment with the brand vision.