Project and Client

Crezco is a fintech product that employs technology to eliminate unnecessary expenses and frictions in trading for businesses, bringing suppliers and buyers together and supporting their growth. That is a creative and modern solution, especially for small businesses that focus on what matters most, while payment processes are all covered with Crezco. The service strived to set up a solid and trustworthy brand image and communication that would clearly transfer the idea of reliable and straightforward financial operations and business support.

Process

The creative team aimed to create an identity that would translate the key brand vision: to make inefficient markets efficient and speed up economic progress everywhere. Crezco’s identity becomes a communication tool that helps to address a broad and diverse community and conveys the product’s advantages.

The central idea that influenced the visual style of brand identity is the creative approach to the traditional bar charts usually used for financial reports and stats. They were transformed into a balanced and harmonic design system consistently used across all the brand touch-points with its customers, from logo design and animation to the diversity of both tangible branded items such as business cards, clothes, posters, billboards, and digital communication in social media.

The brand color palette is based on several shades of deep green and pale green with accent colors such as coral and beige. Such a combination is flexible for playing with color contrast and setting solid readability and legibility for different channels and spots of visual communication. The choice of typeface fell on the elegant and readable Object Sans.

And here’s a closer look at the logo design based on that approach. It is a combination made up of a solid square symbol based on the ideas of transformable bar charts and the typographic part unveiling the brand name. What’s more, based on shapes psychology, straight lines and right angles of a square give a sense of reliability and security, and people strongly associate squares and rectangles with buildings the reason why they bring a feeling of trust and authority, which also was a good association to set about the financial service.

The approach described above was developed into a set of branded and advertising items to grow brand awareness and recognizability via various customer touchpoints.

Outdoor advertising billboard design

Business cards design

Booklet/notebook design

Branded badges

Branded tote bag design

Advertising poster design

Branded video commercial concept

The design approach set for branding was also consistently stretched to the website, providing information on the problem-solving potential of the service, answering frequent questions, and engaging visitors to try its benefits to amplify their business. Light and airy web pages are built on wisely arranged content uncovered gradually, with easily reached CTA elements for each section. Also, the core navigation in the sticky header is easily reached from any point of interaction with a web page. Solid visual hierarchy and well-mastered negative space make the website balanced and easy to use while smooth and stylish web animation and vibrant visuals add emotional appeal to the user experience.

Obviously, being innovative, technological, and intangible, services like this need to use a lot of text content to introduce their benefits to the customers and convince them to try. So, the effective solution here was to divide content into small logical pieces that could be easily scanned and understood. The designers supported them with simple and clear graphics to make the content perceived and remembered even easier.

Two more small but important details to think over and design were the favicon and app icon, which play a significant role in setting the consistent visual connection across channels.

Considering the actual needs of such a fintech service, the team has also developed the concept of the mobile application, with functional and attractive screens, big noticeable numbers, neat icons, and intuitive interactions, keeping visual consistency with the branding and website design, this way making all the types of connection with the service feel like one integral customer experience.  Take a look at the mobile screens below.

Taking into account the impact of digital marketing via social media channels, it was also essential to think over the social posting templates that would keep up with the general brand approach. Below, you can see some of them, setting the general idea of what could Instagram posts and stories look like.

So, for our team, this project was a remarkable case of collaboration with progressive financial technologies, while the Crezco brand obtained a well-developed and practical design system that supports creating a clear and informative field sharing its positioning as a reputable service that makes direct bank transfers as convenient as card payments but without the fees.

New design case studies are coming soon. Stay tuned!

More Design Case Studies

Here’s a set of more case studies sharing the design solutions and approaches for some of the design projects done by the Tubik team.

FarmSense. Identity and Web Design for Agricultural Technology

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

Otozen. Mobile App Design for Safe Driving

Uplyfe. Identity Design for Health App

Bennett. Identity and Website Design for Tea Brand

FluxWear. Web Design and Development for Health Tech Product

Magma Math. Web Design for Educational Platform

HotelCard. Brand Identity for Hotel Offers Service

Nibble Health. Identity and UX Design for Healthcare Fintech Service

CSConnect. Website Design for Immersive Experience Marketing Platform

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

THT. Website Design for Electrical Engineering Service

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic and video content by tubik

Сообщение Case Study: Crezco. Branding and UI/UX Design for Fintech Service появились сначала на Design4Users.

What Is Product Page

The product page is a page of the e-commerce website that provides a customer with all the needed information about the particular item, allows them to check various options if they exist, and enables a customer to quickly proceed with the purchase process if they decide upon buying the item.

Unlike a real point-of-sale, an e-commerce website doesn’t provide physical contact with an item or assistance from shop staff. Product page becomes the major source of attraction, impression, information, and persuasion. That’s why its design, navigability, and usability play a crucial role in growing sales.

As we mentioned in our guide to the basic web pages, a badly designed product page may waste all the effort (usually massive and complex) taken to bring the buyer to the website and to this particular product. So, besides the attractive product presentation, focus on functionality, clarity, readability, and intuitive navigation.

Product page concept for a gardening e-commerce website

Typical Elements of Product Page

Basically, a product page:

• shows the image of the product
• gives all the needed information about the product
• allows users to check different color/model options (if any)
• enables visitors to see the reviews, comments, and ratings from earlier buyers
• allows for adding the product to the cart or wish list
• shows other relevant options.

Additionally, the product page may include such options as a comparison of different items, especially popular on websites selling different devices and appliances.

Product page interactions for Bennett, a tea brand e-commerce

Based on that, here’s a checklist of basic elements of the product page layout:

• name/title of the item
• photo
• price
• item availability
• add to cart/add to bag/add to basket/buy button
• add to favorites/save to wishlist button
• description
• social proof: rating, reviews, the number of previous buyers, the number of people looking at the item now, etc.
• choice of color
• choice of model
• choice of the number of items to buy
• size guide or calculator (for clothes and footwear)
• extended details (materials, technical specifications, dimensions, weight, special features, etc.)

The list above doesn’t mean that all the points are obligatory for any product page. The choice will depend on analyzing multiple factors, understanding the target audience, and careful prioritization to see which points to include and which may be eliminated from the list for this particular type of goods or kind of customer.

Product page first-screen view on Walmart

Design Practices for Product Pages

Visual Demonstration

Ecommerce platforms are the best place to prove the saying that the picture is worth a thousand words. Not able to contact the item physically, visitors will count on the visuals of the product to make their first impression about the goods. What’s more, images are noticed and decoded faster than words; they will be the first element attracting the visitor’s attention. They present the part of the content which is both informative and emotionally appealing.

That’s why many e-commerce platforms:

• use a set of images to present one item from different points and angles
• apply zoom functionality to enable a visitor to look at some parts of the photo closer, see the textures and small details
• combine the photos of the item with photos of it on a model or in the proper environment to give a better understanding of its looks and sizes

Product page first-screen view on Marks and Spencer: a combination of several photos shows the item separately and on the model

The approaches to photo content can be different and depend on both general brand strategy and particular campaign or collection style. However, what unites them all is:

• originality: special shootings are organized to make custom photos that correspond to the style defined in a brand book or specific campaign guidelines
• high-quality: no doubt, the quality of photos directly influences the impression about the particular item and the brand in general
• optimization for the web: being quality, photos shouldn’t be too big as it can dramatically influence the loading time, which in turn has a great impact on SEO; also, pages loading slowly are the solid reason for high bounce rate – unless the website offers something absolutely unique and super exclusive, people will just go away instead of waiting.

Product page for the niche brand of underwear, using photo demonstration on model

Except for images, other media, more complex or interactive, can also be used. Among them, you can now find:

• product videos, detailed video reviews, and instructions
• 360-degree view of the item
• augmented reality technologies helping people to observe the item in their own environment or try it on virtually

The product page of GNO Blankets website uses video demonstration and graphics with detailed demonstration of product layers.

