Making it weird
Client:
Role:
Principal Product Designer
Skills:
Product Strategy, Product design, Wireframing, Prototyping, UI design
The Problem
What good is a killer new site builder and some sweet site designs if no one knows about it, or we send unintentional signals to a new audience on an unoptimized landing page?
My Solution
THE RESEARCH
Through moderated virtual user interviews, we learned that the teen audience had an adamant appreciation for the simplicity of the existing product that was shaped by exposure to adult-focused competitors like Shopify and Wix. They also told us that some aspects of the UI made them question if they had aged out of our target audience.
MOTIFS
I conducted research of platforms & apps that weren’t in the same space, but were targeting an overlapping audience, and found some core principles.
Motion
Brutal shapes
Bold colors
Disregard for norms
THE LOGO
The Mighty logo is a stylized m in a hexagon. I deconstructed it and reimagined it on a 3D plane, and then emphasized its new space by adding motion.
The motion part – I couldn’t have done anything even remotely as impressive as the end product, but I was wildly fortunate to have a spectacular Senior Modeler, Jake Kousholt, on the team. And with a five-minute Slack Huddle and two rounds of revision, he had created in Maya exactly what I envisioned.
INCORPORATING DALL•E
After the screenshots were done and the copy locked in, it wasn’t quite weird enough, so I turned to AI for some fun.
After some prompt trial and error, I honed in on my style direction and found received some interesting generations.
3d render of neon clouds
3d render of neon platypus
photograph of an astronaut riding a a horse chasing coins floating in space
synthwave style sunset above the reflecting water of the sea, digital art
3d render of slimy friendship bracelet
THE FINAL PRODUCT
Nate Jones 