Challenge and Client

To broaden its ways of reaching the audience and set an effective sales channel using mobile technology, Heineken Mexico strived to launch a mobile application that would allow users to buy beer and associated stuff like snacks, cups, and the like and get the orders delivered quickly. This is how the Glup application started.

The clients approached the tubik team with a range of design tasks: we worked on logo audit and tweaks, extended brand identity development, delivery application UI/UX design from scratch, website design, and creating custom 3D icons and 3D illustrations for marketing and user experience objectives.

Process

The creative process included two major directions: developing a flexible identity and creating a consistent functional UX design for the application.

Brand Identity Design

Firstly, it was essential to work on powerful branding that would be effectively applied to both marketing goals and mobile interactions, providing the integrity of the customer experience.

The brand already had a logo, but it had to be enhanced to get a more attractive and trendy look appealing to the target audience and become more pliable for a variety of brand advertising and marketing objectives.

Original logo color variations

Glup logo redesign

Certainly, the team took advantage of color power and its remarkable ability to set the needed mood in split seconds. The primary brand colors were yellow, setting the cheerful spirit and giving instant association to the beer theme, and deep purple, setting the effective contrast and playfulness and supporting the flexibility of the palette for the defined objectives. Also, an extended palette for different ways of product presentation was developed.

Another element of visual branding was the set of abstract geometric shapes to be consistently used across various branded items, advertising materials, delivery bags, social networking, and mobile application screens. What’s more, these shapes reflected the parts of the clock face setting a solid association with the speed of delivery as one of the key features. Take a look at the variety of branded items and advertising design.

Outdoor advertising

Social network posting templates

Billboard design

Delivery backpack design

Range of variants for delivery motorbike branding

Branded T-shirts design

Branded cap design

User Experience Design

The second direction of work was to think about the flawless and intuitive user experience for the mobile application. The interaction design was thoroughly thought-out to make the sales funnel work successfully and let the users move through the whole purchase flow smoothly.

The onboarding screens and categories use trendy and balanced 3D graphics presenting the products and setting friendly communication. Having a different visual style, these original graphics don’t distract users’ attention from the offered items.

The icons working as visual, illustrative markers for the different categories of items in the application also moved through several iterations and evolved from 2D graphics consistent with the general concept of visual branding and echoing its graphic elements to the big set of 3D icons following the style of 3D illustrations used across the app and in the onboarding process. Here’s a quick glance at the stages of the process.

Airy light screens of the application effectively show the products, while branded colors, graphics, and eye-pleasing gradients help to set attractive color accents for interactive elements, making navigation clear and intuitive. Custom icons in the interface also echo the brand palette, supporting both usability and consistency of brand performance. The customers are offered several ways to surf the range of provided items, including browsing the entire catalog, using filters to customize it, or using the internal search to find the needed item quickly. Plus, the button on each card on the catalog screens sets the shortcut to add the items directly to the basket without opening a card, which saves time and effort in cases when users have some faves and order the same items multiple times.

Here’s a quick look at the category screen. All categories are illustrated with stylish theme 3D graphics that instantly set the theme but do not overload the screen with too much detailing.

The shopping cart screen is informative and functional, based on the principles of external consistency and well-recognized mental models so that users can finalize their orders easily and effortlessly. A special progress bar with a text hint is used to visualize the ability to get free shipping for the order.

The home screen and promotions screen also feature sliders with banners for special offers or hot sales to attract more attention to them immediately.

One of the essential elements of building a solid mobile app brand and enhancing its online presence is supporting it on the web with a concise and informative landing page that uncovers the benefits and engages new users to try it. The landing page for the Glup application echoes the design approach of visual identity for the brand. It’s based on a bright background in primary brand colors separating different content sections, a solid visual hierarchy of text blocks, clear and visible call-to-action elements, and prominent visuals that present the balanced mixture of app screens and thematic 3D graphics to instantly set the connection with the essence of the offered service. Smooth web animation makes the user experience even more lively and dynamic.

So, as a result of the project, the Glup brand obtained a solid and effective sales channel via the easy-to-use mobile application, consistently reflecting brand identity and making the customer experience integral, engaging, and smooth.

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.

HP23. Website and 3D Animation for Prostheses Producer

Nova Post. Interactive Christmas Advent Calendar UI Design

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

Physica Magazine. Web Design and Graphics for Scientific Blog

CSConnect. Website Design for Immersive Experience Marketing Platform

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

Kaiten. Identity and Product Design for Food Marketplace

THT. Website Design for Electrical Engineering Service

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

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

Сообщение Case Study: Glup. Branding and UX Design for Delivery Application появились сначала на Design4Users.

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.

The design process for the project included three creative tasks:

• logo design and brand color palette
• a consistent set of original brand illustrations for diverse marketing goals online and offline
• packaging design

Identity and Packaging

The logo design for the project presents the combination mark in which the symbol echoes botanical motifs elegantly organized in a square shape, and the typographic part sets a strong visual connection with it using the same leaf shape as a part of the letter. The color palette features the domination of earthy natural colors, with different shades of warm, eye-pleasing brown for backgrounds and contrastive bright blue, green, yellow, and other shades for accents and details, distinguishing different products and goods by color marking. This approach can be seen in a variety of packaging design items.

Brand Illustrations

The consistent set of illustrations developed for the project features a variety of people and characters holding different plants or dealing with gardening routines. Digital artworks of this kind add a solid human element to brand communication and make it more emotional. They can be effectively used for a variety of marketing goals, from printed branded graphics such as posters, banners, cards, and stickers to packaging design such as various branded boxes and bags, to digital communication on a website, hero images, landing pages, and social media posts. The consistency of the visual approach helps to create an integral customer experience and strengthens brand recognizability.

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 graphic design projects done by the Tubik team.