Obviously, these types of media are often more complicated, time-consuming, and expensive in production than photos. So, the decision on their worthwhileness is usually based on the type and price of the offered item. For example, to sell a 5-dollar T-shirt, photos may be enough, but for buying a massively more expensive fridge, smartphone, computer, or even a car, customers need more convincing in the decision-making way. And in this case, expenses on the more complex but more impressive, persuasive, and informative visuals and media could be a worthy investment.

A creative product page concept for a website selling niche accessories applies special realistic effects to the functionality of a model choice.

The pet shop website uses video demonstrations of the items as a convincing way to see how the product works in the environment and sets the needed emotional connection.

Informative but Simple Description

The saying that people don’t read anymore has nothing in common with the product page: when customers are deciding upon spending their money, they do read what they need to know about the product they are going to buy. Still, it’s not the reason to overload the description, as the attention span is quite limited. The description text should be concise, factual, simple, and talking in the language of the audience. It should answer the basic questions: what the product is, what it looks like, what it does, and how it does it. And better to do it from the first lines, which have the highest chances to be read, instead of filling them with standard marketing hooks shoppers are already sick and tired of.

Another rule of thumb here is connected to the previous point: show, don’t tell. Well, it’s better to say, tell, but also show! Don’t just describe in detail how the bag looks inside – show the photo. Don’t just tell how beautifully this neckerchief matches that jacket – show the photo. Don’t just mention the size of a toy – show the child playing it. Combine the power of words with proper images to make the experience much more effective.

Product page first-screen view on Uniqlo: the page features a concise and informative description of the item and puts the details on materials and care in another tab, both in the pre-scroll area of the page. Another good thing is a clear definition of model size on the photo, allowing the customers to instantly understand the proportions.

The product page for the cosmetics website uncovers the information about the product gradually, with the core data above the fold, supporting the prominent item visualization; the split-screen approach helps to divide visual and text zones to make them easily scanned.

Super Obvious Call to Action

Calls to action (CTA) should be instantly noticeable. In e-commerce interfaces, CTA elements are the core factor of effective interaction with the product; they play a crucial role in usability and navigability and, therefore, in getting profits. When all the path of interaction and transitions is built clearly for users, but the CTA element is not obvious, misplaced, or designed badly, the risk gets higher that users will get confused and need to make an additional effort to achieve their goals – which is annoying. Therefore, the risk of poor conversion rates and bad user experience grows.

ASOS product page first screen: the CTA button differs from everything else on the page due to color contrast and is instantly noticed in the light, airy layout.

Focus on the Item

No doubt, thinking about the layout and content of the product page, both stakeholders and designers feel the urge to fill it with everything possible, and even more, to make the page super informative. However, be careful as this strategy may do a dirty trick: in that flood of information, the focus gets blurred, and visitors can get too distracted to make a decision. How to find the balance?

On the one hand, it’s recommended not to overload the page with a great deal of information that will overwhelm customers and distract their attention from the major goal – to make the purchase. On the other hand, visitors aren’t ready to jump from one page to another to get different information about the item they are interested in. Therefore, the designer has to take the time for thorough research on the issue, prioritize carefully, and find the balance of data that needs to be provided on the product page.

Is there a golden rule for all e-commerce websites? No way, as different customers and markets have different needs, and the type of the product also influences the choice of core and secondary information to show. The analysis of the target audience and user testing can give clues on what information is required for the specific categories of items or services.

Creative product page design for a niche perfume website focuses on item presentation amplified with an atmospheric video background and special effects.

The more pricey, uncommon, or innovative the product, the more information the customers usually want to get about it. And even for common stuff, there may be tons of questions and hesitations. Sure, all the needed information should be accessible from the product page, and the challenge for UX designers here is to find a way to organize it properly. Technical details, materials, weight and size, size chart or calculator for clothing and footwear, functionality for comparing the item with a similar one, and so on and so forth – any of those details can play the premier violin in a story of a particular item.

Use the principle of the inverted pyramid and uncover information gradually, from the most important and demanded shown first to more and more specific details unveiled further.

Instead of creating intrigue, be open, direct, and clean in content presentation.

Try to put all core information in highly readable form on the above-the-fold part of the page.

And test, test, test again, analyze the time on the page, heatmaps, and clicks, ask and analyze to know what buyers really need and what makes shopping convenient for them.

The product page on Amazon is based on the principle of the inverted pyramid: this above-the-fold view shows the core information and functionality buyers want and need to know about this type of product first of all. Engaging social proof is marked by the label of #1 New Release and shows what other products are often bought together with this one.

The second screen uncovers more about the actions of other customers interested in this theme: two sections, visually attractive due to the focus on product images, uncover other items customers view or buy.

And only after that, when scrolling further, users can find extended information, editorial reviews, etc., based on text without visuals.

Intuitive Navigation

Every button, link, and card design can change the conversion rate significantly. It’s vital always to remember: in the intense competition we observe in e-commerce now, buyers aren’t ready to wait or waste their time on unnecessary operations or efforts to understand where’s what they need. What they do demand from e-commerce is an experience that is faster, easier, and more convenient compared to going to the actual store. If this website doesn’t give it to them, they will look for it somewhere else.

So, adding to obvious CTA, make sure that users can effortlessly do common steps, for example:

• find search field
• use breadcrumbs helping to quickly understand the current position in the website hierarchy and probably take a step or two back instead of just going away
• be totally sure which elements on the page are clickable
• see if the item is already in the cart
• see the number of items in the shopping cart or bag (usually in the website header)
• use the power of visual dividers and common directional cues to perceive the information faster
• find the contact information and navigation links in the website footer

Product page first-screen view on Target: multiple photos of the item, both clean and integrated into the environment, clear and instantly noticeable controls for choice of color, the obvious search field in the header, breadcrumbs creating the secondary navigation level, social proof in the form of ratings and questions, and clear call-to-action element.

Consistency

Consistency means that the product communicates with the user in the same or similar way, whatever point or channel of communication. In terms of user experience, it means that similar elements look and function similarly, this way reducing the cognitive load and making interactions smoother and more intuitive.

In e-commerce interface, it touches both:

Internal consistency is about different parts of your interface or brand that look and behave as one clear system. For example, when you make all the CTA buttons on different pages or screens of your product colored and designed the same way, visitors can learn fast and will be able to quickly distinguish them at any step of their user journey.

External consistency is about parts of your interface that look and behave as typical patterns for most products of this kind. That’s, for example, when you use a shopping cart even on the website selling non-tangible products or underline the text links to give users a hint that they are clickable.

Sephora product page first-screen view: expected navigation in the website header, easily recognizable for e-commerce shoppers, super obvious call-to-action button, arrows used as the clearest directional cues for most users around the web, focus on the item presented in different visuals and highlights important and influencing decision-making for the target audience.

Power of Known Patterns

Adding to the previous point, UX designers would better never underestimate the power of habit. In UI for e-commerce, especially in the red-ocean spheres, the primary goal is not to shock and awe. Basically, UX designers become a friend or at least supportive shop assistant who greets visitor, guides them around the store, takes a right to the items they want, and make the checkout as fast and simple as possible. To make that all possible, designers should base their decisions on how actual customers behave.

There are many articles and videos calling creative people to hear their hearts, trust their guts, and think out of the box. However, design is not just pure creativity striving to show all the power of original solutions. First of all, it’s a way to solve the problem and make users happier. So, it’s vital to look at the interface from the user’s perspective and find a way to make interactions that will provide a smooth and easy way to purchase.

The power of habit plays a big role in the products of this kind. Choosing a layout, menus, or icons that stand too far from the ones users are generally accustomed to often brings confusion and frustration. For a simple example, the usage of any other image instead of a magnifying glass to mark the search field can result in a bad user experience as buyers know that visual symbol and will look for it. If you are ready for such experiments, take time to test them well and ensure that customers are ready for them, too.

