Atlantic Business Technologies, Inc.

Category: Branding

  • Try our simple hack for choosing accessible brand colors.

    Color – it’s one of the most expressive, subjective elements in life. Color surrounds us everywhere we go and shares a powerful connection with our emotions. And yet ironically — most of us are too blind to see just how lucky we are to have the ability to see in color. A lot of people today cannot see as many — or in some cases, any — colors like the rest of us.

    It’s no surprise that our world is changing rapidly and becoming more dependent on technology. Digital experiences, such as browsing websites or applications, has become critical to our daily lives. When designing these experiences, it can be easy to overlook color accessibility.

    Recently, I was asked about my design process and how I go about inclusivity – in particular with color accessibility. I realized how many people were not aware of accessible design.

    So, let’s talk about color accessibility and how to go about tackling these challenges in your own digital experiences.

    Why is accessibility so important?

    Digital experiences can be expressive to everyone, regardless of color deficiencies. As creative professionals, we have the power to make the lives of those affected better — to have a sense of belonging. It starts with planning and designing for accessibility. It involves crafting experiences for all people, including those of us with visual, speech, auditory, physical, or cognitive disabilities. Let’s create a web we’re all proud of: an inclusive web made for and consumable by all people.

    Color accessibility is important because it enables people with visual impairments or color vision deficiencies to interact with digital experiences in the same way as their non-visually-impaired counterparts.

    [pull_quote]If you have to squint at any point in a website or web app to read or articulate something, there’s an accessibility problem.[/pull_quote]

    While we often think of visual impairments as long-term or permanent, many of us may experience short-term visual impairments. Have you ever had the sun glare into your eyes or your monitor when trying to browse the web or use an app? Ever forget your glasses or contacts? What about trying to read those digital billboards from a distance? Even those with the sharpest vision – corrected or not – will have trouble reading or comprehending your brand at some point.

    Still not convinced? In 2017, The World Health Organization estimated that roughly 217 million people live with some form of moderate to severe vision impairment. Ouch. That statistic alone is reason enough to not only consider — but mandate — design for accessibility.

    Related: Get a Free Website Accessibility Audit

    Apart from being an ethical best practice, there are also potential legal implications for not complying with regulatory requirements around accessibility. Did you know: In 2017, plaintiffs filed at least 814 federal lawsuits about allegedly inaccessible websites, including several class actions.

    Related: A Lack of Accessibility Puts Beyonce’s Website in the Spotlight

    Designing digital experiences with color accessibility in mind can also have a positive economic impact on a brand by increasing its user base and conversion rate. Similar to poor usability, poor accessibility can drive up abandonment rates, which can lead to lost revenue and ultimately lost brand value. Making sure a brand uses colors that are strong in contrast will only help improve on this economic impact.

    What makes a color palette accessible?

    Digital experiences should follow the guidelines outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to be accessible. Color accessibility is required for Level AA and Level AAA.

    Level AA

    For digital experiences that must comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the following are the bare minimum requirements for color contrast:

    • Minimum 4.5:1 for normal text
    • Minimum 3:1 for large text, graphics, and UI components (e.g. input borders)

    Level AAA

    For digital experiences that must comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AAA, the following are the bare minimum requirements for color contrast:

    • Minimum 7:1 for normal text
    • Minimum 4.5:1 for large text, graphics, and UI components (e.g. input borders)

    Note — Large text refers to a minimum of 24px or 19px bold.

    Ensuring your designs are color accessible doesn’t have to be difficult.

    There are two types of testing for color accessibility: quantitative and qualitative. The best way to ensure your designs are accessible is to test with actual people! If someone cannot use or read your product, then there’s likely a contrast issue. Qualitative testing can be time-consuming and costly.

    For inexpensive testing, there are color contrast tools you can use online. These tools measure the contrast ratio between a foreground color and background color. The higher the ratio, the more likely a person can distinguish it.

    Here’s a typical scenario I go through all the time when designing digital experiences, such as websites or web applications:

    1. The customer provides me with their branding colors.
    2. I take these colors and run them through a color contrast tool to see what combinations I can use (according to the WCAG). I’ll also check brand colors against commonly-used black and white.
    3. When colors fail to meet the requirements, I start nudging the color’s lightness to the closest value that passes.
    4. Rinse and repeat

    Does this sound familiar? The color palette I am given may not be the same palette I recommend. As you can imagine, it’s a difficult conversation to have with a customer that they cannot use their colors the way they want.