Aqua Dudes. Cartoonish Packaging Design for Fish Food Brand

Herteas. Packaging Design for Herbal Tea Brand

Nutribite. Tasty Packaging Design for Granola Bars

Milkimu. Packaging and Marketing Design for Dairy Brand

Dance Festival. Creating a Set of Event Poster Designs

Soaplanet. Soap Brand Packaging Design with Travel Spirit

Joosi. Packaging Design and Marketing Graphics for Juice Brand

Pizzatta. Artistic Pizza Packaging Design

Page Turner. Identity and Packaging Design for Bookstore Chain

8 Bright Packaging Design Projects Employing Illustration Art

Bikker. Identity Design and Illustrations for Biking Service

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic content by tubik

Сообщение Graphic Design Case Study: Identity and Packaging for Garden Center появились сначала на Design4Users.

Process

Using illustrations to enhance user experience design is now a well-checked and effective design practice. Pictures help to transfer the needed messages faster, set the mood, and provide aesthetic satisfaction. For the big pack of Real Bitcoin website illustrations, it was essential to stick to the following principles reflected in all the artworks:

• consistency: reflecting a variety of ideas, messages, and compositions used across the different website pages, the illustrations keep a consistent style to support the integrity of the user experience
• informativeness: all the illustrations aim to transfer or enhance a particular message, help present the benefits of the service
• emotionality: the style, color palette, visual metaphors, and characters in the illustration pack empower the emotional appeal as a part of user experience

People Illustrations

Real Bitcoin is the platform connecting people to quite a virtual topic and the highly technological theme of cryptocurrencies. What’s more, their target audience is people who are not deeply into the theme of cryptocurrencies yet. So, it was vital for them to add a solid and powerful human element to the first impression and all the experience of dealing with the website and set a quick and clear connection to the world of people, not the digital reality. That’s why a large pack of illustrations with human characters was developed based on the ideas of diversity and friendliness, communication, and support. With the images on the website pages, the product communicates to the visitors via a number of human characters of different ages, races, social statuses, and interests, unveiling the benefits of cryptocurrencies for different groups of users. Here are some of them.

Custom Graphics

One more task for the illustrator was to create a set of informative and symbolic illustrations that would help to beautify informative content blocks and contribute to the visual support of the message. As people perceive, decode, and memorize images faster than words, such visual elements both increase the informativeness and scannability of the webpages as well as add to the general stylistic concept. Here, Real Bitcoin website visitors will find a variety of well-recognized visual prompts on money, banknotes, wallets, coins, and gadgets for interacting with the world of digital products, and also diverse graphs, charts, and upward arrows to symbolize financial growth, progress, and development.

This project demonstrated how much informative power, emotion, and style can well-crafted custom illustrations contribute to the website design, not only making a considerable positive impact on its attractiveness but also enhancing the usability and desirability of the presented products and services.

New design case studies from our team 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.

Magma Math. Web Design for Educational Platform

Dance Festival. Creating a Set of Event Poster Designs

Soaplanet. Soap Brand Packaging Design with Travel Spirit

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

Uplyfe. Identity Design for Health App

Devpost. Hero Illustrations for Hackathons Platform

ShipDaddy. Identity and Web Design for Shipping Service

Physica Magazine. Web Design and Graphics for Scientific Blog

Nova Post Advent Calendar. UI/UX Design and Christmas 3D Art

Nibble Health. Identity and UX Design for Healthcare Fintech Service

Ready Set Recover. Web Design and Illustrations for Surgery Recovery Platform

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

The illustrations in the post belong to their proprietors, are the object of copyright, and cannot be used by the third side for any goals.

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic content by tubik

Сообщение Illustration Case Study: Visual Storytelling for Real Bitcoin Website появились сначала на Design4Users.

Project

Landing page promoting the mobile application supporting convenient deliveries in Saudi Arabia.

Process

A well-designed landing page is a tool of great importance for building mobile app branding and amplifying its 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 to focus on a specific, relatively narrow goal and a quick way of accomplishing a particular action. So, for a mobile app like the Pass-On application, the goal is app installation, and the landing page concisely covers its benefits and functions. In addition, creating a landing page based on geographic, gender, psychographic, demographic, and behavioral targeting is an effective way to reach potential app users and give them a quick presentation of the application, which will tell much more than just screenshots on the AppStore or PlayMarket and will make the brand communication more emotional and informative.

To uncover more about the essence of the app, Pass-On is a digital platform (native Android and iOS app) that aims to provide easy, economical, and fast courier service. It is positioned as a community marketplace that connects travelers with available boot space to the sender with a parcel to be delivered. The client wanted the web design to be vibrant and classy, simple and trustworthy.

Let us give you a glance at the design solution for the landing page design for Pass-On, clean, bold, and scannable in the best traditions of design for web marketing. One more point to mention is that it had to be adapted for two languages, English and Arabic, as the application is used in Saudi Arabia.

The main design features that determine the general design concept for the Pass-On landing page are the following:

• color palette based on bold contrast of clean basic colors – white, black, and red, echoing the main colors in the application; no gradients, no multicolored combinations
• background colors separating web page sections to make content more organized and clear
• readable typography with prominent catchy taglines
• custom illustrations and motion graphics
• mobile screens demonstrating the application’s user interface and functionality
• instantly noticeable call-to-action elements
• intuitive navigation based on well-established mental models of web interactions

One of the catchy features of the landing page is the animated map used as a hero image that visually connects the visitor to the core idea of the service. Scrolling down, users see the section uncovering three primary benefits in a sort of animated interactive slider based on corresponding mockups demonstrating the particular screens of the application, enhanced with minor graphics giving visual hints to the text explanations.

Another section also lets the visitor dive deeper into the benefits in a set of short, concise headlines. When the headline is clicked or hovered, the more detailed description is open, and theme photos also change to give it visual and emotional support. Due to such an approach, the page looks airy and uncluttered, although it contains a lot of information.

The landing page uses a diverse set of consistent illustrations. They support text information with visual hints and metaphors and make text content look neat, organized, and systematized. What’s more, the graphics add their two cents to make the whole landing page concept look more emotional and integral.

To make the landing page attractive and functional on any device users come from, the mobile version was also well-thought-out and designed with attention to detail.

