We took a complex app with rich and diverse content and made it easy to customize. This resulted in one of JouleBug's most profitable product features, used by trusted global brands like IKEA and Siemens.

My Contributions

Visual Design

Creative Direction

January 2016

The Challenge

Early on, we realized that one major benefit that JouleBug offered customers was the positive influence toward organizations' marketing and branding efforts. These cities, universities, and businesses wanted to not just affect behavior, but build communities around sustainability and well-being. They needed to show their organization and the world they cared deeply about these issues. We needed to give them ways to show it off.

My Role

What resulted was the ability to create separate and customized versions of the JouleBug and Shine apps. As the Lead Designer, I worked with the sales and customer relations teams to scope the features and design the customization process. I worked with a small team of developers to refactor the products interface to accommodate customization. This feature became an ongoing factor in how we designed and developed the apps.

Your Look, Your App

I worked with the sales and customer relations teams to create a standard, streamlined process to get new apps set up. 

We started on a path towards giving customers as much freedom as possible. However, we quickly learned from feedback that customers valued more structure and guidelines. This led us to reducing the number of variables, with more template options.

We took a hard look at the user interface, with customization in mind. We refactored the app, consolidating the branded elements, and adding emphasis to the user-generated and admin-customizable content. As a result, we had the flexibility to accommodate our customers with the most specific needs, and beautiful templates for those that valued speed and ease.