Digital, DIALED UP
AT&T — no longer ‘just a phone company’ — negotiates vast customer connections, dynamic technologies, and evolving media offerings. To better position themselves to scale with flexibility, I led an effort to rethink, restructure, and redesign the communications to do the same.
OVERVIEW
The Newsletter was an AT&T email circulation, consisting of content from various service and product channels. Millions of unique, personalized communications 'blasted' every other week. I was tasked to streamline the program constructs, from the approach to the presentation.
INVOLVEMENT
Strategy, UX / UI Design, Motion Design, Content Guidelines
STRATEGY
START BACK
AT SQUARE ONE
I began with assessment. I started back at square one – assessing the current email solution and the squares or cards it was composed of. From design audits, business objectives, and technical parameters gathered, I began to see the current picture.
3 business drivers would impact and influence the redesign.
1. CONTENT VARIETY
Newsletter managed product, service, channel information, and more. We needed order in how we displayed and received content — a stringent design system and content guidelines.
Incongruent layouts, colors schemes, button sizes, content lengths
2. DYNAMIC DISPLAY
Each email was unique and personalized (based on business rules). We could not account for the visual sequence of tiles. We needed a more thoughtful experiential approach.
Colors, tile seams, and images run together
3. RAPID DEPLOYMENT
The email launched every two weeks and was layered with complexities. We needed to find balance between the most efficient process and design solution.
Design Complexity • Process Complexity • Efficiency
TAKEAWAY
The Newsletter needed to be scalable, flexible, and efficient, all with the intention to better engage the customer. I needed to build a more thoughtful user experience with purposeful and consistent design integrations. So I approached this design effort like a product.
GET TO THE GOODS
With the assessment complete (and a foundation of drivers in place), I applied definition to the design, UX / UI, content, and marketing strategies. Formalized rules would lead to a consistent user experience with amplified engagement.
DESIGN
The goal for the Newsletter re-design was to clean up the visual and layout complexities. From a customer experience standpoint, removing distractions would drive action. Accounting for modularity, I defined the tile types, clarified the palette, opened up the layouts, applied unique image treatments, and added animation (and levity).
COLOR
The Newsletter became cohesive with a soft gray tile use throughout. Modern gradients, led by an updated AT&T blue pulled focus to CTAs and primary content.
SPACE
I opened up the layouts, padding, and spacing. A ‘grout’ was added to demark ideas AND obscure visual runs. The content was conscientiously reduced. And a unique Image treatment broke the ‘visual frame’.
MOVEMENT
While the pattern and repetition created user understanding, we needed a touch of contrast and levity. I added motion tiles with fun animations to, as they say, delight.
CONTENT GUIDELINES
Our content guidelines formalized proper use of the new design tiles / system and marketing best-practices. We defined usage, word / character counts, and more. Internally, I directed deeper implementation, but these guardrails helped get everyone moving in the same direction.
THE 2020 AT&T NEWSLETTER REDESIGN
Without further ado, let's take a look at the redesigned, restructured solution.
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