One more big challenge of this project was to think over the Arabic version of the landing page, as this language uses a different text direction in writing, the general perception of both copy and graphic content had to be inverted, and the text itself looks absolutely different. It means that, in fact, the page needed not just localization but a sort of new design and layout to make the text content and images work properly in totally different conditions. Take a look at the result.

New design case studies from our team 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.

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

Physica Magazine. Web Design and Graphics for Scientific Blog

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

Real Bitcoin. Creating Website Illustrations

Uplyfe. Identity Design for Health App

Devpost. Hero Illustrations for Hackathons Platform

ShipDaddy. Identity and Web Design for Shipping Service

Bennett. Identity and Website Design for Tea Brand

OtoZen. Designing Mobile Application for Safer Driving

GNO Blankets. Branding and Web Design for Ecommerce

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

Сообщение Web Design Case Study: Pass-On. Landing Page for Delivery App появились сначала на Design4Users.

What Are Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are navigation elements used mostly in web design and supporting users in a journey around the website. Due to breadcrumbs, users get aware of where they are on the website and can get used to the website structure easier, which means that breadcrumbs present a tool for better wayfinding. Yet, breadcrumbs don’t replace the primary navigation menu; they present the secondary level of navigation and increase website usability in case it has lots of pages.

Breadcrumbs on the product page on Amazon

Why such a funny name is used for this interactive element? If you think it resembles something from a fairytale rather than from design terminology, you are right. The term echoes Grimm Brothers’ tale about Hansel and Gretel: in it, the characters used breadcrumbs to mark the way home and not get lost. On the web, it works the same way: breadcrumbs visualize the path or the users’ journey from the perspective of the website hierarchy. That’s why they are also called a breadcrumb trail.

Types of Breadcrumbs

As for classification, there are three basic types of breadcrumbs:

Location-based: they show the visitors where they are according to a website hierarchy, usually applied to websites with complex navigation schemes consisting of multiple levels.

Image source

Attribute-based: they show the visitors the trail of attributes of the page they are on.

Image source

Path-based: these show the visitors the trail of steps they took to arrive on the page they are on. This type is often referred to as less effective compared to previous ones and is not recommended to apply.

Why Use Breadcrumbs

Among the benefits of breadcrumbs as a navigation element, we would mention the following.

• increased findability: the more complex is the website architecture, the more content it has, the better organized it should be to be found quickly. Breadcrumbs give users another touchpoint to the content and help to understand the structure of the website easier
• fewer clicks needed: with breadcrumbs, website visitors can jump from one level of the hierarchy to any previous step with no effort and no need to take all the way back, which means it takes fewer clicks and transitions to reach the page they want
• effective use of screen space: crafted well, breadcrumbs take a narrow horizontal line with plain-looking text elements that don’t need much space, so users get navigated but designers have no need to overload the page
• no misinterpretation: breadcrumbs present the element which is hardly ever misunderstood by users: the behavior pattern for them has solidified through years and people rarely mistake this element for anything else
• lower bounce rate: breadcrumbs are great support for first-time visitors or people that have no everyday experience of dealing with complex websites, so the more confident they feel the slimmer are the chances of them bouncing the page. What’s more, it’s an effective way of engagement for the users directed to a particular landing page: seeing it as a part of the bigger structure shown via breadcrumbs, users can get interested in jumping to other pages and seeing more.

Minimalist product page by tubik for an e-commerce website uses breadcrumbs to follow the typical mental model users expect and help them with quick navigation.

Design Practices for Breadcrumbs

Here’s a bunch of UX design tips and practices that can help to master breadcrumbs as a supportive and handy element of web navigation. Bear in mind that none of these practices is a cure-all to apply for any website: the examples below show you how different products approach this navigation element to cover their priorities.

Don’t use breadcrumbs as the primary navigation

The key rule of thumb for breadcrumbs is using them as an addition to major navigation. They shouldn’t be seen and used as a replacement for global navigation, usually found in the website header or menu. Instead, they support and amplify primary navigation.

Place breadcrumbs above the H1 heading

The most common place where users expect to find breadcrumbs and where they work effectively as a part of the general layout is above the H1 heading. It may be the name of the category, the product, the article’s title, etc. Sure, not all the pages have visually defined H1 headings; in this case, designers find the most appropriate place, typically in the top part of the layout.

For instance, on the George website, the product page features the classic approach to the breadcrumbs: they are placed right above the H1 heading, with a slight line used as a visual divider between them. However, on the category page, which doesn’t have an obvious H1 title, the breadcrumbs just keep at the same position at the layout, below the top navigation, and visual dividers help to clearly separate the trail from other navigation elements and filters.

Consider starting a breadcrumb trail with a link to the home page

Noticeable and easy-to-reach link to the home page that allows the user to jump to the website’s main page from any point of the journey is still an essential part of web navigation. Although more and more users are getting used to the pattern when the logo featured in the website header is clickable and helps to jump to the home page, there are still many those for whom this flow is not obvious. As the breadcrumbs let users quickly define the website hierarchy and their current position in it, it’s logical to start the trail from the main page of the website.

However, if there is a text link to the home page in the primary navigation, for instance, in the header, you don’t need to double it in the breadcrumbs.

As well, in the case of a polyhierarchical website, you may want to concentrate users’ attention on a particular level or category instead of sending them to the home page. For example, Uniqlo starts the trail from the name of the major category user is browsing at the moment, letting the logo in the top left corner do the job of moving visitors to the home page.

Make the current location look non-clickable (or don’t show it)

There are two different approaches to the last item of the breadcrumb trail: you may show the name of the current page or finish it with the previous step, which means that the current page’s name isn’t shown at all. Whatever your choice, make sure that all the elements cover a particular goal and help users. If you suppose that adding the current location to the breadcrumbs is necessary to support usability, make it clear that it’s not clickable and thus looks different from the interactive elements. For the mobile experience, it’s better not to show the current location at all, as the screen space is very limited.

On the contrary, for all the other elements of the breadcrumb trail, make it obvious that they look clickable and are clickable.