    I’ll admit that finding elegant color combinations for Level AAA is pretty tough, but for standard body text, I almost always try to get a combination that works for that level of compliance. It’s just a better experience to have a strong contrast ratio for dense content.

    ColorShark has a beautiful, intuitive interface for finding accessible colors.

    Single color contrast tool to rule them all.

    To help creative professionals be better equipped, there are a lot of tools out there, such as Colorable and ColorSafe. While these tools are great at doing a simple comparison between colors, I have to manually tweak combinations that do not pass compliance. To help automate this, I designed and developed a color contrast tool, called ColorShark. I wanted ColorShark to provide people with the ability to not only provide real-time visual indicators of color combinations, their respective contrast ratios, and adjustment sliders to hue, saturation, and lightness, but also automatically detect and suggest the closest compliant colors – if your combination is not accessible.

    Going back to that typical scenario, using a tool like ColorShark saves me time and budget in getting an accessible color palette for a customer and their brand. Currently, I haven’t found another tool that can provide that sense of speed and exploration.

    Let’s build an accessible web.

    Don’t take the ability to see color for granted. As part of inclusive design, creative professionals must promote best practices to make sure people – regardless of color deficiencies – can use websites and web applications.

    Tools like ColorShark can drastically improve your exposure to color accessibility and give you the means of expanding your audience. You’ll also feel better that you’re being more inclusive!

    Need help with color accessibility?
    Web Accessibility Services

    We designed and built ColorShark. Got an idea for a web app you’d like to make? Let’s work together.
    Application Development Services

  • Building Brand Credibility With Visual Design

    Building Brand Credibility With Visual Design

    Think about a brand you experienced in the past that made you feel happy. It could be a one-time thing, or maybe it’s a brand you’ve interacted with frequently. Think about the things that made you feel this way, like delightful products, friendly customer service, or honest communication. Brands can have a powerful impact on people’s lives and emotions, and it’s safe to say that they don’t go in hoping for a substandard experience.

    Similar to a walking inside a store, your website or application is one of many gateways for your audience to engage with your brand. How do you think your audience feels about your brand right now?

    Branding demands commitment. It demands a commitment to connect with people and stir their emotions. It demands a commitment to imagination. Many brands are only given one shot to engage people. Regardless of what you believe, people will quickly evaluate you and your brand when looking at your website or application.

    The care you put into your website and brand reflect the attention you put into your product and services. Consider this: if your content is valuable, someone might assume you believe in clear communication, honesty, and care for customers. If your content is wasteful, contains broken links, or is surrounded by confusing navigation, someone might assume you lack a commitment to quality. Don’t do the latter.

    Establishing and growing a brand—including a website or application —takes careful craftsmanship, commitment, and dedication. Brands are organic in nature, so they need to be cared for over time or they’ll eventually die off. The way in which you approach branding can allow you to speak volumes about your priorities, culture, trustworthiness, and level of expertise.

    Nike—first and foremost—promotes beauty in their products to build brand credibility.

    Is Visual Appeal Enough to Create a Trustworthy Brand?

    Are there any intrinsic biases that we have as a species that prevent us from making calculated and good decisions? Yes, there are. Mainly beauty.

    Beauty can influence whether we decide to walk into a store in person or explore deeper into a store online. It’s quite fascinating to observe how our behaviors and inclinations translate between offline and online existences.

    As aesthetically-oriented humans, we are psychologically hardwired to trust beautiful people. In fact, research conducted by the University of Melbourne found that visually attractive websites or applications were perceived as more trustworthy than those that were unattractive.

    Credibility begins with aesthetics. Whether or not a website or application has credible content, a beautiful user interface can give people the impression that the brand pays attention to detail and quality.

    If your organization does not value design at its core, your brand—and your organization—will inevitably fail.

    However, visual appeal alone isn’t enough to make your brand trustworthy. Beauty is only skin deep, right? The largest source of frustration from people on the web is the inability to find the right information. What’s important here is that your website or application should not only have a professional appearance, but also should have both logical structure and friendly navigation.

    Connecting Brand Value to Real People

    Pretty website or application—check. Logical structure—check. Friendly navigation—check. Valuable content—uh oh! Ultimately people will still struggle to get what they came for if your content isn’t written properly and adds value.

