Coldwell Banker · 2019

UX Illustrations

A set of metaphorical, delightful character illustrations created to accompany each step of Coldwell Banker's internal UX process documentation.

Role
UX Designer & illustrator
Scope
Illustration for internal documentation
Platform
Internal UX process guide
Tools
Adobe Illustrator
01

Initial Concepts

I've been a UX Designer at Coldwell Banker for over a year now, and it's been fantastic. This has been a mature team that truly understands the agile UX process. That being said, there was little documentation for our internal UX process. With the combined efforts of Megan Kelly, Matt Kelley, Daniel Castellanos, and myself, we were able to document our UX Process.

I specialized in creating illustrations to accompany each step of the UX process. I started by sketching standard office scenes that best represented our working environment. I wanted each illustration to be metaphorical and delightful. Common scenarios included people talking or using technology.

A wide illustration collage of isometric UX-process characters in business attire alongside rounded icon and badge clusters, in a blue, teal, and navy palette
02

Structure

After a brief sketch session, I immediately went to work on creating the vector objects. The first step was to design the legs and feet; I explored several poses and experimented with various body poses.

I want to note that we invested an incredible amount of effort with inclusive design, that is, making sure that we represented all types of people in our illustrations. The feedback from our UX Designer Megan Kelly was invaluable.

Exploration sheet of isometric leg and shoe poses — walking, standing, and seated positions — arranged in a grid with pink guide lines and designer notes Exploration sheet of isometric body and torso poses paired with legs, showing several standing and seated figure variations with guide lines and color notes
03

Revisions

Initial feedback amongst the UX team noted the oversaturated colors. I refined the color palette to the perfect balance of lightness and content.

Additionally, I placed each person in contextual scenarios that best illustrate each step in the UX process.

Early color pass of an isometric office scene with people at desks, monitors, plants, and furniture, in the initial, oversaturated palette Revised color pass of the same isometric office scene, rebalanced to a more refined palette
04

Final Design

The finished set covers the four steps of the UX process — discovery, ideation, design, and measure — each illustrated as its own contextual scene so a reader can tell the steps apart at a glance.

Discovery-step illustration — a person at a desk with a computer monitor beside a large magnifying-glass icon Ideation-step illustration — a person at a desk with a computer monitor set against a rounded cloud-shaped landscape Design-step illustration — a person at a desk with a computer monitor beside rotated compass and drafting-tool shapes Measure-step illustration — a person at a desk with a laptop beside a dashed vertical scale and chart elements

Illustrated in collaboration with the Coldwell Banker UX team — Megan Kelly, Matt Kelley, and Daniel Castellanos.

UX process documentation, Coldwell Banker

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