Example of a breadcrumb trail on the Walmart website

Clearly separate the elements

One of the most popular separating symbols for the elements of the breadcrumb trails is the symbol “greater than” (>), which typically defines hierarchy and features the movement from the parent category to the child category. Other frequently used symbols are slash (/), right-angle quotation mark (»), and arrow to the right (→). So, designers do have what to choose from, don’t they? Some also separate breadcrumbs with the color putting them into the colored tabs that imitate the line of elements, each colored in a different shade.

Mind readability and white space

As well as for any text element, the primary goal of breadcrumbs is to make the information packed in written form perceived and absorbed easily and in no time. So, take care of making them highly readable rather than decorative. And make sure there is enough space between the elements so that it is easy to read them, visually separate the pieces of text, and click.

A clear and unobtrusive breadcrumb trail on the Google Support website

Show the website hierarchy instead of the interaction history

Unlike the fairytale characters who used breadcrumbs to mark all their way, web designers would do much more effectively turning to show users the clear hierarchy of the pages instead of all the way they got through to reach this page. Such an approach will always look more logical and, furthermore, will clarify the clear and simple path back for the visitor who could get lost otherwise. What’s more, in this case, breadcrumbs don’t work at all for users who landed on a particular page and didn’t take any steps yet.

As Jacob Nielsen mentioned in his article, “a history trail can also be confusing: users often wander in circles or go to the wrong site sections. Having each point in a confusing progression at the top of the current page doesn’t offer much help.”

Don’t clutter the page with too many elements

What if the breadcrumb trail gets too long? Sure, it won’t be good to overload the page, especially at the secondary navigation level. In the case of the too long breadcrumb trail, some of them in the middle can be hidden behind the ellipsis. But never hide the first and the last element so as not to break the logic.

In his article about breadcrumbs, Alex Zlatkus recommends not to let breadcrumbs take more than half of the page and think about such a shortening with an ellipsis inside when the trails get more than 5 items.

Image source

Sure, the final decision is up to the designers of the particular project. It should be based on usability testing, as there can be different creative design solutions that allow for organizing longer breadcrumb trails effectively.

Don’t emphasize breadcrumbs visually in the webpage layout

If you feel the urge to find a super bright and catchy solution for the breadcrumbs, consider refocusing that on the other object of the web page layout. Breadcrumbs are not the primer violin in this show; that’s not the goal behind them, so keep them stylish but moderate. No need for bright accents, bigger sizes, and impressive fonts – breadcrumbs should just provide the secondary level of wayfinding, not scream into users’ faces distracting them from more important things that solve users’ problems.

For example, the OldNavy website uses super minimalist and non-distractive breadcrumbs placed in the top left corner right below the header with primary navigation, this way sticking to a common left-to-right reading and scanning pattern. That makes breadcrumbs almost unnoticed when you don’t need them but easily found when needed.

Don’t use multiple lines of breadcrumbs on mobile

The most precious asset of any mobile app screen is space. So, optimizing your website for mobile, take special care about that aspect: if the breadcrumbs trail is just copied from the website to mobile, it may take several lines, and this way snips off the big part of the limited screen space. So, by that, you get into the higher risk that some critical elements, for example, the name of the product on the product page or the introductory text, won’t be seen at once just due to the lack of space.

Don’t apply breadcrumbs to the websites with a flat or simple hierarchy

As well as with internal website search, breadcrumbs are needed and helpful in cases when the website has multiple pages and a complex hierarchy consisting of multiple layers. Breadcrumbs are common – and expected by users – in big e-commerce websites and platforms, media and news websites, blogs, and magazines covering a wide range of topics, etc. If that’s not your case and your website has a simple hierarchy, primary navigation will be enough to let the users effectively interact with it.

Example of a breadcrumb trail on the California State University website

Breadcrumbs present the perfect example of how much details matter in user experience design for the web. Being far from primary and critical functionality but approached thoughtfully and crafted well, this interaction element can contribute much to making interactions easier and user-centered. Nevertheless, think twice and test twice before deciding upon them, as there may be more effective secondary navigation options to solve a particular task for a certain project.

Useful Articles

Here’s a bunch of articles to dive deeper into the theme of web usability and user experience design.

5 Basic Types of Images for Web Content

The Anatomy of a Web Page: 14 Basic Elements

UX Design: How to Make Web Interface Scannable

How to Design Effective Search

Web Design: 16 Basic Types of Web Pages

Directional Cues in User Interfaces

Negative Space in Design: Tips and Best Practices

Error Screens and Messages: UX Design Practices

From Zero to Hero: Look at Hero Images in Web Design

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

Сообщение Web Design Usability: How To Use Breadcrumbs появились сначала на Design4Users.

Project

OtoZen is an innovative technology for safe driving, operating via a hardware device connected to a mobile application. It helps users to turn any car into a smart, distraction-free vehicle. It is the all-in-one safe driving assistant that keeps drivers focused, organized, and connected to friends and family. Users can quickly pair the OtoZen device with their Apple or Android phones via Bluetooth and install the OtoZen Pod in split seconds, with no tools, wiring, or professional installation required.

In this project, tubik specialists were involved in auditing and improving UI and UX design for the mobile application, as well as creating custom graphics and a website that would strengthen the product’s web presence.

App Design

From the perspective of user experience design, the Otozen application was a complex project that included a diversity of manipulations with different data, some of which are changing in real-time mode and should be updated and distributed appropriately. Another concern was dealing with a lot of personal data security and privacy issues. So, the design process had to start with diving deep into the slightest details of functionality and user problems solved by the application. This is what the application looked like at the start of the process.