H&M product page design is based on a minimalist approach: the first-screen view is designed around prominent images, model choice options, elegant and readable basics (product title, color name, and price), a heart icon as a well-recognized visual trigger of adding the item to favorites and a noticeable CTA button. Even the size options are hidden in the dropdown menu to put the number of controls to a minimum and focus all the attention on the visuals. Sure, it means additional clicks and scrolling; however, the approach may be reasonable and effective if the customers are used to this flow and appreciate this particular style, consistently reflecting the brand image in general.

In the article on home page design strategies, we mentioned that the website is made not for creative contests or galleries of fame but for real users. The positive impact of habit in terms of user experience can be stronger than the wish for revolution. No doubt, the dose of uniqueness is needed, but not so much to knock down the user. In e-commerce UI design, often aimed at quite a diverse target audience, too much of a revolution might scare and provoke hesitations: do I really need to buy this thing, a user may think, if it’s so hard to get it? Study the interaction patterns and typical products for that particular target audience to make their habits their power. And don’t forget to check that all the icons on the screen don’t have a double meaning; support them with text labels where needed. Strive for the balance between innovation and traditions.

Narrowing the focus, we may also talk about the power of habit for a particular e-commerce website. You could have read numerous reviews of the “poor UX design” of this or that e-commerce giant, breathing fire and brimstone into old-fashioned solutions or complex navigation. However, thinking deeper, it’s easy to understand that they activate the power of habit as a major approach of respect to their buyers, as plenty of their customers have been with them for many years. It’s not because they don’t know how to change; it’s because, at some stages of business development, the cost of change may be too high. It doesn’t mean that the changes are never made; they are just not as revolutionary and made in small steps.

Product page above-the-fold view on Etsy marketplace

Scannability and Skimmability

It’s already well-known that when coming to a website or app, users don’t usually read and observe all the content on the page or screen. Instead, they start with quick scanning to understand if it contains something they need or want. Knowing the eye-tracking models, Gestalt principles, and laws of visual hierarchy, designers and information architects can put the core data and interactive elements into the zones of high and natural visibility. Other factors making product pages scannable are readable typography and enough white space.

There are numerous things that have an impact on decision-making, and harmony is one of them. Eye-tensing color combinations, unreadable or not combining fonts, aggressive background, intrusive pop-ups or animations, annoying sounds, or pages loading for ages – any point of that stuff can spoil the experience quickly, distract users, and move them away, sometimes even without a clear explanation what they didn’t like. Details matter; think over them and organize them well.

First-screen view of the product page on George: due to the light, airy layout, the page looks clean and simple, but at the same time, it’s highly informative even at the stage of fast scanning.  

Dark, elegant, and catchy product page for the neon signs shop, balanced and scannable

Fewer Clicks

If going from page to page or jumping from screen to screen is not a part of the journey into the sales funnel, save every user’s click possible. Too many operations are tiring and annoying, which is a kind of negative emotion. And emotions have a huge impact on user experience and make retaining users much harder. Minimize the number of clicks on the way of choosing and buying whenever it’s possible – this way, you respect the user’s time better than the politest words of thanks. For example, avoid dropdowns for a small number of choices in basic options such as color or model choice.

Product page first-screen view on Sportsdirect website: no information is hidden in dropdown menus, so it’s super easy to scan the availability of models and sizes, the CTA is seen immediately, the number of items is changed easily by typing or manipulating plus/minus controls, arrows show how to see more images, and breadcrumbs help to jump back to choosing other items easily.

Exotic Fruit e-commerce app uses a tab for adding the needed number of products with a simple tap.

The OldNavy product page integrates the section of offered combinations with other items from the website, and it is not just an image to get buyers inspired: on hover, the shopper gets the list of links to items with basic information, which enables them to easily get engaged in further shopping and makes the relevant product accessible quickly.

Social Proof

Social proof is a big factor of impact on the decision-making process in both the physical and digital worlds. It is a psychological and social phenomenon of people copying the actions of others to undertake behavior in a certain situation. This term was introduced by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book Influence; the concept is also called informational social influence.

In e-commerce, the experience of the previous buyers influences the behavior of the next ones greatly; that’s why ratings, comments, and reviews are needed, especially on mass-market platforms. They help customers feel united with a group of similar buyers, which is easy to feel in the actual store among other shoppers but even more needed in the online shopping experience when you are shopping alone in front of a computer or mobile screen. What’s more, reviews can answer the questions the customer has and, this way, support the positive decision about buying – or prevent from buying the wrong item and having a negative experience.

Here’s the product page on OldNavy: the first screen view, among all other details, includes the social proof showing the rating of the item with the number of people that marked it. Scrolling down, buyers are getting even more engaged: except for relevant products to combine this item with for the perfect outfit, the page uncovers the relevant items other customers looked at and liked, and further customers’ photos and details on reviews.

Interactivity

With more and more buyers online, brands and retailers can analyze more data about their behavior, needs, and wishes and integrate new approaches on that basis. Interactivity that imitates seeing the item from different angles and manipulating it, trying on the clothing or footwear, testing the make-up options on your face, virtually placing the piece of furniture or decor into your room – all that and diversity of other innovations are becoming more and more accessible and affordable due to the creativity, customer experience care, and new technologies. And sure, they help customers to make a decision.

Another vital aspect of interactivity in e-commerce now is personalization and customization, when people can customize their purchase instead of just choosing it from the catalog. Choosing a custom combination of flowers for a bouquet, customizing the burger or pizza with favorite ingredients, collecting a personal outfit or family look instead of just buying ready-made ones – able to add their own personality to the offer, many shoppers feel ready to buy.

Tasty Burger app allowing for creating custom burgers to buy

Mobile Adaptation

Needless to say, there are many daily things people do with their smartphones nowadays, and shopping is becoming one of the top options. Besides, mobile adaptation is among the core web vitals of search engine optimization. If you want an e-commerce website to be googled successfully and let the visitors have a seamless shopping experience from any device, make the product page mobile-friendly and reconsider the layout to make the interface convenient and navigable for mobile devices. Some e-commerce platforms go even further and also invest in creating their native applications for iOS and Android, but for many small businesses, it may appear not affordable or even not reasonable. Anyway, the product page, as well as the rest of the website pages, should be responsive and mobile-friendly, no matter if the native app exists or not.

Minimalistic product page for a fashion brand e-commerce focused on photos, easy choice of color, and responsive to be used on any device

404 Error

With product pages intensively used and often updated, there are different cases of running into an error. People can accidentally mistype a letter in the URL, or the page they saved before may not already exist as the product is already out of stock. Make sure not to let customers come across an empty error page and go away. Connect them to other pages, offer relevant options or categories, and do everything to take advantage of the error page involving a customer to check something else.

404 error page for a fashion e-commerce website

Bottom Line

Sure, the decision on the design practices to choose for a particular e-commerce project is a matter of thorough thinking, and the solutions on what to use and what to leave will be based on many subjective factors, from the type of product and market segment to the company budget, employers’ skills, individual tastes and specific needs of the target audience. The approach to mass-market e-commerce differs from the approach to a narrow niche. The approach to various generations of customers will be different.

Yet, all the practices mentioned above won’t work properly if the major condition of the commercial world is not followed, which is: the product should be good above everything else. All the other steps, investments, and practices make sense if the website sells quality goods and makes a website or app its channel of sales, not the place of lies and tricks.  Anyway, if the products you offer are good and the customer is already on the website, let the product page show the item in its best light and help the shopper to feel it like home, convenient, clear, and friendly.

Useful Articles

Here’s a bunch of articles to dive deeper into the themes of e-commerce, web usability, and user experience design.

UX Design for E-Commerce: Principles and Strategies

11 Profitable Strategies for E-Commerce UI Design

The Role of Branding in UI Design

Business-Oriented Design. Know Your Target

Product Page Design Inspiration: 17 Ecommerce Web Designs

Design for Business: User-Friendly Way to Profits

Two Types of User Motivation: Design to Satisfy

5 Basic Types of Images for Web Content

Web Design: 16 Basic Types of Web Pages

Error Screens and Messages: UX Design Practices

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic and video content by tubik

Сообщение Product Page Design: Best Practices on UX for Ecommerce появились сначала на Design4Users.

