GO Sharepoint Intranet - video ad
Problem: Produce a video for Google Ads campaign that runs under 2 minutes and introduces the brand to new potential customers
Project timeline: 4 weeks
Role: Visual Designer
Main responsibilities: video editing, illustration design, conceptual design, video production, storyboarding
Process
Step 1: Collaborative storyboard
Bringing together Marketing, Sales and Product teams, I have led the development of a storyboard. The storyboard captured the most important value points of the product and helped me to outline how to represent them visually in a coherent and effective way.
The job of the first screen is to capture attention and tell the viewer why they should care. Including the problem statement helps to achieve just that.
One of the first major edits I have made to the story board, is moving the logo visual to the second screen, and instead starting with a problem statement.
Problem statement makes for a strong initial hook and also a better way to capture attention of the audience who may be completely unfamiliar with the brand or even the concept of SharePoint intranet.
Preview from the final video:
Intro screen with problem statement
Step 2: Canvas design: Background and Transitions
Taking existing design as an inspiration, initially I went with the following visual for the backdrop.
I made a mistake designing an interaction so early on. Why a mistake? In the end, we needed to trim a few seconds from the video, and transitions added on a lot of extra time.
As a result, I designed a different transition that brought overall time down and I believes works even better visually.
Step 3: Interaction Design
Challenge 1: Animating the elements of the user flows that deliver the most user value but also broad enough for a broader audience to grasp
When approaching the design of this video, I led with the conviction that it is important to first and foremost underscore the value we create for the user.
So instead of focusing on features, we had loosely defined themes that at times a few features would fall under.
As a result, the task designing interactions was a little more complex despite having a ready product to work with.
Here is where user research came handy. I have specifically looked at the pain points that many users in the target audience struggled with and the features most praised by our existing customers.
The ones that made it to the video represented the overlap between the two.
While user research helped to define user flows to focus on, some of them were quite lengthy and here is where I have faced with another challenge:
Challenge 2: The shown part of user flows need to ensure the video doesn't unintentionally misrepresent what the product is able to do
This was a challenge because inevitably with complex flows I had to make cuts and at times add other animation components that would clearly communicate the value. Being so close to the product however also meant that I wasn't always able to see the forest for the trees, or in other words, know if I am unintentionally
making a certain action seem simpler than it actually is or worse - communicating something that product aren't able to do.
This challenge was resolved through doing short user testing sessions (guerilla style), specifically with people who are very removed from GO SharePoint Intranet or have little to no exposure to the product.
Below is an example of a cut that I am quite proud of.
It showcases the simplified version of user flow, yet captures the value proposition of the Recognition feature, without misrepresenting it.
Along with added confetti animation, I believe it communicates the message succinctly, while also creating two moments of delight:
1) Witnessing a successful completion of a task (recognition)
2) Associated celebratory emotion from confetti animation
Achieving a feeling of engagement and collaboration
The inspiration for this particular piece was a visceral experience of being on a large webinar style Zoom call or a Youtube live, seeing numerous reactions and comments going off on screen and creating that effect of excitement. Those interactive components are key in setting a certain mood within a digital experience, when the whole audience is muted and unable to make sounds as it would within an in-person setting.
Challenge 3: Humanizing while not unintentionally creating a perception of a small company
The initial visual to showcase the 'unlimited support' perk of GO product was meant to feature profile pics and names of the support team. The idea was to create a humanizing feeling and indirectly emphasize that tickets are handled by real people and not AI bots (a common fear of many users, especially in the scenarios that feel 'too good to be true').
However, some feedback we got from testing this idea is that while humanizing it also gives a perception of a small company and thereby a potential connotation that when things get busy there are not enough people to handle these requests.
One idea was to emphasize that the requests are answered promptly but then I stroke me. This screen should replicate the rest of the features and replicate an interaction - an action on the part of the user.
User reaches out to support team and gets a response right away. The email message shows the profile picture of the support team representative.
For the win.
The solution that arose from the desire to emphasize humanness while not creating any potential perceptions around the size of the team, actually ended up delivering even more value.
The support message also includes a potential use case, and thereby another opportunity to evoke resonance with existing pain points.