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Everyone, welcome to a three-part blog series. Naturally, we will discuss stylescapes in this blog and get an inside look at our creative process for the same. In this first part of our series, we’ll explore the steps and importance of stylescapes, outlining why, when, and how they are created.
Let’s get started!
Overview: Before diving into the design phase of a product, it’s crucial to define how the target audience will perceive it. This involves setting the look, feel, and identity of the product, which collectively contribute to the brand’s overall persona. While stylescapes aren’t the same as a brand identity, creating them for the digital product serves a similar purpose—laying down the visual and emotional foundation.
What is a stylescape?
A stylescape is a method or tool used in design that expresses and directs a project’s visual language. Stylescapes are composed of carefully chosen and artistically arranged fonts, colors, and images. A stylescape sets direction and provides guidance steering towards the final designed product.
Why We Create Stylescapes
Purpose: Stylescapes are essential for compiling all design elements that will shape the brand’s identity. They provide a visual summary of what the product might look like and feel like, allowing designers to align with the product’s vision. The tone of the product’s messaging, choice of colors, typography, and design elements all contribute to the overall user experience. Defining these aspects before entering the design phase is crucial to ensuring coherence and consistency.
Benefits:
- Clarity: Stylescapes ensure that the design team and stakeholders are on the same page about the product’s visual direction.
- Consistency: Helps maintain a consistent look and feel across different elements and platforms.
- Direction: Provides a clear direction for designers, reducing ambiguity and streamlining the design process.
Example: A product with rounded corners and conversational language gives a friendly feel, while sharp edges, bold text, and straightforward language present a more professional image.
We raise the bar
We test UI designs using stylescapes, experimenting with various UI iterations, while considering the competitors of the product and balancing their benefits and drawbacks equally.
When We Create Stylescapes
Timing: Stylescapes are typically created after the UX discovery phase and before the design phase begins. This timing ensures that enough information about the brand, goals, and target audience has been gathered to make informed design decisions.
Design Research: Before creating stylescapes, extensive design research is conducted. This includes:
- Color Analysis: Understanding how colors are perceived in different regions and industries.
- Competitor Analysis: Evaluating competitors to identify opportunities and pitfalls.
- Audience Insights: gathering data on user preferences and behaviors.
Example: Before starting the design phase, a precise representation of the product’s end state is crafted using insights from the design research process.
How We Create Stylescapes
Process: Creating stylescapes is an iterative process that involves deep exploration of the product’s nature, design research outcomes, and the expectations of both the product owner and the target audience.
Key Activities:
- Exercises and attributes: answering fundamental questions like the purpose of the product, the target audience, and the key actions visitors should take.
- Going beyond surface-level attributes, we measure the degree of attributes like friendliness or professionalism to ensure precision.
- Mood Boards: Compiling reference images, color palettes, and typography to set the direction for the stylescape.
Example: The image below showcases the measuring of different attributes to understand the product’s nature better.
Conclusion
Incorporating stylescapes into the design process ensures that the visual identity of a product is well-defined and aligned with the product owner’s vision and user expectations. By following the steps outlined in this guide, designers can create compelling, user-centric products that resonate with their target audience.
In the upcoming part of the stylescapes series,
This concludes part one of our series on stylescapes. There’s a lot more to stylescapes than meets the eye. Keep an eye out for part two, where we’ll dive deeper into the specifics of selecting and combining design elements to create a cohesive product identity. Stay tuned…