Project

Bennett is a modern brand offering users high-quality tea for different tastes. It produces various worldwide popular beverages, such as black tea, herbal tea, green tea, decaffeinated tea, iced tea, and seasonal tea. The brand is positioned at the crossroads of hot trends and classic traditions and transfers the idea of elite, exclusive products which are about lifestyle and mood rather than just a drink.

Identity Design

The logo design for Bennett is based on the symbol, which presents a combination of shapes sharing the visual metaphors of a teal leaf, an eye, and a teacup seen from above. The sign is harmonically combined with a typographic part that features the brand name presented in an elegant and minimalist manner.

The brand identity that had to stretch to the e-commerce website design is rooted in the creative spark that is sometimes hidden in the simplest things. It started when our designer and art director, Ernest Asanov, got inspired by a photo of neatly collected tea leaves and started developing the idea. In identity design, it got transformed into a graphic pattern, and later the set of patterns applied to packaging and branded items. In the website design, the idea to feature realistic images of tea leaves turned into a video used on the product page.

Here’s how the graphic patterns became the basis for packaging design and stylish paper cups.

From the packaging perspective, one more important design task was creating an informative label that corresponds with the general stylistic concept and keeps consistency across a variety of packaging options. The label design carefully arranges a lot of text content about the particular tea blend to make it readable and straightforward; it looks original and trendy due to typeface choice and enhances perception with neat and clear line icons. The front label contains only key information and focuses buyers’ attention on it without distracting or overloading them with too many details, while the back label presents much more detail.

As a part of identity design and brand communication, special branded envelopes and business cards were also developed to echo the style.

Web Design

The website design approach starts from the home page, which uses typography as its primary and only tool for informing and impressing visitors. No photos, no illustrations, only the elegantly wrapped text content setting the mood and call-to-action button seen at once and inviting the visitor to check the range of the offered products. Product pages instantly connect to the tea theme and set the emotional and aesthetic appeal due to the video of tea leaves scattered from the top of the screen.

Here’s a closer look at the interaction with product pages in the tea store. The layout is built on bright and bold color combinations for the backgrounds, effectively highlighting various products in different packaging colors. Split screen, sophisticated geometry, smooth animation, and original typography – that’s what the designer chose for this case of web layout. The text information is organized in boxes, forming a sort of asymmetric grid.

To keep up with the external consistency and recognizable mental patterns of commerce website users, the website uses a stylish and minimalist sticky header, with the brand element in the center, links to core navigation in the left part, and a shopping bag button in the right corner. The latter uses the visual marker accented by color to let visitors quickly see if they already have something in their shopping bag.

The live Bennett Tea website was fully implemented on Webflow: for our team, it was a great chance to try how it works for non-standard design aimed at e-commerce objectives.

To make the website look good and work effectively on various devices, the designers worked out the mobile version of the website.

The website got positive feedback from the global design community, having received three awards on Awwwards: Site of the Day, Mobile Excellence, and Developer Award, proving once again that Webflow allows for the effective implementation of projects of different complexity and non-standard design solutions.

Stay tuned; new case studies are coming soon!

More Design Case Studies

Here’s a set of more case studies sharing the design solutions and approaches for some of the design projects done by the Tubik team.

Glup. Delivery App Branding and UX Design

THT. Website Design for Electrical Engineering Service

Komuso. Website Design for Wellness Tool

PointZero25. Identity and Website Design for Event Agency

Nonconventional Show. Website Design for Podcast

uMake. Branding and Website for 3D Design Tool

BEGG. Brand Packaging and Web Design for Food Product Ecommerce

Crezco. Brand Identity and UI/UX Design for Fintech Service

FarmSense. Identity and Web Design for Agricultural Technology

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

OOP. Brand Identity Design for Online Flea Market

Otozen. Mobile App Design for Safe Driving

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic and video content by tubik

Сообщение Branding Case Study: Bennett. Identity and Website Design for Tea Brand появились сначала на Design4Users.

Calorie Calculator app

What Is Mobile App Branding?

As usual, let’s start with terminology. In one of our previous articles, we have already defined branding as a set of marketing and psychological techniques and steps to promote a product, service, persona, etc. setting a brand.

In its turn, a brand is an image created with a set of distinguishing features and promoting awareness and recognizability of the product or service on the market, it’s what people think and know about it.

So, mobile app branding is how users will perceive the app interacting with it: its visual image, its communication, and its reputation.

Slumber app

Questions to Consider

Building the brand for your app, first of all, you answer the questions traditional for building up any brand:

• Who is going to use your app and why are they going to use it?
• What is the USP of your app? What makes it unique compared to others?
• What is the look of your app? What is the main message it transfers with its visual symbols like logo, colors, illustrations, mascots, etc.?
• What feelings and emotions does your app wake in its users?
• What is the tone and voice of your app? Is it formal or informal? Does it communicate with a user as a friend, expert, mentor, or someone else?
• How will users get information about your app? What are the channels of communication between the app and the user?

The answers to these questions will allow for forming the general approach that influences all the sides of work on the app design, development, and promotion. Branding will have an impact on user experience logic and transition, colors and typography, graphics and animation, copy, and style. It will define which channels and methods of promotion will set the shortcuts from the app to a user. Therefore, to make mobile branding effective, you have to answer these questions before design and development start. In this case, all the effort will be put in one complex direction and the brand image will be integral and consistent.

For example, here’s the Cuteen app: here the mobile app brand is targeted at teenage girls which determined the solutions on naming, original graphics, and interaction patterns.

Mobile App Branding Strategies

After you’ve defined who is the target audience of the app, what problems it solves, and what message it sends to the world, it’s time to build a brand image step by step. Let’s check some strategies and features essential in this process. For sure, all of them should be based on user research and market exploration to find the original solutions.

Logo and App Icon

One of the core elements of branding is a logo which is a visual symbol representing the brand. There are different types of logos:

• Symbol: an image of a high symbolic potential associated with an app brand name, functionality, or area of usage
• Logotype (Wordmark): artistic lettering featuring the full name of the brand
• Lettermark: the first letter of the brand name presented in an artistic manner
• Combination mark: two techniques used simultaneously – symbol/lettermark and wordmark
• Emblem: it inscribes the wordmark or lettermark presenting the name of the brand into the symbolic image.

Logo animation and app icon for Uplyfe mobile application

Talking about mobile apps, the important thing to think about is the correlation of the logo with an app icon. An app icon is an interactive brand sign that presents the application on different platforms supporting the original identity. In most cases, it features the logo of the app designed according to the requirements for this kind of icon. As an app icon is placed on a very limited amount of space, big wordmark or complex emblem logos can’t be used effectively. So, app icons tend to feature symbols or lettermarks.

However, it also can apply something else, for example, a mascot or an abstract combination of corporate colors. Another approach may be used for the apps presenting well-known brands with already recognizable logos: in this case, designers will have to adapt the well-known logo image to the form of an app icon while inside the app they will use its full form, for example, on a splash screen. Here’s a splash screen for Toonie, featuring app mascot and a logo wordmark.

Keywords

One more good way to make the branding consistent is by making a set of keywords for it. They can be divided into several groups according to their role.

Descriptor keywords will identify and describe your brand, so all the participants of the creative process will understand what image the app has to get and what message it has to send. These keywords define the core features users should catch immediately from the looks and interactions. For example, in this set you may define the app as “funny, entertaining, bright”, or “helpful, simple, minimalist”, or “business, luxury, exclusive” and so on, and so forth.

Brand keywords present the set of words people will use to find your app. It’s not only the original name but also different variants of its extension as well as typos. For example, in the case of our Upper application, the list will include Upper, Upper App, Upper to-do app, Upper mobile app, Uper, UPPER, and so on. This list will be helpful for SEO issues and promotional campaigns if you plan any.

