Do we have a component for that?
UTA represents storytellers who shape culture and drive the future. From artists and creators to athletes, brands, and musicians, our deep expertise and broad capabilities enable talent and companies to confidently grow their careers and businesses. Here is how I made an impact and brought efficiency during develpoment
To comply with my confidentiality agreement I have gained approval to post these designs on my portfolio as this was part of a design system and not the application designs protected under the NDA.
THE PROBLEM
How can I build a design system for United Talent Agency (UTA)
Building a multi-brand design system from the ground up to connect global teams on a common design language foundation within the UTA brand portfolio.
No design system = disconnected user experience
Problems observed from user behaviors
United Talent Agency (UTA) lacked any formalized design system. Brands existed on the web as separate identities with individual teams creating their own source of standards for UI elements, components, or modules–in both internal or outside agencies.
What we found
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Conflicting guidelines and direction.
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Duplication of common components.
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Inconsistencies across market websites and microsites.
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Pressure for agile solutions without discovery and research.
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Siloed teams working with disjointed communication.
MY ROLE
UX Designer
The creation of a style guide and the design system took the duration of my contract with UTA. I was contributing 10 hours a week to create, build and implement
Timeline
10hrs Week
Aug 2020 - Dec 2021
Tools
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Figma
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Frontify
Teams
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Client
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Engineers
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Product Owner
Team Collaboration
This was an initiative that required hands-on collaboration with the engineers. Onboarding
THE DIRECTION
What was the thought process?
Piecemeal approaches to website technology and design have created fragmented workflows and inconsistent brand experiences across the global.
Quick Sketching Session
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Create a simple mockup for home page.
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Most known restaurant theme template.​
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Large hero image under navigation top header.​
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Brief text with description, photo gallery, and menu.​
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Footer with location information and contact details.
STYLE GUIDE
How did I make the color selection?
Selecting a color palette was challenging but I knew I had to stick to a color on the darker side of the palette. Blue isn’t a common color in restaurants, because it does not evoke the feeling of hunger.
The beauty of the design process is that rules can be broken with exceptional designs. Navy Blue does elevate the idea of a sea theme in seafood restaurants.
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One way blues have worked for similar restaurants, is in the seafood or nautically-themed restaurants who have been very successful in using the darker blue.
I balanced the blue with a use of red/orange color on the CTA button to represent the food industry to create a user appetite.
THE CHALLENGES
Deciding typography?
Open Sans, Lato and Roboto are the top 3 google fonts used on restaurant websites. These are all very popular fonts.
I decided to go with Lato for the body font, to give it a more modern appeal.
I chose a more nautical themed font for the restaurant header. The closest I found was Georgia.
According to the research, Georgia is a serif font that appears elegant and also legible in print, for printing menu's.
Georgia goes very well with Lato and is used mostly as a header with Lato as the body text.
KEY QUESTIONS
Completed
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Does the menu belong on the landing page? Why?
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Is the restaurant fine dining or casual? ​​
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Is the market and restaurant in the same location or separate?
Other UTA Designs
All the design work completed for this client is covered under the ND. Below are images of the work I have designed during my time with Skiplist for UTA.