Design Language
Project Synopsis
Client
Fifth Third Bank
My Roles
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Design partner management
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Competitor research and analysis
- Experience principles development
- Design framework development
- High-fidelity prototyping
The last 10 years have brought profound changes to banking and financial services. For an industry that long had little reason to rethink how it does business, new fintechs and other innovative market entrants have carved need-based niches for consumers. Their impact has stirred traditional banks to think less about competing with each other, and more about competing against their customer's "last best experience." In my previous role as the head of Design Strategy at Fifth Third Bank, I led an exploratory that sought to understand how robust our design language could become, if we broke free from self-imposed industry constraints and thought more like a lifestyle brand.
Objectives
With global fintech investment topping $200 billion in 2021, traditional banks have had to rethink the strategies and approaches that will continue to drive success in their nearly 250-year-old industry. For Fifth Third Bank, part of that self-reflection extended to its existing design standards, leading to an exploration of what could be possible with a broader and deeper palette of brand expression. The objectives for this effort were to:
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Conduct an analysis of "last best experience" brands—brands considered best-in-class in their industry—and develop a POV on what makes them resonate for consumers
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Develop a design language framework that could allow for a broader and deeper palette for the bank's brand expressions
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Create a prototype for a new brand standards document that could build excitement and support among executive leadership for additional investment in design research and development.
Exploration
Leveraging industry reports and customer interviews, we began to identify dozens of brands that our target consumers frequent not out of necessity, but as a result of top-of-mind brand passion. We quickly identified themes across otherwise unrelated industries that allowed us to establish a set of universal experience principles—the key attributes that any great customer experience should offer. These principles became the foundation for the next stage of this body of work, where we broke down great brand experiences to their sensorial attributes.
Framework Development
For the purpose of our exploratory, the definition of a Design Language is a collection of creative assets that express a brand’s identity and become a key part of its equity through the memorable and sensorial interactions they help create. Using our benchmarks, we quickly found examples of expressions that demonstrated the intentional impact that a brand can have for each of the five senses in the right context.
Comparing these to the bank's exiting brand standards, a gap was identified that was limiting the brand's flexibility and design staff creativity. In large part, this gap was due to the industry's growing shift toward digital banking experiences.
This discovery spurred the direction for our proposed design language framework—a sensory wheel that could visualize for any brand interaction which design attributes could be most impactful given the product, service or situation.
Prototyping
To further establish the benefits of a sensory-based palette for Fifth Third's design language, I led the creation of a series of prototypes including a set of brand guidelines that demonstrated the possibilities of design attributes beyond just color, logo and type. These artifacts ultimately helped to elevate the visibility of deficiencies in the bank's existing brand standards, and helped fortify a case to justify an enterprise level rebranding effort kicked off the following year.
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