The client came to us with a prototype that had to be reviewed, discussed, and reconsidered. In general, the technology is built around the following primary directions:

• safe, distraction-free driving: texting-while-driving prevention, reduced audio distractors, high-speed alerts, feedback on driving safety level, autodial to call help for emergency
• well-used driving time and organized reminders: location/time-based reminders, audio calendar alerts, joining meetings hands-free, simplified expense reports with mileage tracking
• convenient connection and communication with other people, for example, family and friends: requesting live location and ETA of other drivers, getting easily updated with automated notifications, full control of privacy and visibility

So, having analyzed the diverse functionality and data the app had to process, considering the objectives behind the application, our team made a deep review of the pain points and blind spots in the existing prototype. That process of design audit was grounded on constant communication with clients to find out the slightest details that could have an effect on user experience and grew into tons of graphs, charts, tables, and schemes. That’s a good example demonstrating that a huge part of the user experience design process is not about visuals but about analyzing, structuring, connecting the dots, considering details, and building systems. Here’s a look at just a small part of the process.

A part of multiple systematic tables textually organizing different information about the product, questions and issues to discuss, and suggestions that could improve user experience, to support collaboration between the clients and the creative team and let them stay on the same page.

A glance at the process of analysis and structuring user interactions with the application and issues arising in the process

The process of building a particular piece of user scenario

So, the core tasks for the UX designer were to think over data organization, visualization, and navigation which would make complex flows of information and functions feel intuitive and straightforward and wouldn’t overwhelm users. Supporting that idea, the choice was made on a light and airy interface with contrasting but not overbright colors for critical visual elements and buttons and a highly-readable sans-serif font to make the screens scannable and easy to use on the go.

One of the significant points for the user experience design of the mobile application was effective onboarding and registration flow. The account creation process is divided into several simple steps, with a progress indicator keeping the user updated about the current stage.

My Trips section opens the feed and gives an opportunity to easily tune what the user wants to see. This application is a good example of how well-crafted icons support the usability and navigability of the mobile interface and help set instant visual connections with different types of information. The map screen shows the trip details. It also uses color marking for the various points, such as speeding or telephone usage, this way visualizing quickly how often the issue happened during a particular trip.

Opening the calendar, the user can see daily time stats in minutes. The drive score section opens the information on issues that influence driving safety.

The tab bar lets users switch between five core interactive zones: Alerts, My Trips, Buddies, Profile, and Notifications. To maximize the influence and make it clear for users, it combines elegant line icons and text labels to quickly inform what users will find in each tab.

And here’s a glance at the flow of interactions with the app.

The Alerts section organizes all types of incoming alerts and helps to switch between them smoothly.

Profile screen shows different data about settings and preferences, neatly organized in groups. Here users also can add, edit, and review their emergency contacts, vehicle details, and places.

One more important and valuable feature of the Otozen application is Buddies. This function allows users to connect, make their trips trackable, and notify their chosen buddy about the needed information, such as the current point on the route or arrival. It can be super helpful for various issues, for example, when the app user needs to know where the family member is but doesn’t want to distract them from driving with calls or messages.

One of the points the technology creators describe as the most essential and show deep care on is personal data security. So, in the Buddies functionality, this aspect had to be well-thought-out, and sharing/accepting access to tracking the other users’ trip, OtoZen users needed to be sure that they can control the level to which they open data to their buddy in the app. That resulted in another neatly organized set of settings in the application that had to be clear and straightforward.

The major challenge behind the application UX design was to get together all the multiple flows of information, notifications, alerts, macro and micro settings, and decide upon the most user-friendly way to organize them.

Web Design

One of the well-checked tools for building a solid mobile application brand and effective promotion is creating a landing page or website to present the benefits and connect users to the product in an efficient, informative, and captivating way. So, the website was another task for our team to allow the OtoZen product to cover this aspect of digital marketing and set another major channel of communication with its users, letting them catch the idea and uncovering the answers for all the questions that may arise. The general layout and website style echo basic color accents and the airy, light layout of the application. The information about the technology is divided into concise sections to be scannable and skimmable. The hero section presents the immediate visual connection to the technology via the prominent image demonstrating both the device and the app and giving the main idea about the product and its value for users via an informative tagline and short description. The call-to-action button in the hero section is instantly visible due to the color contrast. It works in pair with the ghost button, allowing visitors who want more information to watch the video.

For the last few years, original illustrations applied to user interfaces have been one of the most popular and solid UX design trends. Not only do original graphics contribute to the general brand image and enhance its recognizability and memorability, but also they set a solid emotional connection between the product and its user. What’s more, they add much to the usability and visual storytelling, especially when consistent photos cannot be obtained for all the necessary demonstration needs, especially in the cases of highly technological products. The Otozen website took advantage of the custom illustrations keeping a consistent style and effectively supporting information blocks. Also, many of the pictures feature people, adding a human element to the communication. A mobile adaptation of the website makes it look attractive and work effectively from any device.

“We are very pleased with the outcome. The app UI/UX is well received by our customers. There was a consistent app UI/UX theme that was maintained throughout the development, and having the same designer working with us helped us achieve this,” the client company’s CEO wrote in his review on Clutch, and what could be the better way to finish the design story?

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.

Nibble Health. Identity and UX Design for Healthcare Fintech Service

HotelCard. Brand Identity for Hotel Offers Service

Physica Magazine. Web Design and Graphics for Scientific Blog

CSConnect. Website Design for Immersive Experience Marketing Platform

Ready Set Recover. Web Design and Illustrations for Surgery Recovery Platform

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

BlockStock. Brand Identity and Website for Minecraft Models Resource

Kaiten. Identity and Product Design for Food Marketplace

Nonconventional Show. Website Design for Podcast

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

FarmSense. Identity and Web Design for Agricultural Technology

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

Сообщение Case Study: OtoZen. Designing Mobile Application for Safer Driving появились сначала на Design4Users.

Creative Workspace

No secret workspaces have a great impact on productivity, creativity, focus, and inspiration. And that’s also the aspect of great diversity: some of us need a clean and minimalist environment while others strive for tons of inspiring bits and kits, plants, or books. Inspired by the theme, we’ve created a set of illustrations showing the diversity of creative workspaces.

Artists’ Universe

The more you dive into art, the deeper it feels like a sort of endless and impressive universe, with each artist presenting a particular star or even galaxy full of amazing discoveries. This illustration collection aims at opening this universe a bit via the powerful and inspiring artists representing different cultures, epochs, and styles, but all having lit their own immortal stars.

