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To create an expression of the new Citrix brand that visually unites all Citrix products
The old Citrix brand was not well implemented across Citrix products. Each product looked different and as a whole did not appear related.
Here is a look at what the new Citrix brand would look like. These elements would become the building blocks that would guide my work applying this new brand to the product.
Color Pallet, Illustrations, Iconography, Typography
The initial color pallette that was delivered from the brand team had some inconsistencies across the ramps. One of our designers, Corey Groce, analyzed the color pallette and made recommendations on how to create more consistency across the ramps.
One of the most significant problems we discovered was that as color got warmer, it unproportionately became darker and desaturated compared to the cool colors. We knew not having consistent ramps would be problematic to the product and create problems for our implementation. Ultimately our recommendations were incorporated back into the main brand palette, and both marketing and product utilized the same updated pallet. The image below shows the new colors.
The brand and marketing team had hired Matt Blease to create illustrations, however licensing restrictions limited their usage. I worked with Ramotion, a thrid-party vendor, to create illustrations specifically designed for our product needs.
With foundational brand elements established, we had the building blocks to begin exploring the full application of the new brand to Citrix products. I organized a week-long intensive design sprint with designers from across the enterprise to kick off this process.
Before the workshop, I spent a lot of time meticulously planning and organizing the activities for the week. This included everything from lining up guest speakers to assembling six 4x8 foam core boards to setting up restaurant reservations.
Many of the designers on this team had never worked together before this week. To help facilitate introductions, I asked each designer to prepare a single slide that captured both professional and personal aspects of themselves to help break the ice.
Each team member presented and demoed their respective products. This allowed everyone to level set and completely understand the vast Citrix ecosystem.
Analyzing the visual landscape of our competitors was critical to ensuring the Citrix product brand alignment did not mimic or replicate visual elements of our competitors. Conducting this analysis also provided insight to the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors informing where we need to distinguish our identity.
In today’s enterprise environment, it is critical that companies achieve consumer grade experiences. Evaluating some of the most current and best consumer experiences allowed the team to think outside of their current context and stimulated our creativity.
The essence of the new brand needed to be soaked in by all the team members. I created an 8’ x 4’ mood board of all the new branding assets and displayed it in the design studio to help keep the new brand always present and provide inspiration. I also invited guest speakers from brand and marketing to help the team gain a deeper understanding of the research behind the new brand, how customers currently perceive us and how we want them to perceive us moving forward through the new branding.
Our in-depth exploration of the brand colors helped the design team find the boundaries of appropriate color use. Working with the colors allowed the team to become more familiar with the new brand pallet and understand its limitations.
The eraser activity allowed our design team to freely question what visual elements were truly needed in our UIs. The designers were encouraged to be aggressive and find the limits of what was possible. This activity allowed us to more fully understand the brand principle of using space as a design element.
At the end of each day, I held a meeting to review the day's progress. All members of the global Product Design team and all stakeholders attended. To help capture the feel and energy of each day, I also put together video and photo clips into small highlight movies.
Each day's work was also documented and shared out via email across the entire Product Design team.
With a foundational understanding of the new brand, I allowed the team to begin concepting. My main goal was to keep the team from rabbit-holing and to stay focused on high visibility universal patterns e.g. Header, Navigation, etc.
After two days of concepting, the team had made phenomenal progress! The screens below show three different Citrix products. Notice the similarities of each product and how the new brand was beginning to come to life across our product ecosystem.
Not only was the workshop a success from a product brand alignment standpoint, but it was an experience that created lifelong bonds for the designers.
“This was the best week of my entire career!”
“I had an amazing time - the most exciting work I’ve done at Citrix!”
“This was incredible!”
Over the following weeks and months, the team continued to hone and polish their work.
Following the concepting phase, I coordinated research efforts across the various product teams to validate our work and further refine the concepts as they were applied to specific product offerings.
In 2020, Citrix Product Design used a survey to evaluate the desirability and attractiveness of the new brand in the context of Citrix Workspace. Using word association, rating scales, and one-to-one comparisons, participants gave their feedback comparing the previous Workspace UI to one created using the new brand. This report validated the expression of the new Brand identity and findings on metaphors informed the type of imagery and illustrations used in the product.
Citrix Product Design used online, unmoderated A/B testing to evaluate several icon sets within the context of Citrix products. Participants (N=147) experienced one of three sets of icons in a variety of task completion and word association exercises. The team collected metrics on efficacy, efficiency, perceived difficulty, and attractiveness. Scores were nearly identical between the three sets, suggesting that individual styling did not have a significant impact on the usability of the core icons.
Citrix Product Design used a survey to understand the attractiveness and preference between potential icon sets. Eighty (80) potential end-users provided feedback on their preference and initial impression through word associations and rating scales. Findings showed preference for more detail in the iconography, heavier line weight, and smaller modifier badges.
Citrix Product Design conducted moderated sessions with Citrix end users to test the usability of a Citrix Workspace prototype that leveraged the new brand. Participants completed a series of foundational tasks to evaluate key aspects of the design, such as findability, scanability, and recoverability. During these sessions, participants also gave feedback on design aesthetics and overall impression of the product. This research resulted in a reconsideration of some icons, understanding how new concepts like “actions” are understood by users, and guidelines for how content is displayed (i.e., horizontal, grid, etc.) based on intended use.
The most challenging aspect of this multi-year project came in the actual implementation phase. I partnered with the Marketing/Brand team and the Citrix Office of Transformation to develop a strategy that would allow the new brand to be applied gradually over six months.
I led the team in identifying the most practical approach to allow the brand to be applied to existing patterns within each product. Guidelines were developed, and product teams worked with their designers to implement a prioritized list of changes beginning with the most essential elements of Logo, typography, and color changes.
Below are some artifacts from this process reflecting our strategy and approach.
“Keith has been extraordinary in his ability to navigate an ambiguous set of requirements effectively and productively.”
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