Brand-Plus keywords are the combinations of a brand name with qualifying words or phrases. For example, for our Toonie Alarm app, we have Toonie stickers, Toonie mascot, Toonie tutorial, Toonie special offer, Toonie for iOS, Toonie stickers for iMessenger, Toonie landing page, and the like. They form another collection helpful for both SEO and content creation.

Copy: Name, Slogan, Style

For sure, these points would better be agreed upon before the actual creative process of design and development. The thing is that naming in terms of strong competition is another big challenge and it has a huge impact on all the following solutions about design, marketing, and communication with users. Except for deciding on the name which you find reflecting the benefits of the brand and memorable, you will need to ensure about:

• availability of this name in AppStore and PlayMarket (if it’s not available, you’ll have to find the variants which may belong to your brand and brand-plus keywords or start from zero and find another name)
• a domain name for a website or landing page you will have for the app (in case, the app is an independent product rather than the supporter for an existing brand)
• presence of the app name on the Internet (there may be other non-app brands already using this name and hard to compete with).

Moreover, the name of the app will influence the general stylistic concept, choice of colors, ideas for a logo and mascots, design of app icons, and many other things. So, if you make a decision at the start, you will save many hours of redesign later. Still, this path is just a recommendation, not a cure-all: there are many good examples when apps are renamed right in the process of creation or even after the launch successfully, but in this case, you should be ready for additional working hours and some effort on remaking other assets.

One more point in this section is the slogan, a catchy brand tagline sending the message about core app benefits to the user. In branding for a mobile app, it may seem not crucial as sometimes there is no place within the app for much copy. However, try thinking beyond the app itself: you’ll definitely need a slogan for outer channels to promote the app. It may be used in social networks, promo videos, reviews, landing pages, emails, etc.

And another thing to think about is UX-writing and copywriting style for the app. Copy sets the tone and voice of communication and sets the type of relations with a user. So, it’s vital to reach an understanding of how the app will talk to the users and keep this style across all the channels within and out of the app. Some minor changes are acceptable for various channels but the general communication should feel consistent from one point to the other.

Graphics

Developing a strong app brand, it’s vital to give it the pinch of originality even if it sells something very basic and widely-spread. Custom graphics play the premier violin here. They will make the app unique attracting users’ attention. Don’t forget that aesthetic satisfaction is one of the strongest factors of desirability.

In this aspect, consider using the following graphic content:

• logo (described above)
• mascots (symbolic memorable characters communicating to a user on behalf of the app)
• custom illustrations (visual prompts on functions and processes, theme illustrations)
• branded interactive elements (loaders, splash screens, tutorials, etc.)
• photos (not only inside the app but also high-quality photos of the app for its promotion)

Loading animation with custom graphics for Event Planner app

Product Video

Video content is more and more popular today, in the era of YouTube and Snapchat. The branding for the mobile app is not an exception. A product or explainer video is a short animated presentation of app features and advantages, informs about special steps of interactions and shows its problem-solving potential. A creative and catchy video is a good way of attracting customers’ attention and the proven method of informing them quickly and brightly. A video activates several channels of perception — audio, visual, sound — simultaneously and usually does it in a way of telling a story. For example, here’s an explainer video we made for OffCents mobile app.

Personalization and Onboarding

User onboarding is the set of techniques and interactions whose objective is to comfort users and give the first concise introduction to the product. There may be textual prompts, tooltips, tutorials  – and all of them can carry the slight signs of branding in both copy and graphics. All these details shape the positive user experience and support brand loyalty with happy users.

Personalization is a users’ ability to customize some features and interactions according to the individual users’ needs. Among the examples, recently we shared a case study on Recipe App which enables users to set personal goals and exclude the unwanted types of food or ingredients to customize their list of recipes.

Another example is Upper App which enables users to choose among various skins to make the app looks correspond to their preferences.

Gamification

Gamification applies game mechanics into the non-game environment, in particular, mobile applications. Challenges, badges, leaderboards, bonuses are effective methods of user motivation. Applying graphics in brand stylistics, they support brand awareness and make the app interface easily recognized. Even more, such virtual or even real rewards encourage users to share their success with friends both online and offline – this way, they become another channel distributing information about the app and witnessing positive user experience.

Help and Support

No man can make a good coat with the bad cloth. Real branding is not only about attracting attention and making an incredible first impression. It’s about all the experience users will have. So, take care of how they will the support they need at any step of interaction, especially in the case of complex mobile products like social networks or e-commerce.

Landing Pages

Landing page is a tool of great importance for building the mobile app branding and online presence. It plays a crucial role if the case is mobile-only and the app doesn’t correlate with a website. In general, it is a web page designed with a focus on specific relatively narrow goal and a quick way of accomplishing a particular action. So, for a mobile app, the goal will be app installation and the landing page will concisely cover its benefits and functions. What’s more, you can create multiple landing pages for one app based on various segments of the target audience with geographic, gender, psychographic, demographic and behavioral targeting. It is an effective way to reach users and give them a quick presentation of the app which will tell them more than just screenshots on the AppStore. Here’s the example of a landing page designed for a dating mobile service.

Landing page for a dating app

Mobile banking app landing page

Landing page for Vertt, car sharing service app

Social Networks

One more channel supporting branding strategy for a mobile app is social networks. Promotional campaigns, reviews and public pages for the apps should not be seen only as a direct sales channel from which users will directly install the app. Social networks are first of all the big channels of brand awareness and brand recognizability so don’t neglect their influence.

Brand Ambassadors and Opinion Leaders

This strategy for mobile app branding is also based on socializing. There’s still no better advertising than the recommendation from people whom you trust. Social networks with their huge and diverse audience form the growing trend of marketing with opinion leaders (individuals or businesses that are able to influence public opinion in their area) and brand ambassadors (an influential person hired to present the brand and build its positive image and strong awareness). Choosing this direction, remember two things:

• opinion leaders mostly care about their audience and reputation so they won’t promote what they don’t like or don’t find good for their audience, even rejecting profitable offers
• opinion leaders and brand ambassadors will waste your money if the product is half-baked. You may get the big traffic from the campaign and attract many users but if they get something with numerous bugs or lorem ipsum here and there instead of real copy, it will have a bad influence on the brand image in general. Positive experience first. Presentation and promotion after it.

Tasty Burger app

So, it’s easy to see that making mobile app branding deals both with app UI/UX and outer channels of reaching users. Neglecting one of the directions you risk failing another. Greatly designed and developed app will die unknown if target users don’t get the information about it. Amazing and well-performed marketing campaigns will waste your money if the app is trash. Only together they will build up a strong app with a loyal audience.

Useful Reading

6 Creative Stages of Branding Design

Mobile App Design: Big Guide into Types of Mobile Applications

UX Design for E-Commerce: Principles and Strategies

Relations of Branding and UI Design

Business-Oriented Design. Explore the Target

Design for Business: User Friendly Way to Profits

Two Types of User Motivation: Design to Satisfy

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение How To Build a Strong Mobile App Brand появились сначала на Design4Users.

Since you can’t just close your current business, reopen, and expect to return to your previous company’s size immediately, you must strategically choose how and when to rebrand. We’re going to tell you how you can successfully execute your company’s rebranding as a whole and specifically on social media. Keep reading to learn more!

Update Your Logo

When you choose to completely rebrand your company on social media and as a whole, you should consider updating your logo. You don’t necessarily need to get rid of the old one – and sometimes it’s better if you keep parts of it. Instead, you might choose to update your old logo into something more modern by following current graphic design trends. Paying attention to these trends can help bring your logo and, therefore, your brand from the 90s (or earlier) up to speed with the current year.

You’ll want to consider the color palette used in your logo, as well as the use of text, lines, and shapes. For the best possible logo design, you’ll want something easy to remember and associate with your brand, fits your company as a whole, and is relatively timeless – you don’t want to have to change/update logos every other year!

