Redesigning the Emagister Brand
As Design and Usability Manager
Emagister is one of the internet’s leading education and training directories, with 11 country websites, over a million courses and around 2 million visitors per month on average throughout the year.
The Context
Emagister had an urgent need to increase organic traffic and product engagement on its platform to better meet Google’s most recent changes in its algorithms, which championed unique content and user experience.
To learn more about this challenge, I reviewed existing data and conducted new search which, when combined, identified:
- The most promising areas to develop unique content for in Emagister’s course descriptions.
- An acceptable benchmark to achieve WCAG Level AA accessibility compliance.
- The most fertile areas in which a stronger and renewed brand positioning could positively influence e-commerce performance.
The Opportunity
I presented my findings to senior leadership, who agreed that a step-change in user experience, together with a brand refresh, had the best chance of achieving the desired business outcomes of increasing traffic to the platform, as well as meeting global usability and accessibility standards.
For this, I was trusted to manage two projects:
- A brand repositioning, which would ensure optimal emotional and rational resonance with Emagister’s audiences throughout the end-to-end user journey.
- A new Design System and platform UI overhaul that would apply the new visual language, meeting our usability and accessibility goals (read the full Case Study here).
The new UI and brand would then be launched together.
My Role
For the brand redesign project, I took the following actions:
- Shared my passion for, and potential of, a new brand positioning to the company to create a tangible sense of enthusiasm and complicity in it mission.
- Agreed on the Rebrand Programme key milestones, deliverables and dependencies with senior leaders to ensure project feasibility.
- Conducted a Brand Repositioning process with the company’s senior leadership which resulted in the new brand positioning of: The Value of Education.
- Combined internal resources with an external brand expert and a global graphic design agency to ensure a strong feeling of internal ownership of the company brand.
- Worked with graphic design expert Will Brady and the company’s leading Designer, Katharina Klodt on the new brand’s visual identity.
- Directed copywriters on strategic, end-to-end customer-facing messaging based on the new brand positioning to encourage users to follow the e-commerce journey.
- Hired and directed world-leading Graphic Design agency VASAVA to produce appealing and impactful visuals based on, and integrated with, the brand’s key messages.
- Integrated the new visual language and strategic creative visuals into the new Design System and UI overhaul deliverables.
- Produced and presented the Brand Vision and Manual to all company staff.
Proposed Solutions
I presented my findings to senior leadership, who agreed that a step-change in user experience, together with a brand refresh, had the best chance of achieving the desired business outcomes of increasing traffic to the platform, as well as meeting global usability and accessibility standards.
For this, I was trusted to manage two projects:
- A brand repositioning, which would ensure optimal emotional and rational resonance with Emagister’s audiences throughout the end-to-end user journey.
- A new Design System and platform UI overhaul that would apply the new visual language, meeting our usability and accessibility goals (read the full Case Study here).
The new UI and brand would then be launched together.
My Role
For the brand redesign project, I took the following actions:
- Shared my passion for, and potential of, a new brand positioning to the company to create a tangible sense of enthusiasm and complicity in it mission.
- Agreed on the Rebrand Programme key milestones, deliverables and dependencies with senior leaders to ensure project feasibility.
- Conducted a Brand Repositioning process with the company’s senior leadership which resulted in the new brand positioning of: The Value of Education.
- Combined internal resources with an external brand expert and a global graphic design agency to ensure a strong feeling of internal ownership of the company brand.
- Worked with graphic design expert Will Brady and the company’s leading Designer, Katharina Klodt on the new brand’s visual identity.
- Directed copywriters on strategic, end-to-end customer-facing messaging based on the new brand positioning to encourage users to follow the e-commerce journey.
- Hired and directed world-leading Graphic Design agency VASAVA to produce appealing and impactful visuals based on, and integrated with, the brand’s key messages.
- Integrated the new visual language and strategic creative visuals into the new Design System and UI overhaul deliverables.
- Produced and presented the Brand Vision and Manual to all company staff.
Results and Impact
The project delivery included:
- New Brand Positioning communications which reflected the business’ reason for being and created a renewed sense of purpose for all staff.
- New logo and visual palette that clearly differentiated the brand from its competitors while strongly resonating with both the brands positioning statement and the target audience.
- A strong set of creative visual and textual messaging in various language to use strategically across the end-to-end customer journey
- A new visual language for the platform’s UI which, while distinctive, met global usability and accessibility standards.
- New Brand Guidelines for internal and external use, that guaranteed continuity and evolution of the repositioned brand.
Brand impact
- Improved brand perception through a more modern yet timeless take on the world of Education.
- Clearer messaging through new, unique content and a more effective tone of voice.
- Better alignment with the target audience through messaging that resonates strongly at key moments of the customer journey.
- Enhanced user experience through better usability and accessibility.
- SEO enhancements through metadata refresh based on brand positioning messaging where appropriate.
- Greater employee engagement and a renewed sense of purpose.
Once applied to the platform, business outcomes within the first 3 months of the launch included double-figure increases in:
- Organic and non-organic visits thanks to better SEO performance.
- Bounce rate reduction thanks to more and better key information at the top of the page.
- Average session time thanks to improved usability and accessibility.
- E-commerce transactions thanks to better layout, UI components and increase in brand trust.
Brand Positioning
Brand Identity
Working with Will Brady and Katharina Klodt of Emagister on the new brand at a suitable location for intensive design work.
Brand Expression
Working with Barceona-based Vasava Studio and illustrator Hannah Edghill on Emagister´s first brand expression pieces.
Read next: Emagister UI Overhaul
Click below to see how the above brand was leveraged to redefine Emagister Product Design.