The bright Mexican painter Frida Kahlo

The pioneer of impressionism Claude Monet

Maria Prymachenko, a Ukrainian village folk art painter, a famous representative of naïve art

René Magritte, a Belgian surrealist artist well-known for witty and thought-provoking artworks

Gustav Klimt, an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement

Salvador Dalí, a Spanish surrealist artist worldwide famous for his technical skill as well as striking and bizarre artworks

Vincent van Gogh, a Dutch post-impressionist painter, one of the most famous, productive, and influential figures in the history of Western art

Black and White Artworks About Design Studio Life

Here in Tubik, we know the ins and outs of different sides of the design process, the power of teamwork, and the importance of concentration. As well as the work-life balance issue, so much thought out by creative people. Here’s a collection of catchy and daring monochrome artworks devoted right to that topic.

Geometric Art of Design

Artists and designers know well that all the world around is full of geometric diversity. This collection of digital artworks also touches that theme: the illustrations are spiced with the geometry magic and reflect different aspects of the design process.

Curious Cat and Creative Process

This set of illustrations is dedicated to various stages of the research and creation process. This series has a mascot character uniting all the episodes into one line of visual storytelling: meet the curious and clever сat going all the way from a question to the solution.

Question and problem statement stage

Research stage

Systematization stage

Analysis stage

Hypothesis stage

Solution stage

Mixing Styles

Collaboration on a creative project is never a simple thing, as sometimes it has to crush together different visions and approaches to get a wow result. This set of artworks is inspired by that theme and based on the creative illustration at the crossroads of different styles and dimensions.

All designers strive to experience that moment of zen when everything in their design is harmonic, balanced, and eye-pleasing. Even if that’s just a short second before the next round of polishing, perfecting, and upgrading. Catch that feeling with the illustration below.

Don’t forget to take creative breaks to avoid creative blocks – that’s the idea behind another illustration from the set.

Design in Progress Illustrations

Here you’ll find a pack of diverse illustrations devoted to different work styles and setups: from individual work to teamwork, from working from home to office vibes, from freelancing to studio design.

Getting into work from home

Teamwork mode

Research stage in the user experience design process

Communication as an integral part of designers’ job

Backstage of freelancing from home

Teamwork uniting the superpowers of different colleagues

Starting a design day from the client’s feedback

Diving deep and focusing

Working in the quarantine mode

New illustration sets are coming soon, don’t miss them.

Illustration Collections and Digital Art Case Studies

If you want to see more collections of illustrations or discover how they work in particular design projects, here’s the set of posts for you.

Fulfill. Illustrations and Web Design for 3PLs Marketplace

Roebuck. Mobile Design and Illustrations for Educational App

8 Bright Packaging Design Projects Employing Illustration Art

Bikker. Identity Design and Illustrations for Biking Service

Animal World: 4 Beautiful Illustration Sets About Wildlife and Pets

Book Illustrations for Visual Storytelling

In Search of Illustration: Design Process for Illustration Set

ABUK. Custom Book Cover Design for Audiobook App

Moonworkers. Digital Illustrations on Film Production

MYWONY. Storytelling with Brand Intro Design

Tubik in Paris. Design Process for Narrative Illustration

Originally written for Tubik Blog, graphic content by tubik

The illustrations in the post belong to Tubik and cannot be used by other resources without a link to the source.

Сообщение 40+ Inspiring Illustrations About Art, Workspaces, and Creative Life появились сначала на Design4Users.

What Is Interface Error

Interface error is the state or condition when the app cannot do what the user wants. It usually happens in three typical cases:

• the app fails to do what’s requested (literally, like there is no such technical possibility or function)
• the app cannot understand the input from the user (or the input is invalid)
• the user tries to combine operations that cannot work together (that usually happens because the user isn’t aware of the processes inside the app)

Sure, errors present a kind of annoying or even frustrating part of the user experience. Yet, there is no way to avoid them, so designers, developers, and UX writers have to think about ways to make that kind of interaction more user-friendly and smooth. Why is that important? Because, as well as in real life, virtual mistakes make a significant psychological impact and form a negative emotional background. For example, the research measuring the psychological stress caused by smartphone interactions showed a direct connection between appearing error messages and the level of cortisol, a known biomarker of stress. It can increase anxiety feeling and provoke a user to stop trying to interact with the product before they even start analyzing what’s the reason. So, let’s see what to do with those situations.

This is what the error of filling out the subscription form on Tubik Blog website looks

Best UX Practices for Errors

Errors are like fights: the best one is the one that never happened. There are different strategies for error prevention, like tooltips, prompts, tutorials, directional cues, suggestions, highlights, limitations, and the like. Yet, what should you do with users that already experience the error? Let’s cover some points that are effective in designing errors that wouldn’t make the user instantly turn their back to your app.

Make the error instantly noticeable

It may seem obvious, but don’t get tricked by it: what seems obvious has to be thought about twice. The worst thing that may happen about the error is when the user is totally uninformed about what’s going on and gets lost in the process. Be always honest with the user, and don’t try to mask the error. Even if the interface is super minimalist and any alien inclusion hurts your perfectionist designer’s eye and soul. Beauty doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work.

For example, if the user is filling the form made of 10 different fields, don’t just inform them that the form is not filled correctly, don’t make them search from one field to another where they made a mistake, and don’t hope they will do it. Make the field with a mistake super visible and save users’ energy and time.

Use well-recognized visual markers

Knowing mental models and well-known patterns of user behavior, user experience designers can reduce the cognitive load. That’s particularly essential in error situations that are quite unpleasant by default. Error screens and messages may not be the best place for experiments, so consider markers that are quickly recognized by most users. The red color and exclamation marks are still among the most popular ways to attract users’ attention to errors. Yet, be careful using the color as the only way to mark the error: check if it works for color-blind users. Also, mind the high level of readability on different devices.

Here’s how the registration error is marked on ArtStation: the system marks the field with color and explains the issue with a text prompt.

