Problem

There are many cloud storage options available but there aren’t any great eco-friendly alternatives. People are becoming more aware of how their choices affect the environment and actively seeking out companies that support eco-friendly causes.

Solution

Sky Saves was created to be that eco-friendly, cloud storage option. Sky Saves plants trees for users on a monthly basis. Sky Saves as a company will be a B certified Corporation, supporting social and environmental causes. This service will offer new users 10GB of free storage, top of the line security, accessibility from a variety of devices, and many other features. Sky Saves... where the forest meets the cloud.

User Survey

I conducted a user survey to learn more about potential users. My primary goal for this survey was to determine what features users want most. I also wanted to learn which services people currently use and what they like/dislike about the competition’s product.

From this survey, I learned who the major competitors are, the most important features to include, and what device I should build this service for. Here are a few key questions and answers:

Competitive analysis

The competition I researched was Google Drive, Dropbox, and Apple iCloud. All three competitors offer separate personal and business accounts. These services offer various amounts of free storage to consumers and they all offer more storage based on a tiered system with prices increasing with storage amount. Security is a feature mentioned by all the competition.

User Personas

Now that I had a feel for the competition and important features, I created user personas to represent the target market. The main users I discovered during the market research phase were students and professionals.

User stories

Using all the previous research, I compiled a list of the most important tasks that users should be able to accomplish with this service. This was an important step to help avoid scope creep.

User Flows

Using tasks from the user stories, I created user flows to show all the actions necessary for users to be able to complete the user tasks.

Wireframes

With the user research done, it was time to take out the notebook and start sketching. I wanted to create something simple and easy to use with the focus on user content. Before testing, I made a few iterations of wireframe sketches and wireframe mockups.

Usability Testing

Using the wireframe mockups, I created a clickable prototype on InVision. I conducted user tests via video chat and in person. I had the users show me how they would sign up for an account, add content to the account, and organize their content.

From the usability tests, I learned that I should include a drag and drop feature for moving content around and to make sure icons are recognizable. With the testing in mind, I made some alterations to the layout before moving on.

Building the Brand

In order to add style to this project I needed to create the brand. First, I researched how the competition brands their products and began brainstorming. Many cloud storage brands use blue as a primary color and clouds in some way. I decided to skip the blue but keep the clouds.

Logo

I created many variations of the logo and a list of ideas for a name. I eventually came up with the name Sky Saves and chose a cloud behind three trees as the logo. The trees are meant to be upload arrows and represent the companies environmentally friendly stance.

Colors

I chose green as the primary color because I wanted the brand to stick out as eco-friendly. The other colors are mostly grays, whites, and black as accent colors.

Typography

The two fonts that I used were Josefin Sans and Lato. I used Josefin Sans to add some character to headers and titles. I paired Lato with Josefin Sans becuase it's also a modern style font and easier to read for all other text.

Moodboard

I put some of these ideas onto a moodboard for inspiration. Using this moodboard as a guideline, I started focusing on details such as fonts and colors. I took these decisions and created a style guide for the website.

Mockups

The next step was exciting because I got to take everything from the previous steps and put it all together. My goal was to make a very minimal website. Once I had my first iteration of mockups, I conducted user preference tests. After the tests, I made some alterations and went through a few iterations until I was satisfied.

Prototype

After building the mockups, I created a clickable prototype of the website. I conducted a few more usability tests to see how people interacted with the website and if they could complete some basic tasks. The results were very positive. From this round of testing I learned I should add a signup button to the bottom of the home page and to make sure the uploading bar is visible.

Conclusion

I’m really happy with the outcome of this project. It evolved more than I thought it would but I’m glad that it did. My original idea for differentiation from the competition was to make something more attractive but when working on the branding I realized I could do a lot more. I’m satisfied with the minimal looking home page and user dashboard and I really like the eco-friendly branding.

I learned a lot from working on this. On my next project, I’ll sketch out a larger variety of layouts early on. I think I’ll also test out more colors on wireframes too.