Impact Through Design
The case study shows the process of designing custom digital illustrations for a Transportation service: from the idea and sketches to the complex digital artwork.
My Approach
"Design with no research has no value and is nothing more than an opinion. In order to solve any problem, you need to understand and define that problem. Once you understand, you can ideate by considering potential constraints. The next step is to test your design, reiterate and get into the feedback loop." _Hoda Pedram
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Goal
What I wanted was to create illustrations in which characters would reflect the nature of the service and the benefits it brings to improve their lives both physically and mentally.
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Target Market
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Men and women ages 18+ who travel frequently for business (or pleasure)
Personas
I created 3 personas based on 3 types of typical customers of Uber service and their pain points.
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Gina
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30 years old
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Programmer
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Lives in New York
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Travels for work within New York every day
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Pain point: Lack of parking
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Suzanne
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18 years old
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College student
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Lives in DC
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Travels for party and meeting friends frequently
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Pain point: Hard to commute with public transportation
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Goerge
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40 years old
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Busy businessman
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Lives in Oakland
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Travels for work to SF every day
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Pain point: Wasting a lot of time in traffic for rush hours
Ideation
The first stage of the task required creating a set of sketches of people using Uber's service and enjoying life.
​First Persona:
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Gina
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30 years old
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Programmer
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Lives in New York
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Travels for work within New York every day
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Pain point: Lack of parking
"Take Your Time"
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Have your coffee, while your co-workers are looking for an empty spot to park!
In this illustration, we show a woman who enjoys her coffee, and her gesture, her face, and the smooth line above her represent the feeling of being comfortable.
Second Persona:
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Suzanne
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18 years old
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College student
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Lives in DC
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Travels for parties and meeting friends frequently
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Pain point: Hard to commute with public transportation
"Anywhere, Anytime"
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In this illustration, we show a woman who sits on a map, and her gesture creates the feeling that she has full control and power over anywhere she wants to go.
Third Persona
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Goerge
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40 years old
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Busy businessman
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Lives in Oakland
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Travels for work to SF every day
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Pain point: Wasting much time in traffic during rush hours
"Anywhere, Anytime"
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In this illustration, we show them how they can experience a worry-free journey with Uber. The character is reading a newspaper while sitting comfortably, and Uber does the rest for him!
I added some clouds and a balloon above him to enforce the feeling of being worry free!
The trend of using illustrations for communication has opened a wider perspective of storytelling in the interfaces. Brands use it to tell their story, set the atmosphere, send the message or present the benefits in a way that corresponds to the mood, tone, and voice of the platform.
Original characters help to make the interactions more human-like, set strong visual associations with the real world, and instantly transfer the needed mood. That was the case with this visual design.