Cuddleme — Brand and Website Design Case Study
Designing the brand identity and web experience of a cuddle therapy platform
Cuddleme is the platform where people who need to be touched, snuggled or cuddled connect with a professional who will do these without any sexual advance and intimidation.
ROLE
Product Research | Brand Strategy
Brand Identity | Website Design
Marketing Design | Brand Communication
TIMELINE
2020–2021
BACKGROUND
Therapy is a popular and well-accepted concept and ideology where people talk to professionals about their personal life and share things they are going through. People talk to these professionals about a lot of things and even share secrets with them. Therapy can serve as a medical approach to recovery for a patient.
Professional therapists are well compensated financially because they help people go to the depth and uncover things they are sometimes afraid to. These professionals apply a number of psychology and scientific principles in their work. In recent years, there’s been a development in the space of TOUCH THERAPY, where you get touched and cuddled without any sexual expectation and serves as a form of therapy for some.
ABOUT
Cuddleme is the place where people who need to be touched, snuggled or cuddled connect with a professional who will do these without any sexual advance or intimidation.
It has been scientifically discovered and proven that cuddling can help deal with anxiety, and grief, reduce stress, fight depression and increase the recovery rate from illness amongst others.
The idea is simple:
“A platform that CONNECTS PEOPLE with PROFESSIONAL CUDDLE THERAPIST”
PRODUCT RESEARCH
For this project, I carried out the product research which guided the brand and product development process. A key part of the research required me to research existing platforms in this niche in order to understand what is being done, the challenges users face, what to improve, how to improve the experience, and how to increase the adoption rate.
Existing platforms discovered from research
For the purpose of this case study
One fundamental and positive takeaway from the research of existing platforms is the availability of the necessary information on their landing page.
Other observations;
- Stressful UX
- Lack of responsive website
- Lack of consistency and cohesiveness in the brand identity application across all channels.
USER RESEARCH
Before commencing the visual design process, user research was carried out to understand the user needs and expectations.
USER PERSONA
After speaking with respondents, user personas for the targeted users of the product were developed
MOODBOARD
After the initial research, the next step is to design the brand mark and to design the mark, a MOODBOARD was created to capture the feel of the whole idea of cuddling.
THE LOGO
After several explorations and directions, I settled for a wordmark logo to convey the caring, welcoming, and soothing feel of the brand
The ‘d’ was modified to give a distinct feel to the wordmark which also adds a ‘googly eyes’ effect and will be used as the brand icon.
THE COLOUR
Choosing the colour for a project is very key, therefore a lot of thought was given to the colour chosen. A look at the available brands and what the brand intends to portray led to choosing these colours. The combination of these colours would quickly stand out among its competitors.
To elevate the brand experience, various gradients were developed to be used across all brand touchpoints from marketing materials to social media, web, and digital platforms.
BRAND APPLICATION
After establishing the wordmark and colour system, it was applied across a variety of touch points from brand collaterals to social media, marketing material, and the web platform.
WEBSITE DESIGN
The next phase of the project involved designing the landing page utilizing the newly designed visual identity.
Insight gathered at the user research and product research stage were very vital in making design decisions at this stage.
ICONOGRAPHY
Icons were utilized across the website and they were designed in line with
the visual language of the brand.
The Landing Page
Mid-Fi Wireframe
This was done to establish the overall layout and structure of the page before proceeding to the Hi-Fi stage.
Final Output
Mobile Screen
Mobile screen was designed to cater for the responsiveness of the website and aid the experience on mobile devices.
PreLaunch screen to collect email addresses of interested users
Conclusion and Key Learnings
The entire process from research to the design was filled with learnings. Some of the learnings are highlighted below;
- To design for a niche as this, it is important to provide as much relevant and important information on the landing page in order to save people’s time in searching for them.
- While it is important to provide as much information as possible, it is of utmost importance to make it easy for users to quickly scan through, navigate and absorb useful information.
- Product and User Research is very key as it helps to save time in making design decisions.
- Colour is very important as it is key in invoking the right feelings, and emotions.
- Cohesiveness and consistency in the use of visual and brand elements across all platforms are key, as it helps with recognisability and aids the overall experience.
As more people come on board to use and test the product, feedback will be used to improve the experience.
About Me
Hi, I’m Tunmise.
I’m a brand and digital designer with a knack for storytelling. I love designing brands and digital experiences people love and use. I focus on creating functional, seamless and aesthetically pleasing brands and digital experiences through the use of design elements, principles and processes.
I am currently open to collaboration, freelance and full-time roles. To get in touch with me, send a mail or connect with me on Linkedin or Twitter.
Other important links can be found at linktr.ee/tunmiseafape.
Feel free to say Hi