    Common Reasons Your Content Fails:

    • It’s too vague, complex, or full of jargon.
    • It’s either too shallow or too full of meaningless words.
    • It’s incorrect, outdated, or unverified.
    • It’s simply boring.
    • Timing is off: it’s not customized to a user’s journey.

    Even if you have information perfectly aligned the way your audience wants it, timing can also determine a content’s value. Providing the right amount of information at the right time is the key. A solid content strategy can help your brand find the right balance, presenting users with highly relevant information depending on their pain points.

    Characteristics of Effective Content:

    • Speaks to the human reader.
    • Tells the reader what they need to know, when they need to know it.
    • Reduces confusion through consistent, concise wording.
    • Provides value and freshness.

    Additionally, where appropriate, effective content shows personality, telling the audience that the brand has the capacity to truly appreciate what matters the most to people.

    Simple & Effective Ways to Build Brand Credibility

    With passion and attention to detail, you can design a website or application that expresses your brand while building credibility. Let’s go over a few of the commonly-used, proven design principles that can help build that brand credibility.

    Design “with people”—not “for people”

    It’s important to understand your audience and what their objectives are so that you can connect with them. Are they here to perform an action? Soak up information? Interact with a particular process? Rather than making risky assumptions, design alongside your audience to meet their needs. It’s not only good practice to be more inclusive with them, but it will also add more credibility to your brand if they feel like they are being heard.

    I believe as creative professionals, it’s not only important for us to run designs through tests to get a quantitative measure, but also to test qualitatively with humans who will actually use the end-product.

    Provide Clear Navigation

    Whether it’s a website or an application, navigation is one of the critical ways to allow your audience to discover your brand’s products, services, and information they seek. Every action a person takes with your brand has risk.
    Your audience may be saying:

    • Is what I’m looking for here? No, wait… there? Umm…
    • How does this work? Ohh… is this clickable?
    • Where am I at? Ugh, forget it – I’ll google it.

    Is your audience willing to take a risk and explore deeper into your brand to find value, or will they become frustrated and leave? Is your brand willing to take a chance on that? Good labeling practices can alleviate those risks.

    Everything should be organized and labeled in a meaningful way that makes the most sense to your audience. Stick with conventions and do not get overly creative, unless you want to risk hindering brand exploration and reduce brand confidence.

    Don’t Sacrifice Usability for SEO

    Believe me, the last thing you want to do is write your content in such a way that’s only meant for a robot—e.g. Google—to read. Search engines are great at understanding the type of information you have, however, they cannot decide whether your brand is worth buying into. Only people can decide that.

    Focus on a people-first content strategy and allow your brand to speak naturally to your audience. Search engine optimization (SEO) should not dictate your message. Instead, use keyword research to see what topics your audience is interested in, and hold off on optimization until this human-centric content has been written.

    Present Information at the Appropriate Time

    It’s important to guide your audience through every step of their journey efficiently. Throughout their journeys, information needs will vary. For example, a user may begin by trying to see if you offer the services they need. On another visit, they may be interested in learning about your company’s processes. If you deliver all of this information at once, the user could be overwhelmed or discouraged with difficulty finding the information they need. On the other hand, not showing enough information can make you look like you’re hiding something.

    As part of your content strategy, consider the context you’re presenting to your audience and disperse your information accordingly.

    Delight Your Users Whenever Possible

    Delighting your audience may vary depending on the industry you are in, but make no mistake, great design can and should delight all the same. Whether it’s the subtle animation of a button, the unique style of a photo filter, or the clever integration of a Konami code easter egg— plan something different to surprise your audience with.

    Often times, it’s the little things that make the most impact, while showing there are real people behind your brand. We’re all human—so let your brand connect with us.

    Final Thoughts on Branding

    Branding is about creating a difference, adding value, and connecting with people. Life’s purpose is the same thing, right? What story will your life—your brand—tell people next.

    This article was originally posted by Mark Riggan on Medium. 

  • Do Online Visitors Like You? Really, Really Like You?

    Do Online Visitors Like Using Your Website?

    Usability is a big topic in web design, but it often feels like an abstract concept to business owners. They want their sites to be more usable and engaging, but what does that really mean? And what are online visitors looking for?

