User Experience (UX) Design II

My first project for this course was to design and develop a design brief and proposal. This would outline and destinguish what would be required in creating a online experience and website along with establishing design goals and a timeline of production.

The design brief also allowed me to define and focus on exactly what I wanted to achieve before any work started on the project. It was created as if I was seeking to approach a company with an entire design package where the goals could feasibly be accomplished through an updated logo and website.

One of the larger projects for this course was to create a brand and style guide for a cohesive design experience. Once created, it is also easily implemented in the resulting design specifications and it can also make the work easier to create if there is an established brand and style guide to follow.

The following is an excerpt from the established Brand and Style Guide:

Tell-Tale Hearth is a brick and mortar store that specializes in providing Dark Victorian, Medieval, Halloween, and Gothic decor for the discerning customer. Products of this variety, style, and interest are available in this spooky/dark style year round with special focus on the high holidays during the year. We are now exploring and expanding our brand into the digital space and by doing so, we are also providing this guide to ensure brand cohesiveness through digital media and print. This guide is also a source of truth for our vendors and online partners.

We’ve created this guide to help you use some of our core brand assets and elements—our logo, brand colors, typography and how to use these assets and elements with photography. The purpose and goal of this brand and style guide is to ensure the logo, colors, typefaces, and photography are used together in a cohesive and informative manner. This guide is a set of rules to follow when using our brand assets and developing websites, print work, and other materials to promote the brand.

Our new brand color palette uses a wide array of different and rich colors designed to be whimsical, vintage, comfortable, cozy, and distinctive. Each color can be used either by itself or in a combination.

Different combinations or single use of the colors can dramatically change the tone and feel of the design created. We love this type of design exploration and want to encourage your creativity with our brand! It also can vastly change the appearance of your creation, so it is also very important to consider how they will work together. Keep in mind that certain color combinations of our brand colors can vibrate if used together and cause the viewer some discomfort, please refrain from using our colors in this way.

To ensure our brand is visible and recognized, it is very important that our color palette is applied consistently and appropriately.

Our preferred typography includes the use of a specific heading typeface (Zilla Slab) and a primary body typeface (Helvetica Neue for print, Nimbus Sans online.) Both of these were selected because of the following factors. Zilla Slab is a free Google typeface available in a variety of font weights and Helvetica Neue/Nimbus Sans is our primary body typeface(s). They are typeface(s) available in a variety of font weights.

Our preferred photography is muted, cozy, and utilizes soft filtering (bokeh) when possible. We do allow some photography that does not emphasize dark or muted tones however. We also encourage some of our photography to show how the products we sell can be used in a bright setting. We like to show how to use the decor available in our shop(s) in a real world setting and pin-point this in our “shop the look” available on our website and at the brick and mortar store.

Our photo style does evolve with current photographic trends, which includes details such as lighting, shadow, angle, and composition all while creating a brand-consistent and cohesive look.

The goal of our photography is for every photo is identifiable as Tell-Tale Hearth. Product and Shop the Look photography stories are clearly about the products we sell. We do not typically use people in our product focused photography, unless it is to show wearables or if the photo requires an in-action viewpoint.