Explain what happened

Whatever the reason for the error, you may feel the urge not to explain anything, just to proceed with solving the issue. And that’s a mistake. Firstly, you risk getting a user back in this error situation again and again as they don’t understand what is wrong with their actions or app response. Secondly, we’ve already mentioned that errors literally provoke a psychological state of anxiety, and you may not predict if this error becomes a part of the wrong interaction pattern. So, be sure to find a way to quickly explain the nature of the error and keep users informed. For instance, instead of just informing (“You cannot log in to the app”), make the message explanatory like (“The username or password do not match”).

Don’t add more actions than needed

Another thing you may feel like doing is putting all the errors on separate pages or pop-up windows to make them as catchy as possible. Don’t overplay with it: in most cases, it’s enough just to make a color contrast marker in the interactive zone instead of popping up the additional modal window with the message requiring another unnecessary click to get the user back to the same page. Imagine that you are filling in the registration form and get that kind of pop-up for errors; no doubt, you will hate it very fast. Don’t make your users experience that: aim at providing inline validation and keep the message close to the field in error.

Yet, a pop-up window will be helpful if the user needs to be redirected to another page because of the error. So, for each case, take into account all pros and cons and target your solutions well.

This is how the error is marked on the Tubik website when the user tries to complete sending the contact form without adding an email.

Write simply

It’s crucial to make the error message as simple and clear as possible. Clear for the target user, not for the designers or developers creating that product. Avoid special terminology and jargon which you may use with QA engineers, for example (Like “Error 4.7 occurred” or “syntax error happened”). Don’t use long, complex sentences. Don’t make long and ornate introductions; it’s not the best place for them. Go quick to the point and make it decent.

Don’t blame a user

There’s an easy way to make a bad situation even worse: just tell the users that they are not clever enough to interact with this app, and that is why the errors happen. Offensive, isn’t it? Whatever form you wrap this message in, it will hurt the user who is already worried about things going not the way they wanted. So, don’t blame a user, be polite, friendly, and helpful; that’s important for setting the right emotional background of the situation. Try using clear instructions instead of blaming: for example, say, “Enter the valid email address” instead of “You’ve entered the invalid email address.”

Be constructive

Informing the user about the error in the right way is not enough: whatever friendly information you got lost, it isn’t super worthy if you don’t know what to do next. So, be quick to let the user know how to solve the issue. Some of the popular practices are the following:

• If that’s a web interface, give the options to move to other pages of the website, first of all, the home page
• In the mobile interface, make it easy to take a step back or quickly connect to the spot of the error
• In case of complex forms and processes, do it for each step instead of at the end of all the processes

This 404 page of the fashion brand’s e-commerce website gives the visitor various options to jump to, marking the ability to get back to the home page as the main call-to-action

Consider using images and icons

It’s not a secret that people perceive and decode images faster than words. So, thoughtful use of an icon or image on the error screen can make communication faster, saving the users’ energy and a good mood. What’s more, images have a big potential for emotional appeal, which can reduce the tension of dealing with an error.

404 error page for the ShipDaddy website uses funny mascot animation integrating brand graphics into the web interactions and making the error page smoothened with fun.

Test and analyze

Don’t have an illusion that work on error presentation is finished with the UI/UX design stage of the project. It never stops because feedback from real users is the best way to improve user flow. A/B test different options, analyze carefully what are the most vulnerable zones and interactions, and use the findings to prevent errors where possible and smoothen the process where mistakes are unavoidable.

Add fun if that’s appropriate

The page or screen of error messages can use gamification, interactive content, or other ways to add fun, and this way reduces the negative effect. One of the good examples is the 404 page on Dribbble: as its target audience is designers, the resource uses their natural creative curiosity to add fun to the error situation, so users can see the collection of popular designs organized along with a similar color palette. On the page, users can continue the game and try other colors or search for what they need using the search field integrated into the error page.

Well-Done Errors Checklist

So, to sum up, well-crafted errors would rather stick to the following points:

• readable and clear
• easily noticed
• constructive
• effort-saving
• polite and friendly
• reasonably emotional

Useful Articles

Here’s a set of articles on more aspects and best practices of user experience design.

How To Use Visual Dividers in User Interfaces

How To Make Text Improve User Experience: Insights Into UX Writing

How to Design User Onboarding

Directional Cues in User Interfaces

How to Make User Interface Readable

Basic Types of Buttons in User Interfaces

Negative Space in Design: Practices and Tips

Big Little Details: 7 Helpful Elements of Web Usability

Types of Contrast in User Interface Design

5 Pillars of Effective Landing Page Design

Meaningful Error: 404 Page Design. Inspiration for Page Not Found

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

Сообщение UX Design Practices for Error Screens and Messages появились сначала на Design4Users.

Product

Uplyfe is an AI-powered health app that reacts to your behavior in nutrition and exercise and provides personalized recommendations. The app is designed to help users improve their health, as well as prevent or manage non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Founded by specialists with medical and healthcare backgrounds, the product shares the philosophy that a healthy lifestyle is the best medicine. The product team is based in Switzerland.

Research and Design Approach

Creating a brand image, the design team has to consider all the major ways the brand employs to communicate with its users and customers. Even an excellent logo design may not work effectively if it’s designed in a creative vacuum without a clear understanding of where and how the brand will use it, what environment it will be integrated into, and how it will be distributed. That’s why the first stage of design is all about deep research, asking tons of questions, and building up a great deal of communication between the brand team and the design team. This process is vital as not only do designers get a more comprehensive view, but also, brand holders start looking at their product from different perspectives and asking themselves new questions. You can read more about the design process for branding in one of the earlier articles:  together with the client, we discuss and define ‘the soul’ of a client’s brand. That helps us to create strong branding and identity, ‘the face,’ for products and companies. From the brand model to the design system, we build the identity that translates the product values.

The essential point to take into account about Uplyfe’s brand image was that, in a nutshell, it is not a product solving a narrow circle of specific health problems but a comprehensive eco-system of building a healthy life, adapting its recommendations to users’ goals and performance. What’s more, it’s based on a scientific approach but simple and accessible for the broad target audiences of different ages, from youngsters to the elderly. The app aims at being used by both people with NCDs and healthy people who want to improve their lives. As the team is based in Switzerland and that’s its core market at the moment, the research phase included the analysis of what kind of health services and apps are demanded and popular in this area.