    When your website is as usable as possible, customers stay longer and interact with your content more. It’s not hard to understand why. Think of all the things in your life that you have chosen – like appliances, apps, or automobiles – because you like using them. There are many other products you could have purchased that would do the same things, but you chose the ones you did (at least partially) because you liked their usability.

    More usability means increased marketing power and higher revenue. But how do you make customers love your website?

    Make Your Website Faster

    You may not realize it, but there are several things you can do to speed up your website and have it load more quickly for visitors. You can:

    • Upgrade your web hosting for a few dollars a month
    • Take away over-sized images
    • Remove unnecessary plug-ins.

    These might not seem like major improvements to your website, but they all give customers a better user experience. No one likes waiting for a website to load, so don’t frustrate them with slow pages.

    Maximize the Readability of Your Content

    The readability of your website has two distinct parts. The first is the organization of your writing. Small paragraphs are easier to scan and organize than long blocks of unbroken text. They feel less overwhelming to visitors who may skim before reading your messages from beginning to end. The second component has to do with word choice. For maximum readability, avoid using unnecessarily large words or jargon that might not be familiar to your readers.

    Engage With Visitors

    Your customers might not be concerned with the same topics or details as you. As a rule of thumb, it’s better to cater to their interests over your own. In other words, know that you have a marketing message that needs to get across, but layer them in with content that’s focused on the subjects your readers and customers want to know about.

    Make Your Site Easy to Scan and Navigate

    You might not obsess over the navigation and search features within your website, but they can be a source of frustration for your visitors. If it’s easy for them to find exactly what they’re looking for, they’re likely to hang around your site. Conversely, if someone who isn’t a loyal customer can’t find what they want on your website, they may leave quickly and visit a competitor.

    Atlantic BT faced this issue when working with the North Carolina Department of Revenue. We all know that taxes are often complicated. A website that is difficult to navigate doesn’t help anyone during tax season. ABT  reorganized and modernized the DOR site, adding user-friendly access to essential pages. We also made sure that the site was mobile friendly for taxpayers on the go. The DOR re-design focused heavily on the user. Since then, the site has seen increased traffic and usage.

    Ready to Boost Your Online Marketing Results?

    At Atlantic BT, we are experts in web development for companies and institutions of all sizes. If you want to put these ideas in action – and get some customized recommendations for your organization – contact us today to schedule a free consultation!

  • How to Earn an A+ in Strong Higher Ed Branding

    130 years of history.

    100 educational disciplines.

    6,000 students.

    1 dedicated camel. 

    It all adds up to Campbell University.

    University president Dr. J. Bradley Creed wanted to expand Campbell’s message to reach a nationwide audience. In order to do so, Campbell University needed to strengthen their higher ed brand. As a result, they chose Atlantic BT as their branding partner.

    Researching the Existing Higher Ed Brand

    Atlantic BT believes that effective knowledge comes from extensive research. We began the brand project accordingly with a two-fold discovery process. First, we needed to establish a base knowledge of the current Campbell brand. This required us to analyze its strengths and weaknesses. Next, we needed a clear understanding of Campbell’s goals. Additionally, we needed to know which aspects of the current brand could change and which must remain the same.

    [general_cta subtitle=”Higher Ed Digital Transformations” title=”Learn more about our client success stories.” button_text=”View Our Work” url=”/our-work/” type=”button button–primary”]

    First, we learned the Campbell brand didn’t apply to one central school domain. There were multiple schools and departments within the university, each with their own purpose and message. However, they all fell under the same banner. Balancing unity with autonomy was tricky. It required thoughtful communication and consideration. This in mind, ABT spent time with each department. During these meetings, they would share their messaging and brand needs. Listening was key to the entire branding process. It was imperative to understanding and appreciating the entire Campbell story.

    Several surveys, created by ABT, measured how many people across the region, state, and country had heard of Campbell University. We also made note of what their perceptions were. We conducted interviews among stakeholders inside and outside the university. This ranged from faculty to administrators to students. ABT was able to learn which aspects of the university’s existing brand were already strongly established. By comparison, we could also see which areas required more emphasis. 

    Collaborating to Build the New Higher Ed Brand

    After outlining the current status of the Campbell brand and crafting a plan to move forward, ABT began the creative process in earnest. We worked alongside Campbell’s Communications and Marketing team. Both teams would come together weekly to discuss and share brand ideas and concepts. Campbell would bring new brand mark designs to the table. ABT would provide feedback. Accordingly, adjustments would be made to make Campbell’s vision stronger.