Bakery logo design

The case study of logo redesign for a landscape company

Opt for Professionals

One of the easy ways to begin the rebranding process is to hire a social media marketing agency. This type of agency differs from other marketing agencies because it focuses specifically on your brand’s social media presence and positioning your company as an industry leader on the world’s fastest-growing group of social networks.

There are currently more than 3.8 billion social media users in the world, this means that the (proper) use of social media for your rebranding strategy is a must. Social media is where people turn to find and give recommendations, learn about new products, and share their experiences with a brand.

As you begin the process of rebranding, a social media marketing agency can step in and ensure that your social presence is as visible as possible. They can also help people understand why you are choosing to rebrand, reach new potential customers, and help you learn the right way to engage with your followers.

Consider Improving Marketing with Video Content

If your brand has never incorporated the use of videos into their marketing strategy, now is the time to do so. Opting to include video marketing in your rebranding strategy will help your company appeal to a wide range of customers while offering a variety of content. Using video content allows potential customers to see your product or service being used, hear a customer or expert testimonials, and visualize how they might benefit from choosing your brand.

When you decide to use video content in your marketing strategy, you will want to find the best video hosting site available to upload, store, play, and share videos on the internet. Ideally, the video host you choose will give users a great watching experience while giving your company the ability to customize the video player.

A great video marketing strategy is particularly effective when rebranding your company because it can help people visualize the changes you are working to make, how you’re becoming better, and even why you’re making a choice to improve. It also will give your company exciting new content to share and promote your rebranding efforts.

The example of explainer video for OffCents

Example of a showcase video by Tubik that can be used to promote and show services via social networks

Improve Your User Experience & Customer Service

While your company can focus on its social media presence, marketing strategy, and logo design, all of these will mean nothing if your website’s user experience and product’s customer service are lacking or completely non-existent. Your website must be intuitive and quick to load all pages. The visual aspects are important, but how it functions matters even more. If a customer gets lost on your website or can’t figure out how to purchase your product, your rebranding efforts are almost null.

Furthermore, having a user-friendly website only counts for so much if your company has poor customer service. Poor customer service will wreck a company’s rebranding strategy and its new reputation faster than almost any other potential problem. Having terrible customer service be the cause of bad reviews and negative word-of-mouth; it will turn potential customers against you before they give you a second look.

So how can you fix a customer service issue? Make sure that your company’s contact information is visible and easy to find; consider offering a live-chat option or at least quickly respond to any emails/messages within 24 hours. Engage with your followers on social media by liking and replying to their comments – it shows your team cares!

Additionally, try to ensure that your customer service representatives are empowered to help customers and solve problems without their supervisor’s approval – this will help quickly resolve issues without the annoyance of long holds/lengthy response times. This small step can go a long way toward improving and keeping a great reputation when it comes to your brand’s new image.

The rebranding of your company will only be successful if you can retain old customers and attract new ones. It is difficult, if not impossible, to do this without excellent customer service, and whether these aspects are positive or negative, will spread like wildfire on social media!

What Will Your Company Look Like After Rebranding?

If you are curious as to what your company and sales will be like after you’ve entirely rebranded your company on social media, the answer is actually up to you! If you put forth the time and effort to rebrand the business and stick with positive changes completely, you’ll likely see an increase in sales and customer retention. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true if you choose to allow your company to revert to the way it was before the rebranding process.

The key to successfully rebranding your company on social media will be to demonstrate all changes and allow people to see it for themselves. When this happens, your conversions will improve, and people will naturally want to be part of your success!

About Author: this is the guest post by Hazel Pan, a copywriter whose expertise includes Funnel Copywriting & Inbound Marketing.

Welcome to read more about the importance of design for digital marketing, review the creative stages of branding design, and learn how to use mascots in marketing and user experience design.

Сообщение How to Execute Successful Rebranding of Your Business on Social Media появились сначала на Design4Users.

But even though web design is a crucial component of a company’s promotional efforts, many business owners tend to forget that it is just a part of a broader digital marketing plan.

It should be consistent in purpose, look, and feel with your other marketing efforts like SEO and email marketing.

By carefully considering all the aspects of your overall marketing plan, you’ll be able to create an efficient design that serves as the heart of your marketing efforts and will help achieve your goals.

Illustration by Linn Fritz

Key Components of Effective Website Design

Here are four different marketing components that well-executed web design can help with the following aspects.

Consistent Branding

We, people, are visual beings, and, like it or not, first impressions are everything. Since our attention span is almost equal to that of a goldfish, you only have about 5-8 seconds to grab visitors’ attention and make them want to stick around.

Firstly, make sure that your website’s look and feel are consistent with all your other marketing materials, including product sheets, whitepapers, etc.

Secondly, ask yourself: “Is my branding communicating the right message about my business?”

Here are a few elements you need to pay attention to.

Logo

It’s safe to say that a logo is the face of a company. Just think of giants like Apple, McDonald’s, and Nike – you’re able to instantly identify them by just looking at their logos, even if their name isn’t a part of that logo.

Very often, your logo is the first thing that potential customers notice about your business. It’s not just an image; it’s a point of recognition for clients and an important foundation for the branding of your business.

As I mentioned earlier, customers form an opinion about a company in a matter of seconds. A well-designed logo is a great way to tell customers that your business is trustworthy, professional, and provides high-quality services. Luckily, creating an awesome logo is easier than ever. You don’t have to hire a fancy logo designer and break the bank; all you need to do is use a free custom logo maker.

Colors

Colors are very important in marketing and branding because it’s where first impressions of customers are based. In addition, colors are the secret ingredient in producing a solid visual identity for a company. In other words, choosing a certain color scheme can either make or break your business.

Colors are much more than just a visual aid because they convey experiences, emotions, and feelings. Psychologists have found that there’s a meaning behind each color.

For instance, blue is seen as a very positive color that invokes security and trust. It’s also associated with serenity and creation. So, no surprise, it’s the color of choice for many of the top 100 companies, including Facebook, Intel, Samsung, Twitter, etc.

Product page for the website on zero-waste lifestyle

Images

Images act as storytellers. By using high-quality, carefully-composed images, you can evoke an emotion, a vision, or a dream. Your website visitors will ‘read’ the images and make a decision whether or not they want to keep exploring in a split second. When used cleverly, images can help drive more traffic to your site, encourage brand interaction and social shares, and ultimately help you to achieve your business goals.

Dessert recipes blog

Fonts

How many times have you visited a brand’s website and immediately knew you wouldn’t like the company simply based on the fact that the design didn’t sit well with you? Well, chances are fonts have played an important role in your distaste.

Maybe there were too many of them, distracting your attention from the overall message. Or the company used generic fonts that you have already seen hundreds of times. Or they simply used a font that doesn’t match the type of company.

Fonts help you understand the message before even comprehending the words. Along with colors, fonts are the first impression for potential customers, so finding fonts that portray your company’s brand the right way is crucial.

Website design for GNO Blankets brand

Outstanding UX

The concept of “brand” is far more than what your website looks like. A brand is a sum of all customer’s interaction with your company. When it comes to brand image, user experience has a lasting impact. The overall experience your customers have on your site determines whether they’ll remain your customers or complete the purchase.

It is estimated that this year, overall customer experience will be the most important factor impacting which companies consumers choose to do business with, even more important than price and product!

If you create a better UX for your customers, they will have a better relationship with your brand. Here are several things you need to focus on in order to improve the UX for your website visitors:

Add intuitive navigation to your website. When visitors land on your page, they’ll look for markers to orient themselves. Make sure the navigation bar is located near the top of the page and easy to spot. It should also appear in the same location on all website pages.

Ensure your website is error-free. Even though a 100% error-free website is probably impossible to achieve, you should at least strive toward that goal.

Focus on social media integration. There are diverse ways to engage with customers on social media: answer complaints and questions, share content, or respond to mentions in order to provide an overall better UX.

