Product & Brand Design
Creating a new brand and product that disrupts the IoT market space.
Sector
IoT, DIY electronics hobbyist and enthusiast, home automation.
Challenge
Ensure a consistent quality user experience across software, hardware, marketing, and sales, whilst promoting user-centred design best practices within the company.
My Role
Design Director, UX/UI Designer, Creative Direction, Mentor.
Related
Overview
Quantum Integration provides a carefully curated suite of hardware products for electronic hobbyists and enthusiasts of all skill levels to expand their capabilities and empower them to have the freedom to create their own amazing wireless electronic devices, easily and affordably.
Supported by powerful cloud-based server software with a simple drag-and-drop app creation process allows users to control their device from a central location, on any device that can run an app or a webpage. The platform allows the simple creation of custom IoT devices, using add-on circuits through the Q-Server that allows simple programming of tasks to be performed using multiple networked devices.
Pain Points
For those unfamiliar with networking, communication protocols, coding, etc., IoT devices can seem out of reach. What is simple, obvious, and intuitive for one person is mystifying for the next. Starting an electronics project is also time-consuming as most parts required need to be sourced from various third-party suppliers, often with incomplete documentation and no support. Efficiently integrating IoT is overly complicated and can be extremely costly, requiring programming or expensive proprietary equipment.
Identifying the Goal
Improve the entire process from getting started to completing an electronics DIY project, quicker and cheaper than the current competitors such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Introducing a new brand within the electronics DIY hobbyist and enthusiast marketplace, who will become the early adopters, with the goal of becoming a disruptor within the home automation and smart home market.
Understanding the Users
No matter what your skill level, Quantum's products are specifically engineered to be used in a variety of ways to further expand a user's software and hardware skills.
Gadget Guru
So you love having the newest gadgets. Use our versatile DIY Kits to build fun and useful gadgets.
Electronics Hobbyist
You’re a maker passionate about creating new things but don’t want to be bothered with the hassle of messy breadboards and jumper wires. Our products take the headaches out of getting your project up and running.
Smart Home Tinkerer
You’re a visionary and want tomorrow’s home today! Our products give you durable circuits for your newest smart home addition.
Bright Spark
You’re experienced and passionate about electronics. Even with good coding knowledge you know the possible pitfalls of a project. With our versatile products you can expand your horizons and use them in a wide variety of projects.
Solution
Design a user experience around a simple drag-and-drop app creation process that allows users to control their devices from a central location. Creating a seamless UCD experience from product marketing and sales to onboarding, project creation and support. The initiative will incorporate consistent branding across responsive web and app design, social media content, packaging and print.
Unique Constraints
Collaborating with a small team in California whilst based in the UK, art directing and managing digital content creation, mentoring and creative direction. Due to Covid-19, pivoting from in-person tradeshow events to new marketing methods was essential.
User Centered Design
Researching user needs, analysing findings, and aligning business goals to synthesise a design strategy across brand, product and marketing.
Strategy
The infographic below illustrates how the brand strategy should translate across different marketing and communication channels, including web, social media, and third-party sales.
Kickstarter Marketing
As part of the overall marketing strategy, a crowd-funding campaign was launched using Kickstarter, which was successfully funded and helped the brand gain a following of early adopters. As the product is complex with no existing customers, the design was complex and needed to incorporate many marketing aspects to not only introduce the product to new users, but also communicate its purpose in a digestible story-form, and establish brand awareness. Click the image below for details on the evolution of the design process to the final campaign, or click this link to see the campaign.
Website
A website built on the Shopify e-commerce platform served as the main point of introduction to products and branding, branching into many digital marketing and sales channels including print media. A typical marketing flow could lead from a social media ad campaign to a landing page, to the website product page. Consistent design, messaging, and easy navigation are essential for sales conversion. Visit the website.
Designing the information architecture around Spotify whilst keeping in mind the specific user base was effectively communicated to key stakeholders through wireframes.
The website was designed with consistency according to the brand guide. The image below shows all the pages designed for the Shopify platform within Adobe XD, ready for developer hand-off.
Social Media Advertising
Social media ad campaigns are important when reinforcing brand awareness, whilst building a customer base and a community of active users. Utilising Facebook for Business and Google Analytics allowed valuable insight into constantly improving sales and marketing endeavours. Following are ad examples designed in various for Facebook and Instagram. Please click the images for detail views.
Video Marketing & Brand Awereness
Utilising video is a highly effective way to inform, educate and promote a product. Video campaigns were specifically designed for social media advertising ranging in play length and format, i.e.: square, story (portrait) or landscape. Click here to see more examples of the video marketing process.
Video content was consistently created to be used on the product's dedicated YouTube channel. This was used to inform and educate users as well as brand awareness. Visit the channel.
Third Party Resale Channels
Extending sales channels beyond the main Shopify website experience was crucial in driving conversion. We partnered with a few well-known resellers in the IoT and electronics hobbyist and enthusiast space, but the most complex and effective was creating a dedicated store on the Amazon shopping platform that served the USA, EU and Canadian markets.
CRM and Support
Quality assurance, sales and technical support are important areas of focus in maintaining excellent customer relationships and user feedback. We employed a range of channels which included general support channels such as email, help desk, GitHub etc., and community-based, such as YouTube, Reddit, Facebook etc. to continuously improve our products.
Brandguide
Creating a brand guide early on is of great value as it establishes a foundational reference for marketing communications and endeavours across both internal and external teams and stakeholders. Together with a design system provides an effective toolset for designers and developers in all areas digital and print. See more detailed brand guide examples here.
Tools Used
Adobe CC, SketchUp, Autodesk Fusion 360, MS Office, Atlassian, GitHub, Shopify e-commerce, Amazon e-commerce, Google Analytics, Facebook Marketplace, Kickstarter.