Online trainingBunkai
Bunkai is a platform that offers its users AI-assisted sports training. The small start-up approached me at a very early stage in their development. I was tasked to help build their unique look & feel and translate that into their first UI.
The product space
Early start-up that has developed an innovative way to improve sports training online.
The brief
Understand the business vision and objectives, develop their brand aesthetic and design new UI.
The work
Consultancy, brand exploration, new look & feel, UI designs and developer hand-off.
Discovery
Bunkai came to me with a foundation they wanted improve and build upon. They had a very basic interface and wireframes they had developed based on the initial research they had collected. The goal was to take this to the next level and have their own, bespoke UI.
The challenge I’ve often faced with early-stage businesses is that they recognise the need for a slick and friendly UI – it makes a huge difference. However, few of them have a fully developed brand that the UI can be based on. This was the case with Bunkai too, so the work had to start there.
I spent time with the team to understand what Bunkai is, its background, what is stands for and where they aspire their product to be one day. I dedicated time to researching their niche and the main competitors. It’s only after understanding their philosophy and goals that I could go away and start putting together ideas. My aim was not to replace the task of a branding agency and consider a myriad of marketing collateral – I focused on the core elements that will directly shape up the look and feel of the UI. I came up with a lot of combinations of colour palettes, typography and in-situ mockups.
I spent time with the team to understand what Bunkai is, its background, what is stands for and where they aspire their product to be one day. It’s only after understanding their philosophy and goals that I could go away and start putting together ideas. My aim was not to replace the task of a branding agency and consider a myriad of marketing collateral – I focused on the core elements that will directly shape up the look and feel of the UI. I came up with a lot of combinations of colour palettes, typography and in-situ mockups.
It took 3-4 workshops to flesh out the best concepts and eventually pick a winner.
Design system
Once I had a clear direction and visual language to work with, I started with the basics – I put together a mini design system. The scope of the project was not big so I couldn’t go full force and develop a fully fledged system right away. I concentrated on core elements that are a must for any UI and components I need would go into the MVP (all based on the existing UI and the wireframes).
New UI
I had wireframes to work with but they had not gone through proper usability testing. I could already spot some some usability issues so I addressed those by introducing some new, simple functionalities to make the experience friendlier (e.g. error/warning/success states, tabs and horizontal scroll).
Now that I had all the UI elements ready, I just transformed the wireframes into a brand new, slick interface which reflected Bunkai’s vision and philosophy.