    While the branding project was being developed, ABT was in the process of redesigning Campbell’s website. Capturing Campbell’s chosen design aesthetic and enabling it to be effective on the website helped improve the UX for all consumers. Concurrently, it elevated the standing of the Campbell brand.    

    During the rebranding process, one thing became certain; Kivett Hall would be the literal icon of Campbell University. It was a powerful symbol of triumph in the face of loss. The building represented resolve in times of struggle. Most importantly, it resonated deeply within the Campbell community. Clearly, it was a source of pride in their university. Our teams worked together to establish the new brand mark featuring Kivett Hall.

    Uniting the Past and the Future

    Kivett hall Campbell brand mark
    The new brand mark of Campbell University featured Kivett Hall.

    But even as Campbell honored their past, the brand also needed to look forward. The university was founded with a Baptist affiliation. Their Christian identity stood out among other colleges state and nationwide. Campbell would never deter from this core part of their identity. However, in their search for the best possible students, they wanted to welcome all people, regardless of religion, to their institution. This introduced a unique brand challenge. How could we strike the balance between the past and the future? It was necessary to maintain the Christian identity that was the school’s specific selling point. But it was equally important to expand that ideal into something more universal and inclusive.

    ABT was ready to address this challenge. We wanted to craft a brand slogan that managed to convey two things. It would encompass the spiritual foundation Campbell stood on. Also, it would avoid any specificity that could unintentionally isolate the university. We worked through phrasing with the Campbell team. The aim was to capture the essence of living a faith-based life and how it could connect with a diverse student base. ‘Lead With Purpose’ was the result. It effectively established Campbell as a place where students can prepare to grow as leaders in their field. Campbell students shared a common dedication to serving a higher purpose—and by extension, the world around them.

    The Future of the New Higher Ed Brand

    In order for a brand to grow into an established foundation, it needs to be timeless. It must be able to evolve with changing times and a variety of media. Furthermore, the brand must maintain continuity. This in mind, we provided application guidelines for the Campbell team. These guidelines provided long term support. They would help the team make the strongest choices for brand use in the future.

    The guidelines represented an official ‘handing over’ of the project. They allowed others to use the brand effectively in all areas of marketing and communication. We offered suggestions on how to adapt the brand across various media. For example, we specified that Campbell use an orange color that would be compliant with common web browsers. These suggestions were outlined with photographic examples and content formats.

    Empowering our clients to use the brands we helped define is a vital part of an ABT partnership. Campbell University was built on a foundation of community. They accommodate to their growing ranks. Most importantly, they always make room for more. Campbell’s new higher ed brand is one of leadership and camaraderie. It allows the university family to grow. Atlantic BT is proud of the partnership established with Campbell. The work created by two united teams fulfilled the Campbell ideal of leading with purpose.

  • How One Growing University Found Genuine Brand Unity

    Campbell University has grown tremendously over the past decade. We’ve proudly added 3 new schools and dozens of additional majors and programs. We expanded to new campuses. Throughout this growth, one thing has remained clear. The university website continues to be our most effective recruiting and engagement tool with prospective students.

    The old campbell.edu did not engage our community with a united message and brand.

    However, our 10 distinct colleges and schools often operated their websites independently. There would be little to align them to the main campus site. This contributed to a disjointed experience on www.campbell.edu. For years our university site was a collection of independent websites. Each site was only connected by a central university hub. This was no surprise for a 130-year-old institution. There’s been a lot of time for schools and departments to move in different directions. Every branch was chasing their own aims and feeling passionately about their brands.

    Notice how different Campbell’s pages could be from one department to another. We had to bridge this brand gap.

    Campbell.edu was a clear reflection of that decentralized reality. There was little visual and navigational consistency. We also lacked a clear URL naming structure. Our primary CMS was built on a structural plug-in that was no longer supported. Two of our colleges and schools operated outside of the current CMS (including one built in a programming language that we could not support). This left us with ten unique websites with unique goals, unique design, and unique code bases. Furthermore, it was all managed by a staff of two web developers and one web designer.

    The Rebrand and Redesign of Campbell.edu

    In the spring of 2016, the University Communications & Marketing team decided to tackle these issues. As a result, two major resource intensive projects were conceived. It was time for a rebranding initiative and a digital transformation of our website. But we needed a partner to help us tackle these large-scale projects. The projects required a team who could work in a timely manner. Ultimately, they needed to deliver the results our university deserved.

