CNET Brand Expansion
CNET went through a brand expansion at the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024. This was a design-lead project focusing on expanding and modernizing the CNET brand and improving overall site UX and internal efficiencies. My role was to take our creative director’s vision, refine his front door concept, and create a functional design system for our team to start expanding off of.
- ROLELead Senior Product Designer
- TOOLSFigma
- TEAMDesign Team, UX Researcher, Product Manager, Engineering Team, Business and SEO Analysts
- PROJECT LENGTH5 months (6 weeks for concepts/stakeholder buy in, 8 weeks for design/research, 8 weeks for development and QA)
- YEAROctober 2023 – February 2024
- BRANDCNET
Project Goals
Focus on reflecting in our tech roots and move towards visual treatments that bring excitement back into our experience.
Create a cohesive system that can be shared across functions and set consistent expectations for our users.
Create a front end design system to aid in fast communication and shipment of assets.
Beginning Phases
In the beginning phases of this project, our creative director began to share new conceptual directions on layout, typography, and color with our team for a new front door. My responsibility in this phase was to provide feedback and start to define our color palette. I was able to successful propose a simplified color palette in this phase by combining scales and eliminating repetitive colors.
Refining the Front Door
After the initial conceptual direction, the project began to gain momentum with our senior leadership on the possibility of expanding the CNET brand. Our creative director passed off his front door concept to me where I focused on refining the layout, creating the mobile experience, and restyling the navigation.
User Testing
After refinement of the initial concept, I worked with our ux researcher to get the new front door in front of our users. Our goal was to make sure users were receptive to the new layout and the experience was not hindering the perception of the CNET brand. In testing we learned that users were receptive to the new brand direction and found it to be more exciting and engaging than our current experience. We also discovered some actionable feedback from users, including where users felt overwhelmed. I was able to take that feedback to further iterate on the design.
Final Front Door Design
Our final version of the front door not only improved the overall experience for our users, but it also introduced CNET in a different light. The new color palette is shown throughout the UI and roots the design back to CNET’s tech roots. The new layout also increases our authority and brand trust by highlighting our experts, bringing our human element back into our brand. For the engineering handoff, I made sure to include all screen sizes and interaction breakdowns of each new component.
Expanding Across Site
Now that the front door was established, it was time to explore and outline how the new branding would expand to the rest of the site. My role here was to create a functioning, global UI kit that our designers and developers could use as a baseline to begin updating global styles and elements and track our progress. The UI kit included new colors, typography, buttons, links, filters, and icons with token documentation for our engineering team.
Business Impact & Learnings
The CNET brand expansion revitalized not only the brand itself but also the teams behind it. Marketing and sales teams embraced the fresh look and feel, leveraging it to captivate potential partners. Engineering teams were energized by the newfound uniformity and consistency, which streamlined workflows and boosted efficiency across site products. Business teams identified significant opportunities for testing and innovation, paving the way for future growth. Not only did the rebrand win an Ozzy Award, but it also positioned CNET to expand its site experience, creating a solid foundation for new initiatives like AI Atlas and 100 Days of Holiday, as well as potential sub-branding opportunities.