Highlight your mobile-friendliness. Today, 2 out of every 3 minutes spent online are done via mobile devices. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, your brand image will most likely suffer.

Mobile-friendly website of a book festival by Tubik

Email Marketing

We’ve all come across emails that have swept us off our feet (in a good way) and those that we wish we would stop receiving because their design is simply…well, in most cases, there’s no design!

The content conveys the necessary information, but the design is what actually allows readers to navigate the content as the writer intended. In addition to this, great email design captures the reader’s attention and entices them to keep reading once they open the email.

For instance, InVision understands the importance of great visuals, so their weekly newsletter is a perfect mix of images and text. This makes it mobile-friendly but also very easy to read. They also make great use of animated GIFs in their emails, as well as a clever copy on their CTA buttons.

However, sending hundreds or even thousands of emails to potential customers every couple of days is a daunting task. That’s why you need a good automation tool. Outreach tools like GMass will handle numerous aspects of your email marketing campaign like sending personalized emails in bulk, mail merge to email addresses saved in Excel spreadsheets, sending follow-ups, campaign tracking, etc.

SEO & Content Planning

Designing a great looking website is not a guarantee that your website will get a high amount of traffic or that your customer base will grow. If you want to boost the organic traffic, you’ll need to rely on SEO. You can incorporate SEO tactics into more than just your copy. Here are simple tricks that can help you make your web design SEO-friendly too.

Use flash elements sparingly

If you use flash elements, it’ll be more difficult for search engine bots to rank your site. That’s because flash is often devalued or even ignored by search engines, so it won’t add anything to your SEO efforts.

Optimize images too

When choosing images for your site, ensure that they’re not too big. Images that are too large will make your website load slowly, and negatively impact SERP rankings. In addition, make sure to use a keyword in the alt text section of the image to further help with your website’s SEO.

Place your keywords everywhere

Most people concentrate on placing keywords throughout the copy and articles, but they can also be incorporated into the website’s design. Besides in images, keywords can be used in the website slogans, navigation, title tag, H1, H2, and H3 tags, URLs, meta keywords, meta descriptions, bullet points, breadcrumb trails, title attribute on links, internal links, footer links, folder names, and file names.

Integrate social media into your design

This will not only rank your site higher in SERPs, but it will also show potential customers that your company is personable.

Word Out

Effective web design brings together different components of your digital marketing plan and aids the improvement of UX in order to entice users to come back over and over again.

Author: this is the guest post by Hazel Pan, a copywriter whose expertise includes Funnel Copywriting & Inbound Marketing.

Сообщение The Impact of Design on Digital Marketing Success появились сначала на Design4Users.

Today’s D4U Inspiration post shares the pack of creative designs devoted right to that theme: check the variety of elegant and catchy webpages for exhibition, sports events, workshops, festivals, conferences, concerts, and so on. Welcome to see how UX designers let the website or landing page become an original letter of invitation. Enjoy and get inspired!

The landing page designed by Tubik for the conference where illustrators and digital artists share their experience.

W Festival website design by Sochnik 

Minimalistic landing page concept for a culture event by Cuberto

Website design for the book festival by Tubik

Website design for The Best of Pop Culture event by Sochnik

Landing page for the Bauhaus event by Tubik

Landing page design for Microsoft Events by Unfold

Landing page for circus events by Cuberto

The landing page with custom catchy hero art by Tubik for the modern art exhibition

The landing page design concept for the classical music festival by Mike Creative Mints

The landing page concept for a football match by Tubik

Typography-based creative explorations for the festival website interactions by Sochnik

Landing page for the fashion event by Tubik

Landing page concept for the music event by Beatris Veres

Black-and-white landing page design for a music event by Bethel Design

For more design inspiration, welcome to review the set of ecommerce app designs, educational interfaces, creative logos based on negative space, and impressive packaging design examples.

Сообщение At All Events: Awesome Designs for Event Websites and Landing Pages появились сначала на Design4Users.

Every traveler knows it’s hard to find a more annoying and upsetting experience than landing in the wrong place. It wastes the precious time and effort on looking for the needed spot right when you are full of nice expectations and ready for the best. No wonder, this story isn’t different when users go to the virtual journey around the Internet, especially having particular goals and destinations in mind. So, today let’s discuss how to make their landing soft and effective.

Definition of a landing page

In general terms, the phrase “landing page” was created by analogy with a landing spot in the physical world: in the web, it initially marked any page on which the user “landed” while surfing the Net and started their journey around the website. The phrase is still used in this meaning in terms of web analytics. However, a more specific understanding of this term has become increasingly popular and widely used by not only designers but also marketing specialists. Today the term is used for a web page designed with a focus on specific relatively narrow goals and a quick way of accomplishing a particular action.

As for the goals, they can be different, still, the biggest diversity of landings is found in the e-commerce sphere. This is the field in which they play a great role both for users and stakeholders, presenting the specific commercial offers without distraction in a helpful and attractive way. Creating special pages for every case means giving users directions, which is especially useful for big e-commerce platforms with hundreds or even thousands of items. Directing all the traffic to the home page in the case of such websites can open the big gate to poor user experience, especially when users come from particular marketing campaigns in outer resources. The risk is high that they will get lost immediately in the overwhelming amount of content and links on the home page or their attention will be driven away so the purchase won’t be finalized.

Furthermore, there are also many other cases beyond e-commerce when landing pages present a good point to consider: they can present the mobile applications or educational resources, promote events and meetings, make the announcements, introduce the communities or just share information. Anyway, the design process for any landing page starts from setting the clear and concise aim which should be achieved with its help.

Conversion as a key metric

One of the core characteristics measuring the efficiency of a landing page is conversion. In basic terms, it is the outcome, the achieved goal which is set for the landing page. Conversion is the transformation of passive users into active, from reading, considering, watching and comparing to actual buying, downloading, trying, subscribing etc. Measuring conversions and improving landing pages to get this rate higher is the way to problem-solving design helping users and supporting business strategies.

As e-commerce presents the highest diversity of landing pages now, the most frequent way of conversion is the actual purchase while the most popular call to action is “Buy”. However, the presence of the Internet in human life is growing constantly and plays a significant part in daily operations on professional and personal levels. On that ground, the variety of conversions also reflects diverse goals – except buying something, users can be called to:

– download the mobile application
– read more about the presented issue
– subscribe to updates
– download a free ebook, templates, graphics or other deliverables
– start the free or discounted trial of the product
– leave the comment or share the opinion
– share the information with friends and followers in social networks
– browse the educational or informational resource
– fill in the form or survey etc.

Obviously, conversion as the finalized action the user is navigated to is not the only function of a landing page: it is also effective as a general supporter of brand awareness and recognizability, due to the original design or special features it can even be a part of a viral marketing campaign. Still, the most important outcome of all the effort invested into its creation and maintenance is ultimately measured via conversion rate, with the number of users who actually did the action they were called to.

Design strategies

No doubt, all the design projects are highly individual and require solutions based on the specific case. Nevertheless, on the basis of our diverse creative practice, we have collected the set of general ideas useful for work on efficient landing pages.

Clear goal and structure

The core difference between the home page of a website and the landing page with the specific offer is in their strategic use. The home page sets the global point of departure enabling the user to take a variety of routes around the website, while the landing page is focused on one particular aim which should be effectively presented and easily achievable. Therefore, the first step at designing converting page is setting this particular goal and building the page architecture which will navigate the users to the ways of achieving it.

Targeting

In the article about business-oriented design, we defined targeting as the strategy and techniques of researching the particular target audience to find the best and the shortest ways to attract their attention to the specific product or offer.  A landing page is an effective marketing tool when it’s based on the needs, preferences, and expectations of the target audience. Even more, these web pages allow companies to set multiple landing spots for various target users on the basis of:
– geographic targeting
– gender targeting
– psychographic targeting
– demographic targeting
– behavioral targeting.

