Danielle Vernelson
Brand Evolution
Case Study Improvements to Sales Enablement PRO Brand & Accessibility
Goal of the project: Convert the color palette to accessible colors, and make other improvements to the look of SE PRO marketing materials.
Created while working at: Highspot
Role: Brand Designer
Project Details
Improving the Accessibility of SE PRO's Color Palette
Introduction
My assignment was to improve SE PRO's brand accessibility, in conjunction with an important new report that was coming out.
Identifying the Problem:
I found that our light blue color didn’t have enough contrast with either dark or white text, and in addition, I realized that our pie charts also had accessibility issues because the edges of each pie slice weren’t distinctive enough. Here are the problem areas:
After:
I selected a new light blue color, and created a series of swatches in different shades of blue, that could be used for charts. I added white strokes to the pie charts so that the edges were distinct to the viewer.
More Improvements to the Look of Reports
My next step was to research and create a proposal for design of interior pages of the reports. Here are the ideas I came up with:
Based on the inspiration I found online, I came up with some new layouts, and started adding charts to a white box with a drop shadow, giving some of the pages more of that “dashboard” feel. Here are some of the old pages, compared to the new:
Cover and TOC
Before:
The covers all utilized architectural photos. The table of contents was fairly plain.
After:
The new covers utilized people photography alongside the brand's diagonals and fractals to appear more fresh and eye-catching. A subtle cutout effect makes the people pop out. City photography is now used on the inside. And, I made the new reports a bit wider to fit better on the average screen.
Chart Slides
Before:
The chart slides felt a bit blocky, and charts floated on the side opposite the text.
After:
Charts and callouts now lived in blocks with drop-shadows. I explored new ways to display data, such as stat callouts, or donut charts where only one percentage was called attention to.
Social Media
I created new designs for social media. See the improvement on single-frame, organic social graphics:
Before
Social Graphic for the previous year's report
After
A new single-frame graphic style for social media
I also created a "micro-ebook" for LinkedIn. When discussing with my partner on the social media marketing team, we found that this interactive preview of our reports gained more interaction and downloads.
Presentations
I updated the presentation template with the new color palette, and started using the new treatments for charts. I also created new cover slide options:
Before
Our presentation cover slides had non-standardized angles, and we only had architectural options for photography
After
Our new slide covers had standardized 45-degree angles, and incorporated people photography for a more personal feel.
Results
We saw results right away. Registrations for the State of Sales Enablement webinar grew 18% over the previous year, and ad click-through rates increased 12% in the first month of launch. Beyond performance, it was meaningful to know the updates also improved accessibility, making the reports easier to read for people with visual impairments.