MAIN-UBIQUITIWEB@2x

Simplifying the Complex

Year: 2015

Role: Design Lead

Plus: Andrew Seles - Design Director

Methods: Web Design, Information Architecture, Low Fidelity Wireframes, Interface designs, Iconography, Typography

Overview

While our product was in Beta-Mode we needed a way to showcase the entire suite of tools we were going to launch. I was given the task of designing a one-stop-shop website to thrust the product onto the world. This project reminded me that sometimes your strengths as a designer can become your weaknesses.

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Third Time's a Charm

I had designed this website 3 times. The first two were utter failures and I will not post them here, but let's just say they involved a tractor-trailer 🚜 and some laser beams ⚡️ (yes that is not an exaggeration). So why the heck did I do that?

Well, I didn't know my audience well enough. I was taking cues from our CEO at the time who was really the only stakeholder that mattered. And as a designer, I love experimenting and playing. My failure was getting too sidetracked with design ideas being pitched by our CEO which led me down some strange roads...literally 😉. I found that he was spitballing ideas to just participate in the design process and didn't really have any real desire to see some of these ideas come to fruition. After two failed attempts he brought me down to earth. The website had a goal, and that goal was to sell the new suite of tools we were designing. It should be informative first and foremost. I went back to the basics and that is when I found the right design.

I was responsible for icon creation, information architecture, aesthetics, and motion. The philosophy behind the motion design was one of hard stops. I went for ease-ins with little ease-out. This makes things snappy but with almost no bounce. 

I had designed this website 3 times. The first two were utter failures and I will not post them here, but let's just say they involved a tractor-trailer 🚜 and some laser beams ⚡️ (yes that is not an exaggeration). So why the heck did I do that?

Well, I didn't know my audience well enough. I was taking cues from our CEO at the time who was really the only stakeholder that mattered. And as a designer, I love experimenting and playing. My failure was getting too sidetracked with design ideas being pitched by our CEO which led me down some strange roads...literally 😉. I found that he was spitballing ideas to just participate in the design process and didn't really have any real desire to see some of these ideas come to fruition. After two failed attempts he brought me down to earth. The website had a goal, and that goal was to sell the new suite of tools we were designing. It should be informative first and foremost. I went back to the basics and that is when I found the right design.

I was responsible for icon creation, information architecture, aesthetics, and motion. The philosophy behind the motion design was one of hard stops. I went for ease-ins with little ease-out. This makes things snappy but with almost no bounce. 

TOP

One thing I learned and still struggle with is "know your audience". This can mean the difference between having one revision or slogging through an endless cycle of changes. 

One thing I learned and still struggle with is "know your audience". This can mean the difference between having one revision or slogging through an endless cycle of changes. 

BOTTOM

Extras

Here is a small motion video that I used to sell this idea to stakeholders:

Here is a small motion video that I used to sell this idea to stakeholders:

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