Thus far, any personality your project possessed was a by-product of your content writing. With the addition of color and type, your work has the potential to spring to life.
Everything hinges on the word “potential.” Which color to use, what typeface to include — and what about a logo? While these are legitimate questions to ask, most of them are relatively easy to answer.
Over my two decades in design, I’ve been lucky enough to work on multiple branding projects — some from scratch, others reenvisioning an existing identity.
In some cases, I was headstrong and abandoned my discovery process, thinking that I knew best. That approach never generated any long-term success. Only in the instances where I did my research and understood both the user and the company was I able to craft solutions that lasted.
Luckily, you’ve already done the work that matters most — the research. Leverage that and the resources below to crush the upcoming exercise.
Resources for review
Please use the following items to guide your exercise attempt:
| Article | Source/Author |
|---|---|
| Making Your Mark | New Pragmatic |
| Your Logo is Copied | Ferdinand Vogler |
| How to Find the Right Typography | Column Five Media |
| Visual Simplicity vs. Information Density | Luke Wroblewski |
Exercise
Length: Three-to-four hours to complete.
In the Visual Foundation exercise, you explored possible type and color palettes intending to eliminate poor combinations. Now it’s time to apply the successful options to your homepage wireframe.
In this exercise, you’ll need to create a free UsabilityHub account to create a preference test. This test will provide some initial feedback you’ll be able to use to steer the project further.
Follow the steps below to complete the exercise.
- Create a new page in the Figma project that houses your wireframe/prototype.
- Duplicate your homepage three times on this new page.
- Apply your chosen color and type palettes to the first page. Add images and spacial adjustments as needed.
- Repeat step 3 on the other homepage copies. Explore other possible palette combinations and adjustments.
- Export the options created and upload them to UsabilityHub.
- Create a preference test in UsabilityHub.
- Share the link to your preference test with your research cohort and with the New Pragmatic community.
///
Once complete, update your Program Journal with links to the assets produced for this exercise. Post your Journal in the #Feedback-Loop channel for review.
///
Up next Fresh Market: Styles