Realizeit

We believe there are three types of Web Design projects:

1. Fresh build from nothing
2. Refresh and evolve
3. Scrap and start over

Based on the initial conversation and client submitted brief, the project was most certainly a “scrap and start over” with a brand new visual direction for the site, and a complete overhaul of user experience design.

The first piece that our team needed to get right was the logo. The logo concept had to pay homage to the existing brand elements, while also breathing life into Realizeit as a learning and intelligent analytics platform. The brand was using stock imagery from the initial pages of Shutterstock upon searching, and Fjord One (a Serif font) for body copy. These aspect do not align with the business being a progressive digital company — which it is!

What we heard in the brief:

• The team is ready for change, and needs this done expeditiously
• The site needs to be a LeadGen vehicle that draws in and nurtures prospects
• Content will be overhauled and created internally
• Everything is on the table from a User Experience and visual perspective
• Logo can be evolved slightly (evolution not revolution)
• Launch in July 2020
• Partner with an organized, efficient group of digital strategists
• Looking for WordPress, integrated with Hubspot Marketing Portal, 508 compliant
• The audience and users groups that we’ll target are:
  • Higher Education (nurture existing, scale and build)
  • Corporate Learning (blue ocean, net/new)
• Digital Style Sheet needs to be extensible beyond the web
• Site must be a content hub and vehicle for content strategy to come to life

What we believed:

• Realizeit has immense potential
• The easy part is design and development
• Hubspot will be a baseline integration, but built for scale
• Realizeit plays in a great market because platform-as-a-service companies offer nearly limitless options to differentiate and market value props in a compelling way

Our Approach:

• 4 month engagement
• Brand work starts first (logo touches, colors, type, palette, expression, image treatment)
• UX & Content Strategy comes second, then followed by design and dev of the site
• Quality Assurance and Content Migration will be done as a partnership

Our focus was about thoughtful execution, for both deliverables and communication strategy of Realizeit. Realizeit’s Digital Strategy and marketing toolkit could not win unless their Digital Experience became a lead-generation vehicle, as well as a Dynamic Content hub that enabled their marketing team to update positioning and on-site copy as the business evolves. Like any hybrid service/platform company, the marketing & communications toolkit needs to remain elastic, and evolve with the latest feature releases.

We took a two-pronged approach to transforming Realizeit’s Brand and Business.

• The first, executing a Brand Acceleration kit (Digital-first) and the second redesigning http://realizeitlearning.com/. Think of the Brand Acceleration kit as the “look”, “feel” and visual design of the brand for the Digital landscape. Ever Wonder specializes in Narrative development and Go-to-Market Strategy, so everything will have a unified through-line of purpose, but the digital design is ultimately what users will see.
• Second, the redesign of the core digital property (http://realizeitlearning.com/) will fix so many of the current business challenges.

Results

• Realizeit has a new ‘True North’
• Generating qualified leads through the Website
• Users are prevented from getting lost on the site, or running into dead-ends
• The site is aligned with the power of the platform
• Realizeit’s Tech Stack and Digital Footprint has been elevated
• Realizeit has a larger library of scalable web modules to build out a future content library
• Multi-channel brand presence has been established