There are many practical cases when companies changed some parts of the products, their names or even set the new brands to sell successfully in different countries with a diverse cultural background. The same can be done with landing pages:  for example, the page offering the same smartphone can look and talk differently to the users from different countries, taking into account their perception of colors, copy, priorities in product features, and trends on the local markets.

Gym Landing Page

Functional minimalism

Getting back to the metaphor with the physical landing of an aircraft, it’s hard to imagine how it could safely land on the place which is heavily stuffed. For soft landing, a clear spacious spot is a vital condition. For landing page, it works the same way: attempts to overload it with everything bring to a negative result. In most cases, minimalist design based on core functionality and visual elements easily navigating the user to the CTA proves itself a good approach.

Maximum attention ratio

The attention ratio is the level of concentration on a particular task or goal. No need to explain that for a landing page is should be as high as possible. Too many elements of interaction will provoke distraction lowering the chances of conversion: the more options users have simultaneously, the harder it is to make the choice.

Instantly visible call-to-action elements

CTA or call-to-action element presents the most valuable interaction element of a landing page as it is actually the spot where conversion happens. It should be instantly visible, which can be done via color or shape contrast, and informative, which is usually achieved with proper copy or icon, or both.

Museu landing page 

Harmonic color palette

Colors and shades chosen for a landing page are not objects of designer’s creative self-expression: they are as much influencing the conversion rate as any other design element and sometimes even more than others. It’s not just aesthetic satisfaction which users can feel seeing the presentation but also the hidden message which can be transferred via traditional associations in color perception. So, colors should present the combination pleasant for user’s eye, emotionally appealing to the target audience and establishing the effective visual hierarchy of the layout.

Corresponding typography and good readability

As well as colors, fonts also tell much not only with the copy hidden behind them but also with associations and emotions they bring out. Typographic hierarchy and well-balanced font combinations have a big impact on the readability of the page which can directly influence the conversion rate. Landing page is not the spot on which users are ready to spend much time so poor readability can drive them away before they make a decision or understand if the offer corresponds to their needs. Being an integral part of the general stylistic concept, appropriate fonts can also contribute much to effective visual performance catching users’ attention.

Strong and consistent branding

Landing pages are widely used as part of a web marketing strategy so they should support the general scheme of brand promotion. Coming from outer resources, social networks, advertisements, users need to feel and see the consistency of brand image to be ready to trust it. So, identity elements like logo, slogan, mascots, corporate fonts and colors should be taken into account.

Photography Workshops landing page

Prominent theme image

No secret, most users are visually driven and they scan the web page in a couple of seconds perceiving images much faster than copy. An appropriate theme image, be it a hero banner, original illustration, high-quality photo presenting a product or service, is a good way to attract users and get them interested as well as inform about the nature of the promoted offer. Images of this kind save users’ time, send them a quick and appealing message and add much into aesthetic side of the presentation.

Engaging and attractive scroll animation

Although there is a big army of those who find animation an unnecessary feature overloading user interface and making it more complicated, most users expect motion as an integral part of interaction experience. Scroll animation applied wisely can add life and style to the landing page and become another attractive feature stimulating positive emotions. Also, motion creates the feeling of one integral smooth interaction with a whole page rather than several separate parts.

Dance Academy landing page

Visual hierarchy of copy content

Copy content is another aspect which has to be well-thought. A designer’s task here is to think about edible copy presentation framed into a clear visual hierarchy: sizes and placement of copy blocks, instantly scanned headlines and short concise call-to-action elements directly influence the level of conversions. The length of copy on landing pages is a debatable issue: focused goals behind the landing page doesn’t always mean that each time it should contain a minimal number of words. If it presents a famous company product or service or informs about special offers, short and strong copy can be enough to encourage users. However, if a new unknown product or service is presented, it is often useful to provide users with more information persuading them to follow the call to action. Anyway, the presentation of the copy has to be designed for good readability and scannability of the page.

No information overloading

Based on the previous points, creative team working on a landing page – designers, copywriters, marketing specialists, etc. – should agree upon the priorities and define the core benefits users must see. Trying to overload the page with all the possible data about the offer, you risk overwhelming them so much that they can start hesitating or even get annoyed. Core information fields included on the landing page usually cover:
– the general introduction of the presented offer
– concise and informative description of the benefits solving user’s problems
– testimonials and signs of trust
– clear call to action.

If the offer is quite complex and it’s hard to describe all its benefits shortly, the good solution can be found by dividing the page into several theme blocks with separate interactive elements ( buttons, fields, links, etc) enabling users to get further information or help quickly but on the other page.

magic.co landing page

Promotional video

In one of our recent posts, we have given insights on the benefits of short promotional videos for the presentation of products and services. The big advantage of this technique is the high speed of perception, emotional feedback, and big informative potential of the video in comparison with copy. On the other hand, creating the video can be more time-consuming and require the bigger budget, so the efficiency of this element should be analyzed from a business perspective to see if it’s really profitable for every particular case.

High loading speed

None of the mentioned strategies will work properly if the technical side of the interaction is neglected. Whatever stylish, sophisticated, and informative is the landing page, it won’t make users put up with waiting while it’s loading. The matter here is really in short seconds, without any exaggeration. So, optimization of the images, the thoughtful technical realization of motion effects, quickly loading video and fast transitions if they are applied – all of these and similar factors can have a crucial effect on conversion rates. Respect the users’ time otherwise they won’t be quick to trust you.

Tubik Magazine landing page

Obviously, the presented list doesn’t mean that all the mentioned strategies should be applied together on every page. Each project demands an individual approach based on rigorous analysis of the target user expectations, needs, and preferences combined with business goals. When the page is live, A/B testing and analysis of real interactions open the new perspectives and prove if the designer’s initial decisions were appropriate for the established aim.

Landing page vs Home page

Should all the traffic from outer sources be directed to a home page or landing pages? We have already shared our ideas with the set of strategies for home page design. The answer considerably depends on the nature and complexity of the website. The issue to consider is the user attention and its concentration on definite areas of the websites in terms of solving a particular problem or satisfying particular needs.

For simple one-page websites, this question is not actual: indeed, they represent only a home page that satisfies one or multiple functions and there is no other place where the traffic could be directed from the outer sources. The same happens if the website is not complex, the homepage is not overloaded with diverse links and navigation elements, so conversion can be reached right from the home page while other pages play secondary roles. In this case directing all the traffic to the most informative part of the site, which also enables a user to accomplish necessary action and get what they need, is a good idea.

However, for complex websites and platforms, especially if they satisfy multiple needs of broad target audience, this approach can be the step killing profitability and reducing conversion rates. The user can get scared, distracted or even annoyed with the tons of information they have to get through to find what they need, especially if the needs or wishes are focused on a particular narrow goal. Using landing pages in the case when you need to concentrate user’s attention on something important, to make it noticeable and easily available can be an efficient way of solving this problem. A landing page is a tool to emphasize one item, to make it quickly found and reduce delays in cases when target user seeks for specific operations, services or items. This is the issue of especially high importance in the case of e-commerce websites when unwise design solutions bring to poor user experience and financial losses. The choice of a profitable approach in every case should be based on user research and then thorough user testing.

Big City Guide landing page

Recommended materials

Diverse issues of applying landing pages have been an object of professionals’ attention. In terms of design issues, here’s the bunch of articles for those who would like to continue the topic exploration:

Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions

Landing Page Conversion Course (9 parts)

Classic landing page mistakes you’re probably still making

Landing Page. Direct Flight to High Conversion

The ultimate guide to designing landing pages that convert

What Happens When You Analyze 100 Landing Page Examples?

10 Key Landing Page Features That Draw in Prospects

7 Landing Page Call-to-Action Formulas for Higher Conversions

Want Conversions? Start with User-Friendly, Useful Landing Pages

Problem-Solving Web Design. Free Ebook.

Originally written for Tubik Blog

Сообщение Profitable Tips for Landing Page Design появились сначала на Design4Users.