    We found a partner in Atlantic BT. They recognized the importance of a global mindset. This didn’t mean ten different sites with their own voice and tone. It meant one unified site with multiple branches. ABT worked in tandem with our marketing and communications team. Together, they looked for every opportunity to build commonalities across schools and programs in both content and design.

    Campbell worked alongside ABT’s designers, content strategists and developers. The entire team was able to centralize all of our schools and units into a single WordPress multi-site installation. They ultimately deployed 21 subdomains over a 20 month span. Our teams collaborated throughout the process on content auditing, updating, and getting the new site ready for deployment. The ABT team helped steer the development of compliant brand-consistent global headers and footers. They also created a flexible band system which permitted school sites to highlight specific content that was unique to their students and audience groups.

    This gave all our schools and programs what they wanted—the ability to be distinctive—while maintaining the global look and feel that Campbell.edu needed. It helped that our teams solicited ideas and feedback from all these schools throughout the process. This increased their buy-in and made it easier to tailor content to their needs.

    homepage of campbell university

    Campus Reception of New Brand and Site

    The feedback from our campus units regarding the website transformation has been overwhelmingly positive. By approaching the project from a “global” perspective, the entire site maintains a consistent visual identity with site-wide structure for search and navigation. Schools were pleased with the relative speed of launch and flexibility regarding their own content. More than 100 content contributors have been trained to update sections of the website. They have also been eager to learn the CMS system. Each school and unit was able to customize the navigation and content prior to launch. Consequently, campus users have been able to focus on maintaining content for their programs. They no longer need to worry about design or development issues.  

    The Campbell web development team has also experienced benefits through the partnership. Atlantic BT handles security and server maintenance. Hence, Campbell developers are free to focus on the current update needs of the website. The ABT developers and project managers are promptly responsive with any issues that may arise.

    We continue to work with ABT for site improvement, building out new features that will help support all of our users on www.campbell.edu. Together, we are responding to the changing needs of the web. We’re on good footing—and ready to face the next year ahead as a unified university with a consistent online foundation.

     

  • How ABT Empowered Campbell.edu to Lead with Purpose

    How Can a Hidden Gem Become a Preeminent Private University?

    130 years after opening, Campbell University was an established presence in NC’s higher education landscape. The Baptist-affiliated private college had graduated generations of state leaders in business, medicine, and law. However, only 19% of American adults had even heard of Campbell University—and several of these incorrectly assumed the college was connected with the soup brand. If the university was going to attract elite students on a national scale, something needed to change. Campbell began this process by hiring a new president, J. Bradley Creed.

    [pull_quote]I have heard others describe Campbell as a hidden gem and the best kept-secret in North Carolina. They meant that as a compliment, but I want people all across North Carolina, the region, and the nation to know the Campbell name and to recognize Campbell as one of the preeminent private universities that prepares students to make a difference in the lives of others through work, service, and leadership. –J. Bradley Creed, President-Campbell University[/pull_quote]

    Because 97% of prospective students begin their college search by visiting that university’s website, Campbell needed its website to excite and engage students with a meaningful experience that captured the “feel” of Campbell’s campus and student life. It was also vital for the site to be easy to navigate across Campbell’s different programs as well as optimized for mobile users (mobile traffic to Campbell.edu had increased 1277% since 2011). This inspired the president’s new initiative: a major rebranding and new design for Campbell.edu to expand the university’s reputation across the country. The university chose Atlantic BT as their digital partner to handle the rebrand and site design. 

    [pull_quote]When we started our conversation with Campbell, what really helped ABT stand out was our proven process for tackling this kind of large scale initiative with multiple stakeholders. Our experience around user research was especially compelling. They had multiple stakeholders across their vast program offerings and alumni, and we wanted all of them to feel represented by the new site and brand. To make that happen, we designed digital surveys, brand workshops, interviews, and test groups to get a 360 view of Campbell’s identity. This in-depth research guided all of our design and brand work. –Eric Lloyd, Senior Business Development Manager -Atlantic BT[/pull_quote]

    Designing and Developing Campbell’s New Digital Ecosystem

    The scope of ABT’s redesign required a new navigation, search capabilities, and reimagined user experience (for both desktop and mobile). Our aim was to give Campbell.edu a new digital ecosystem that would help Campbell compete with leading universities. Key to this objective was the development of a strong content strategy—analyzing which pages, images, and videos would do the most to engage Campbell’s audience and organizing these assets accordingly. 

