Branding as UX?
BRANDING
UX designers are responsible, at bare minimum, for helping make useable products and services, But I also think UX designers—and by “UX designers” I mean anyone contributing interaction, motion, visual, and writing expertise to a “product design”—are as responsible for embodying and extending a company brand as anyone in a marketing communications or creative services group.
A company’s brand is more than its logo. A brand is the complete reaction a company elicits from customers because of customers’ experiences with the products it makes, the services it provides, its reputation, and the reputation of its competition. (See Dubberly Design Office concept map, “Model of a Brand”.)
“Model of a Brand” from Dubberly Design Office. Go to www.dubberly.com to get the PDF of this (and other) concept maps.
Which means most startups and early-stage companies have no brand identity to speak of. At best, a young company might have a catchy name and a bad logo. This leaves the UX designer with only technical requirements upon which to base product design decisions. This may be fine in the very early stages of product development, but a design informed by, at the very least, a decent logo and a brand aspiration is an essential part of bringing a product to market and establishing a relationship with users.
A process as fundamental as an account setup can easily reflect a brand. Is the company trying to project a friendly, easy-to-use vibe? Account creation becomes a series of simple dialogs with few options, reassuring instructions, and heartwarming graphics. Is the company known as an expert in its field, providing products to fellow experts? Account creation becomes more complex, provides more customization options, speaks to users in their own vocabulary, and the overall visual design exudes confidence.
A UX designer is often the first creative person hired by a young company. Which means that, in order to be successful, that UX designer may have to take a stab at the company’s first branding system.
Which is what I’ve had to do at every startup I’ve worked at. I needed some visual and emotional embodiment of the company’s goals and aspirations before I could move from black/white, functional wireframes to detailed product specs.