MOBILE APP

App with icons

This app presents SpiritClips short films, Hallmark Hall of Fame feature-length films, and other partner content. App is free to view sample films. Viewers then have the option to purchase a subscription at spiritclips.com to view, share, recommend, and discuss the complete collection. View slide show »

Technical Skills
UX, UI, icons and visuals

PRODUCT TRAINING SITE

Membership site that provided training and new product information to work in conjunction with demo days and other in-store promotions for hi-tech vendor partners like Logitech, Symantec, Broderbund, Wacom, and AMD.

The Challenge
In 2000, Keystone Marketing Associates asked us to build an educational portal for sales associates in some of the nation’s largest computer/consumer electronics stores.

The membership site would provide training and new product information to work in conjunction with demo days and other in-store promotions Keystone provided for hi-tech vendor partners like Logitech, Symantec, Broderbund, Wacom, and AMD.

 

The Approach
We developed the interface to support Keystone’s Learn and Earn™ concept. Each month vendors provided detailed training information on featured products. As Retail Access members successfully completed each training module, their product knowledge was tested by passing a short quiz. They then qualified for entry into monthly random drawings for prizes or to order free Not-for-Resale products. Several thousands of dollars in prizes and products were offered each month, and the desire to keep informed and the opportunity to win kept members coming back month after month.

The Result
In 2009, after 9 years of success, RetailAccess.com became a valued part of the BDS Marketing agency.

Technical Skills
UX, UI, concepts, comps, visuals.

HIGHER EDUCATION SITE

The Drucker School reflects his philosophy of “management as an art as well as a science”. Unfortunately, the website did not convey their mission and commitment to excellence.

Instead, the interface design, confined by the limits of the content management system, was rudimentary and sporadically updated. The economic savings of this system did not mitigate against the lost opportunities of a well designed site.

Our first task was to show the value of good design. Our competitor analysis proved how much more visually exciting and informative other top university sites were. This gave them the motivation to proceed.

This specifications document [pdf] we created shows in detail the personas, wireframes, flow charts and initial designs that grew into the current dynamic, easily updatable site.

The Result
A year later, the Drucker School ranked among the nation’s top ten business schools in faculty and classroom experience by the Princeton Review.

The interface reflects the strategic thinking that made a winning case for a new user experience. The site now visually and functionally conveys the values of the institution cited in the Review. It reinforces the experience of attending Drucker School and makes it easy for current and potential students to find the information they need.

 Technical Skills
UX, UI, concepts, research, branding, comps, wireframes, visuals, programming into CMS


STREAMING VIDEO SITE

SpiritClips.com offers inspirational content from an Academy award-winning producer to subscribers on a VOD and paid membership basis. To showcase the many spiritclips short films, Hallmark Hall of Fame feature-length films and new partner content we redesigned the site, added a scroller, multiple rows of film thumbnails, and a right sidebar for featured content. View slide show »

 

spiritclips homepage before

 

 

SpiritClips homepage

 

 

More film info

 

 

Background
The original site design in 2009 offered one view of a free sample film with links below in small, static boxes and text. The homepage was not dynamic or SEO optimized. The large thumbnail showed “Sally” (Nancy Travis) looking down with a large green play button obscuring her face. The look and feel was corporate rather than dramatically inviting. Only one free film was presented, giving the impression the site lacked content. 

The goal of the redesign was to increase memberships, especially premium, by providing a more attractive, functional, enjoyable user experience.

Highlights:

  • Designed and implemented a scroller (first in Flash, then switched to HTML5 for mobile compatibility) that better showcased the many new original films and partner content such as Hallmark Hall of Fame feature-length films that SpiritClips began offering.
  • Created a new join path.
  • Designed new “filmcard” and “simple send” film processes.
  • Created video streaming areas for new content partners such as Hallmark Hall of Fame, Odessey Networks, and TED Talks.
  • User testing indicated viewers did not think SpiritClips offered much content. To correct this perception we added seven horizontal rows of selections (more than pictured here) and a forth column on the right to highlight new features such as the iPad/iPhone app and the new Roku channel. View user tests sample »
  • Designed a popup to show more film info with links to keywords, comments and user profiles. This increased SEO and traffic into the site.
  • Added links to the new Facebook page we created, as well as our Twitter and YouTube channels. SpiritCliips “likes” on Facebook subsequently went from less than 100 to over 4,000 and commenting/sharing increased from 0/day to 200 – 400/day.

Process
We kept on track by utilizing the Agile/SCRUM methodology.  With a very small web team (2-4 in-house staff), several off-site developers, and an innovative, deadline-driven environment with multiple projects, using Agile enabled us to get a lot done quickly and efficiently.

Initially we developed personas to understand our users. We looked at user surveys, user profiles on the site, discussions with team members, user emails, analytics, current and desired target market, and the competition. From this we compiled profiles of seven user types that formed the foundation for the design going forward. View personas »

Technical Skills
UX, UI, Concepting, Wireframing, Visual Design, Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Mock-Ups, Dreamweaver, Programming in HTML, CSS, SVN, and Copywriting.

Wireframes

Result
As a result of the redesign SpiritClips free membership grew by 500% over 2 years and premium membership tripled. SpiritClips added over 10 new content providers, most importantly Hallmark Hall of Fame, as well as over 50 original SpiritClips films. On March 31, 2012, SpiritClips was acquired by the Hallmark Company, a successful result for this start-up. View on TechCrunch »