    [pull_quote]It all started with discovery. To create a content strategy for the new site, we worked with Campbell to identify and audit over 8,000+ unique web pages and construct a site architecture that satisfied the needs of the individual schools and their users. We put a lot of effort into streamlining the content, simplifying the navigation, and creating an experience that is logical and intuitive. –Tyler Slocum, Digital Marketing Strategist -Atlantic BT[/pull_quote]

    Throughout this process, it was essential for ABT to have a deep understanding of Campbell’s needs and regular communication with their stakeholders. Campbell’s internal marketing team visited the ABT office at least once a week throughout the project; we also used our Mavenlink project management tool to regularly share research results, user test findings, site mock ups, and other work-in-progress elements of the new Campbell.edu. 

    [pull_quote]Good communication and collaboration is the bread-and-butter of any large project, especially one as massive as the Campbell brand and site redesign. Our in-house work sessions with the Campbell marketing and communications team combined with the digital immediacy of Mavenlink did a lot to keep us on the same page. Thanks to our collaborative process, we completed the redesign and launch of the new Campbell.edu in less than eight months. –Townsley Minton, Director of Client Success -Atlantic BT[/pull_quote]

    Modernizing the Brand for an Established University

    Beyond the redesign of Campbell.edu, the university wanted to give its community a unified brand vision with a statement and symbol that would represent the essence of Campbell. ABT met this challenge with a variety of research methods mixed with a testing-driven creative approach. 

    [pull_quote]For branding research, it is really important to be both quantitative and qualitative. For example, we designed several surveys measuring how many people across the state, region, and country had heard of Campbell University; among those who knew of the university, I measured what words they commonly associated with the school. This helped us understand existing perceptions of Campbell so we knew which qualities to emphasize and which needed adjusting at a brand level. –Natalie Iannello, Lead Digital Marketer -AtlanticBT [/pull_quote]

    The ABT marketing team worked with these research insights along with a series of interviews and collaborative sessions with the Campbell team to craft new messaging and a new icon for the university. Because the Campbell team wanted to balance their Christian identity with the desire to recruit elite students of all faith backgrounds, they needed a brand that would resonate with both kinds of audience. 

    [pull_quote]From our research into higher ed, we saw ‘leadership’ and ‘future leaders’ as familiar terms to describe the kinds of driven, elite students Campbell wanted to recruit. That said, integrating Campbell’s Christian element with respect and the right amount of distance was harder—we wanted to imply the service and selflessness of faith without alienating people who weren’t religious. Ultimately, we tried out different terms with Campbell stakeholders and landed on the word “purpose.” Purpose described the reason why people of faith lived as they did, but purpose wasn’t confined to religious people. Because this word resonated with both audiences without alienating them, it led to the tagline ‘Leading with Purpose.’ –Lorelei Canne, Content Editor -AtlanticBT[/pull_quote]

    On the visual side, the Campbell team requested a new icon with a more recognizable connection to the university. Their team wanted the new unified mark to better capture people’s attention with a symbol that was unique to Campbell and representative of their school’s history and tradition of academic excellence. 

    [pull_quote]We went through a lot of iterations with the Campbell team to help them develop the right icon. They needed a visual idea that would work for the goals of the Campbell marketing team and Campbell’s graduates, students, and community. After a lot of interviews and surveys, we landed on Campbell’s Kivett Hall as a landmark that really captured the university’s identity and history. After all, it’s the oldest building on their campus, and everyone at Campbell recognized it. Next, we helped their team produce and test out several different designs to find the icon that they ultimately landed on, which was modern and fresh-looking while being recognizable to the community. –Mark Riggan, Senior Full Stack Designer -AtlanticBT[/pull_quote]

    The New Icon – Kivett Hall

    KivettIcon1

    Partnering for the Future of Campbell

    Now that the new Campbell.edu and brand have launched, ABT and Campbell University will continue their partnership on Campbell’s digital properties. ABT’s team is currently at work auditing and providing insight for the university’s updates to its sites for the law school, divinity school, and adult & online education programs.

    In the meantime, check out the new Campbell.edu and read their introduction to the new brand and site design—let us know your thoughts in the comments below.