Creation of a fresh brand identity and several responsive landing pages to bring a new brand alive.
As a senior designer at Imagine Cruising I focused on developing new initiatives that came from the wider Dnata group (the umbrella brand Imagine sits under).
I was asked to create a brand identity and several pages for a new travel website. The challenge was to create a website that could effectively showcase the products from across Dnata’s six travel companies. Each of these companies operated with their own distinct travel sector. This included, beach holidays, cruise holidays, touring, hotels, flights and luxury travel.
^ Prototyping with paper 💪
To kick this project off, I needed to undertake thorough research to better understand the product offering and the landscape of competition already out on the market. I broke this out into three main areas:
I evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the competition to see what I could learn in order to enhance the brand position. Through this, we were able to revaluate the mission statement and the direction the project was heading.
I undertook a comprehensive review of all the marketing materials from each brand. I completed an assessment of the main channels the brands used to communicate with customers and analysed user consumption of these materials.
Starting with paper prototyping, and moving all the way through to clickable mock-ups, each part of the user journey was tested. This helped to weed out any usability issues and informed the site layout and architecture.
^ Designing for high information density
Through the research I discovered that the majority of the brands’ customer bases were predominantly web-based users and skewed to middle aged. Based on this, when selecting the palette and typography of 'Holiday Warehouse', I focused on a modern, minimalist but approachable design that would work across both print and digital.
I conducted a card sorting exercise that aimed to discover what customers thought of particular words and what they were most likely to search for on the internet when considering their next trip. The themes of “under one roof” and “warehouse” floated to the top, with the obvious favourites such as “deal” and the generic “holiday” cropping up frequently as well. We paired this research with a deep dive into the SEO of the three biggest brands of the umbrella group and 'Holiday Warehouse' was born.
^ Simplifying UI to create clarity 🤓
The big question posed by this project was: “How do we create a new website that will appeal to the multiple audiences without overloading the user experience?”
To tackle this, I broke the project into two main focus points. These points would help support usability and findability and ultimately the scalability of the site over time.
The structural design of shared information across this site was something that could get very complicated very quickly. The site was going to get fed by individual API’s, which would have a considerable impact on load speeds and site performance. This helped inform not only the structure of the site, but also showed how simplicity in the UI was going to be key in keeping the site usable.
I applied a modular approach to the UI and created scalable modules. This gave brands the freedom to switch, add and remove content depending on future marketing needs and product development. This design was flexible and intuitive, meaning each brand would be able to utilise the modules, despite their differing content. These ensured the brand experience was maintained and Gestalt principles and usability remained at the forefront of the design.
^ A look at the new homepage
An accessible new brand and user-friendly product which allows users to find the right holiday or experience for them.
The brand identity consists of a minimal typeface with pastel complimenting colours. The modular design lets the product imagery do most of the talking, with the brand theme of helpfulness and calm running through everything as the consistent link.
The website itself focuses on navigating the user around a wealth of information in the most logical way. It lets the user search all products by date, destination or party size, amongst others. It also offers the user the chance to search through all available products in order to gain inspiration. Each search presents the user with relevant results, all ordered by date and price to ensure the user is immediately presented with the information that matters to them.
Design Lead
Imagine Cruising
2019
Design Systems
Design Ops
Documentation
Sketch
Invision
Reimagining a holiday search journey.
Native screens and dashboard design.
A new design system for Imagine Cruising.
