The Basics:
Role:
As the Brand Owner for Hitched, I was the mastermind behind the visual brand, ensuring consistency and a strong, clear voice throughout. My role encompassed designing a multi-phase marketing website, steering the visual style of social graphics and ads, assembling an inclusive image library, and developing a user-friendly budget calculator based on extensive research.
Problem and Opportunity:
Today’s couples are skirting financial conversations, so we needed a tool to facilitate these discussions. Initially, we focused on driving pre-signups with our marketing site. Later, we pivoted to introduce a budget calculator, which categorized spending into 'safe to save' and 'safe to spend,' complementing the Hitched app still under development.
Key Stakeholders and their Priorities:
Client: Develop a tool that categorizes finances similarly to competitors' budgeting tools.CMO: Create a feature that aids in combining finances and drives pre-signups for the Hitched app.VP: Ensure the design is sleek, modern, and adheres to accessibility standards.Developer: Define functionality and values for safe spending and saving categories.Content Strategist: Determine categories to streamline the user experience and usefulness for couples.Junior Designers: Ensure social graphics and collateral align with the overall vision and voice.The Discovery:
Who are the users/audience:
Our target audience includes young couples and newlyweds who are digitally savvy but may need a nudge towards financial literacy. Research showed 40% of couples don’t discuss finances before engagement, so we targeted these individuals through strategic advertising on Pinterest and The Knot.
Research and Competitor Analysis:
We compiled a comprehensive 100+ page playbook, analyzing competitors and their digital budgeting tools. While we aimed to avoid the complexity of Mint by Intuit, we focused on a straightforward solution that simplified combined finances, aiming to enhance financial literacy and drive user signups.
The Process:
Strategize:
Our initial approach featured a basic marketing site with minimal CTAs. As the project evolved, we shifted focus from pre-signups to app downloads and resources. The budget calculator, originally intended as a content page element, was repositioned as a standalone page to enhance user experience.
Visualize:
Using the original brand guide, I developed the website, email templates, photo library, and visual guides for social posts. We started with a landing page and gradually introduced a full scrolling site with added external links as the product expanded.
Experience:
Prototyping in Figma, I presented designs to stakeholders and continuously refined them through A/B testing, ensuring a clean and intuitive user experience. Throughout development, we conducted rigorous testing and audits to maintain color contrast, text accessibility, and accurate alt text for images.
Critique:
Post-launch, we consulted focus groups to refine our approach. We discovered that the budget calculator was a hit in sparking financial conversations among couples. This feedback, along with research on existing tools, led us to streamline the calculator, enhancing its simplicity and effectiveness in the Hitched app.
The Outcome:
Final Decisions and Tradeoffs:
Our team delivered a robust marketing website, launching new features quarterly and focusing on MVP while iterating based on best practices. Hitched marked my first experience where a client purchased the product midway, necessitating agile responses to evolving needs. It was a crash course in adaptability and real-time problem-solving, setting a high bar for future projects.
