Jane Calvin

A leading designer and manufacturer of branded audiovisual products needed help aligning disparate marketing, customer experience designs and service practices as they rapidly grew the company through acquisition. The new consolidated website experience was designed to meet a variety of needs, providing both a browsing experience for consumers and an e-commerce solution for Milestone’s B2B audience.

Utilizing a human-centered design approach, this project required extensive research and interviews with a multitude of users including C-Suite stakeholders, customers, designers, architects, equipment installers, customer service call center operators and warehouse employees. Pain points were identified and optimal user experiences were crafted to enhance Milestone AV’s offerings.

This digital experience was just one of many initiatives undertaken to nurture current and future client relationships. A service delivery blueprint helps guide Milestone AV’s as it continues to grow.

This was the first Creative Vitality Index (CVI) report for the City of Minneapolis showcasing the strength of the region’s arts community in relation to the rest of the U.S.

Showcasing this unique collaboration between the City of Minneapolis’ Director of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, the Economic Development Grant Recipient and Azul Seven staff was inspiring. Creative data visualization, infographics and typography treatments, all came together to set a high standard for future reports.

The subject matter highlighted in this report was personally interesting to me. Quantifying the artistic and creative impact on our economy is eye-opening, and producing the strong visual to accompany the narrative was really rewarding.

As the role of technology has expanded in government service in recent years, Hennepin County was eager to evolve its digital presence and improve the experience for the people it serves. They selected Azul Seven to redesign the hennepin.us site and help the organization rethink its overall service design strategy.

Additional projects for the county include Choose to Reuse, Hennepin Co. Public Library, Red Door Clinic, and the KPI Dashboard. This ongoing relationship has evolved over the years, and Hennepin County is continuing to deliver user-centric experiences internally and externally through a variety of service delivery models.

This eco-conscious fashion label needed a new brand strategy, visual identity system and website to better unify its expanding fashion line and e-commerce experience. The goal of the brand components was to better reflect and unify the expanding fashion line.

Not only does the new identity and image system showcase this elegant collection, but the addition of an e-commerce site brings new revenue and visibility to Foat’s brand.

The collaborative team at Azul Seven evolved the HealthFitness.com site user experience by following a goals-based design approach. Defining primary and secondary users and prioritizing their information needs were key. Working from those user goals, keyword research helped differentiate and ultimately define a new content strategy for HealthFitness’ approach and offerings. Today’s site surfaces the most relevant content for each type of user. 

This partnership with HealthFitness was the first step in a long term collaboration. Having successfully enhanced the consumer-facing site, the relationship continued to grow, and the Azul Seven team remained a strategic partner providing ongoing consulting for several different HealthFitness products and services.

Creating something beautiful is only one aspect of a design challenge. It must be useful, too. Optimal user experience is the utmost goal—the smoothest way to move a user through a customer journey, device to device, or channel to channel.

By utilizing all disciplines from the Azul Seven team, the proposed functionality and hierarchy are able to be quickly vetted and tested. Prototypes are routinely created to rigorously test form, function and delivery mechanisms with sample sets of users to ensure that all interactions are intuitive and relevant.

Striving to understand users’ needs is a seemingly simple concept, but one that I continue to practice and keep top of mind.

Re-imagining an experience, creating a new, online subscription product.

As the structure of a new, brain health platform evolved over a period of months, so did the thinking around how the service would function within the overall ecosystem of AARP’s services. The design process helped lead to a new model for AARP outreach and growth among existing and prospective members.

The Staying Sharp program and membership strategy involved a multitude of team dynamics - product development teams, IT solutions, content strategy and user experience to name just a few. Remote team communication tools were employed to keep all teams in sync along with multiple scrum and stand-up check-ins . Weekly status documentation was generated detailing financial and project plan alignment.

The Staying Sharp product/program continues to evolve and improve.

Branding and healthcare technology design quickly prepared MyMeds for their next phase of growth. Initial phase of work included a new brand identity and the design of a front-end mobile app environment.

Timely execution was a driver on this project. Managing the creative team’s milestones, and setting client expectations were critical to the success of the new brand launch and the mobile app. Another example of partnering with our clients rather than simply filling the need of a vendor.

Together with HealthFitness, Azul Seven re-imagined what was possible for online coaching programs, health assessments, behavior tracking, incentives, program-leader participation, and more. Following our standard design practice, we focused intently on user needs and on simplifying user experiences with only the most relevant features and functionality.

Note: the example shown here is intended to show the versatility and ability to white-label the platform. The design allows for customization for any of HealthFitness’ clients to apply their logo and brand color palette - in this case - ACME and the red color scheme.