Case Study: Mii. Brand Development for a Start-up Electric Health Record

An explanation on the creative process of a new brand design. This includes a mobile dashboard, and pitch deck.

In an developing world in which technology continues to evolves towards digital forms of communication, data and information storage and accessibility, an issue arises: How sustainable are these platforms for retaining safe and secure defense against these online threats? Welcome to the creative breakdown behind Mii, an Electric Health Record whose main function is a safeguard that aims to provide frontline security with the use of blockchain technology and cultivate community with interoperability.

Overview

Mii is a healthcare service run by Laura Wegner who is a Harvard student studying blockchain development and Ethan Tien a medical officer at the University of Sydney. It is a two-way portal system that allows for patients to have a safe and secure hub to contain and access their medical information.

The main challenge at hand for the development of a Brand design for Mii was the creating a distinction from the Wii Nintendo avatars also called a “Mii.” While the name itself was demonstrated as an obstacle, the needs of the client increased this challenge by twofold. This was because the requirements for the development of the logo were that it used a rounded typeface and had a predominantly white and blue color palette, which is extremely similar to the Wii logo. However, this lend itself to be an opportunity since it narrowed down a lot of design decision making through these restrictive guidelines which allowed for more time spent on developing and refining other aspects such as patterns and icons.

The Services/Deliverables

The responsibilities that were covered when working alongside Mii included:

• Creating a flexible logo that adhered to guidelines.
• Integrating a color palette with 3 different shades of blues and a white.
• Construct a detailed Brand Identity guideline
• Develop a few mockup IOS patient dashboard designs
• Re-organize and design a pitch deck

Brand Components

The main objectives when creating Mii’s brand identity system was to establish a look that was approachable, trustworthy, and comprehensive. With the goal of meeting the design specifications requested by Mii and applying their companies purpose as well, I decided to pursue a clean and straightforward approach. As their product has the duel purpose of having interoperability and maintain safety through blockchain technology, I used these concepts for the base of my design direction. The foundation of this design starts with the logo, in which I represented their prioritization for safety through the ridged and sturdy typeface I created. While the logo preserves the rounded look, it also portrays security through it’s strict x-height alignment, bold weight, and cube-like structure. Another important insight that I noticed was the unique double “i” within the company name, that had the appearance of 2 human beings. This small aspect developed into a relationship with the company’s purpose since an EHR is a two-way portal system in which a patient is connected to a doctor. With this realization, I pursued the idea of connectivity with these double “i”s to represent human connection. Lastly, through the use of these “i”s as a pattern, they could symbolize interoperability, and blockchain technology because they share a similar appearance.

The choice for a secondary typeface was made with the purpose of finding a accessible and legible font. This lead to choosing Lexend Dexa which is a typeface made to aid in improving readability. As quoted by the creators Bonnie Shaver-Troup, Thomas Jockin, Santiago Orozco, Héctor Gómez, Superunion:

“intended to improve reading proficiency. As prescription eye glasses achieve proficiency for people with short-sightedness”

Final Applications

At last I moved into the asset production phase in which I developed branding elements and applied the design identity system throughout the agreed upon deliverables. One of the most important branding elements to create was the Mockup patient dashboard design. The application of the design identity was integrated into a IOS app, such as the interactive buttons having the rounded shape similar to the pattern. Furthermore, there were icons built specifically for this deliverable that represented categories within the navigation system. These icons also mimicked certain aspects of the brands visual language such as the round dots within the patterns and the “i”s. New forms of the brand identity were also made for such as backgrounds where the categories headers sit above. These elements are meant to maintain organization and add additional forms of the brand identify throughout the app. Additionally, a custom login page with a blue on white logo was made to be utilized only on in the company’s product. This logo has a different treatment as it’s contained within the blue diagonal patterns as opposed to laying above them.

The second application I was required to develop was the pitch deck to visually represent the company towards investors in the future. Much of the layout design and infographics were specifically requested by my client to either redesign from their previous pitch deck or made to represent information that had once only been a block of text. A lot of the design decisions carried through from dashboard, but scaled for a presentation format and altered to be suitable for the information shared. For example: the horizontal “i” shaped patterns were transformed from buttons into forms that highlighted important information and created hierarchy.

Building Process

Most of my delivery process with my client involved either communication through email, google drive, or over zoom meetings. However, once the main deliverables began, we predominantly discussed refinements through zoom meetings. This allowed for a consistent schedule in which I would have iterations and drafts ready by Friday to show to my clients and would receive immediate feedback to then revise by the end of the weekend. Throughout both deliverables there were at least 3 refinements I made in which I either simplified the design to be more aligned with their products goals or developed the designs more to create additional illustrations or more complex layouts. Lastly, I would always share my work with them through a google drive in which both founders could have immediate access instead of searching through emails.

Conclusion

This exchange with Mii was both positive and negative experience as it benefited me through the opportunity of working alongside a startup company and providing me valuable portfolio work. However, it also was a very harsh realistic experience in which I had to promote and fight for a lot of my design decisions and most of the time I wasn’t able to convince my client to fully commit to certain aspects that I thought would be appropriate.

My key takeaways are:

• Keep consistent and proper communication
• The way you present your designs are crucial

My project outcomes are:

• I learned the ups and downs of restrictive design
• The experience of making a brand design for more
  a corporate company.