To define the design approach, user personas were developed and analyzed as well as mood boards were created and discussed to determine the compelling visual design perspectives.

Based on that, our team created a complex brand design for Uplyfe.

Brand Graphics

Logo

The final logo design is a combination mark made up of a symbol and a typographic part presenting a brand name. The elegant and curvy symbol is balanced by the simple, solid, and highly readable font chosen for the text part. The color palette is based on a combination of pure colors that provide good contrast and work well both in digital and analog spaces.

As for the symbol, it employs a triangular shape. According to the psychology of shapes, a triangle is an energetic and dynamic shape always associated with motion and direction. The lines are placed so that human eyes automatically move to the triangle’s top or in the direction it is placed. An upright triangle brings feelings of stability and balance.

Also, the symbol intentionally doesn’t feature any visual triggers or prompts that are typical for the medical theme. The major goal in identity design for Uplyfe was to step aside direct associations with medical treatment, hospitals, and the like, as the application goes beyond that and is positioned as a helper in supporting a healthy lifestyle in general. What’s more, for many people with NCDs, their states of health are a matter of everyday life, like, for example, those who have diabetes, so the app would rather avoid day-by-day connection to that from the medical perspective and focus on helping users make their life better in those conditions. As well, a part of the target audience consists of people who have no specific health issues but would like to enhance their general physical conditions, so the logo directly connected to the medical theme could create confusion about the nature of the Uplyfe service and lead to losing a part of the audience. Instead of associations with medical treatment, the logo had to transfer the strong message of a bright, healthy, and well-balanced life.

To increase the logo’s flexibility for different visual design goals, the designer developed a set of variations, including a black-and-white version, monochrome variants on light and dark backgrounds, and options with a gradient background based on the corporate palette.

Digital touchpoints: app graphics, favicon, logo animation

But brand design goes much further than well-crafted and tested logo design. Together with the client, we defined the touchpoints and channels via which the brand communicates with its customers to create an appealing and balanced visual style covering them all. This way, the brand image looks and feels consistent, and brand recognizability increases.

First, let’s take a look at how branding was integrated into the digital product. Here’s the logo animation for the splash screen: it gives a clear visual connection with the brand from the first seconds and, at the same time, makes waiting bright and dynamic while the app is loading. Also, below, you can see how the branded app icon looks for the Uplyfe application.

And here’s a glance at the favicon for the app landing page. Favicon, also known as a URL icon or bookmark icon, is a particular type of symbol representing the product or brand in the URL line of the browser and in the bookmark tab. It allows users to get a quick visual connection with it while they are browsing. Although small and not prominent, this interface element is essential for effective web promotion; it contributes much to web usability and good recognizability of the brand’s visual identity.

The concept of the custom branded illustration was also developed to experiment with the general style of brand graphics that could be used for social networks, banners, and other marketing goals.

Going further, the extensive set of neat icons, both in corporate colors and in monochrome versions, was designed to support visual consistency for diverse branding and user experience goals behind the application and its pages in social networks.

Landing page design

One more important channel of app promotion is a landing page. For mobile applications, it is a web page created to set another touchpoint that informs users about the nature and benefits of the app, engages them to try it, and provides shortcuts to downloading it. Moreover, sticking to the brand style and color palette, the landing page strengthens the brand image’s web presence and recognizability.

Here are different design concepts for the landing page of the Uplyfe application.

Landing page employing dark background, prominent app demonstration screens, and bright color accents

Landing page design based on light, airy background and big custom illustration in brand style

Landing page design concepts with atmospheric background photo content setting the visual connection with the theme of healthy life. The photo also works as a gaze-directing directional cue: on the slide with yoga, the woman’s fingers direct users’ eyes to the CTA element in the header.

Social networks

Naturally, digital products are mainly promoted via digital channels of communication, so the next step of brand design for Uplyfe was considering its consistent identity in social networks.

Here’s how the Facebook page for the app looked. The concept features custom header images based on graphics combining abstract shapes and recognizable objects like a microscope, providing a quick visual connection with the brand style, the theme, and the goals of the service. Also, another illustration is shown as an example of theme graphics for posts.

Here’s how the same approach is adjusted for the Twitter page.

And here’s a look at the brand image concept on Instagram and Facebook for mobile. The system of icons works effectively as the covers for Instagram highlights. Also, the general style of brand graphics for Instagram posts is offered to make them consistent, attractive, and recognizable, sharing the brand mission and valuable information for the followers.

Printed stuff: business cards, posters, lightboxes, billboards

Talking about the more tangible side of branding, here’s how the business card design looked.

What’s more, the style, curvature, and shapes used in the process of design exploration for icons let the designer develop the design system for brand posters and other stuff or merch that could be involved in marketing.

Another direction to take into account was the design of outdoor advertising to spread the word about the application in various urban spaces, such as billboards with motivational taglines or lightbox ads informing about the app’s benefits.

This project demonstrates how the comprehensive design approach covers different aspects of the ways the brand uses to connect with its customers and how much more should be done to develop an attractive and informative brand identity than just logo design.

New design case studies are coming soon; keep up with the updates.

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. Brand Identity and Website Design for Agricultural Technology

Synthesized. Website Design for DataOps Platform

ProAgenda. Identity and Website Design for Golf Management Service

BlockStock. Brand Identity and Website for Minecraft Models Resource

Carricare. Identity and UX Design for Safe Delivery Service

ShipDaddy. Identity and Web Design for Shipping Service

Illuminating Radioactivity. Interactive Web Design for Education

Lumen. Website for Museum of Mountain Photography

GNO Blankets. Branding and Web Design for Ecommerce

Designer AI. Dashboard and Graphics for Fashion Service

Shpin’s Wine. Identity Design for Family-Run Winery

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

Сообщение Branding Case Study: Identity Design for Health Application появились сначала на Design4Users.