Realization
Washington State Employment Security Department
We were tasked with a complete re-architecture and redesign of the Employment Security Department‘s employment and economic information website which is set to go live in a few months. The site contains thousands of publications, reports and presentations which required a complete overhaul. The case study below describes how we accomplished this task by focusing on a persona-based, task oriented navigation structure. Usability testing showed a two-fold improvement on success rates and time to complete tasks. The ESD redesign also had won Best Government Site by eRepublic in 2012.
Inner Agency
THE SECRET SOURCE
I led this in-house design team to extend their capabilities and reach with a brand strategy devised to emote creativity. The “secret agent” motif reflected the light-hearted, casual ethos of the agency. This brand stance allowed them to extend their reach past the in-house model and into the competitive agency world with a fresh look and feel.
Virgin Travel Group
BRAND SIGNIFICANCE
AUDIENCE LOYALTY
Virgin Travelstore’s core audience is loyal to the Virgin brand and expects Virgin’s core values to be represented. All aspects of Virgin Travelstore were overhauled to emphasize value, ease-of-use, and edginess. Virgin Travelstore tripled its monthly sales by increasing the opportunities for cross-selling and reducing the steps required to purchase.
Many advanced features were built into the various interfaces of Virgin Travelstore’s sections. All functionality, production, design, and production decisions were based on business needs. The Flights section functionality and layout were designed to streamline the searching and selecting process. The Holidays section was designed to provide resort information to support the user’s sale decision.
Virgin Travelstore’s sales increased three-fold and went from 10th in the UK to 5th top online travel site.
Toyota
COROLLA SOCIAL DRIVER CAMPAIGN
FUN AND PLAYFUL
In support of Toyota Corolla’s Social Driver Campaign, PPMG created a kicky party planner and sweepstakes mini-website that furthered the fun nature of the Corolla brand. We provided information architecture, design, illustration, and development for the initial launch and 3 subsequent site refreshes. PPMG successfully tied Toyota Corolla’s print ad campaign with the online experience and gave their representing agency an excellent resell opportunity with the Flash party-planner application. The robust experience included many online-community functionalities such as: blogging, sharing to mobile phone, automated sweepstakes entries, photo-sharing, and user-generated content.
Township 110
TOWNSHIP 110 BRANDING
TREASURING NATURE
Township110 offers exurban retirement/second home living in rural areas throughout the United States. Perfect Pixels worked closely with the company’s executive team to create a logo and tagline that reflected Township110’s integrity and environmental policies.
The tagline speaks to the outdoor enthusiast on a visceral level. The intention as to create a tagline that’s tone could apply to various demographics.
This site needed to speak to the target audience and showcase multiple land developments while furthering the brand. Perfect Pixels chose to incorporate Flash animation elements to immediately introduce the user to the beauty of the homesites with an image rotator and a flipbook. This site gives the user an overview of Township110’s land offerings and gives them the option to research further by going to the specific development itself, or to a featured homesite.
Snap Village
BRAND SIGNIFICANCE GET FRESH
Corbis entered into the Web 2.0 space with its SnapVillage brand. Working in conjunction with another agency, PPMG created the distinctive mark that speaks directly to the core audience, photography enthusiasts. The logotype and colors were selected to provide the punch that Corbis was looking for in the brand. We used warm colors and high contrast along with a sophisticated use of white space to fulfill the brand ethos – freshness and pop.
We also consulted and provided strategic direction for interface design, user flow and information architecture.
Microsoft
Perfect Pixels has provided design, branding and information architecture services for several of Microsoft’s brands including Windows Vista, Technet, MSN Spaces, Windows Mobile, Customer Experience Group. MS Learning and Azure.
PPMG provided innovative and out-of-box thinking for internal teams to help their various initiatives. Our approach is to work collaboratively and in-house as often as possible to make sure that we are as close as possible to providing on-target deliveries. Projects regularly required an iterative process of wireframe reviews to allow for multiple Agile sprints.
Getty Images
BRAND DEFINITION VISUAL VIBRANCY
Getty Images launched a new brand and needed email marketing communications to be branded in the new style.
At the time, there was no style guide in place yet and only a rough direction to work from. Perfect Pixels created a punchy, vibrant series of email designs that evoked the new brand system.
Flutter
BRAND SIGNIFICANCE BUILT FOR SPEED
Flutter.com’s move to support a Chinese version required working with a series of focus groups and translators to effectively communicate the concept of person-to-person betting to a foreign audience.
The new design dramatically increased market share from 8% to over 30% in less than three months. The original version was a tedious interface, requiring the user to step through six separate pages to complete a bet. The new interface limited the steps to three on a single screen. Another key change was to provide a separate view for novice and experienced users.
Classmates.com
BRAND SIGNIFICANCE
COMMUNITY AND NOSTALGIA
The challenge was to convey meaning to an undermined legacy brand. The solution needed to be distinguishable and resonate with its 42 million customers while not risking $70 million in user generated revenue. The new design focused strictly on school and nostalgia, while introducing a more contemporary and extensible system.
To increase consumer awareness, a new, distinguishable system of promotional material, icons, buttons, and graphics were introduced. The consistent use of these graphic systems significantly increased click-through.