The softer side of Setapp: Our rebranding story
Bold. Bright. Disruptive. Design has moved away from simpler, more practical principles and into the foray of attention-seeking madness.
So Setapp went soft.
It’s far from a sign of weakness to go soft. It’s a power move. In a classic bell curve, softness appears at both extremes, where rash design humps at the midpoint.
After two years of curating a beautifully functional collection of applications, softness felt like the natural next phase. We’d been lacking a truly cohesive design message. It took users a while to figure out what Setapp really meant. We gathered and discussed — after all, these are core issues. And when products lacquer over a damaged core, inner weakness shows. It can’t be ignored.
After pinching, squeezing screens and testing, teasing out colors, the first few iterations of Setapp functioned. They functioned well. We were delivering on what we perceived to be the value of our application, which was that it allowed users to stay productive by having every software tool they’d need. What we could only learn after some product maturity was that users value app discovery almost as much as the apps themselves.
Paradox of choice
This isn’t a case study on Setapp’s effectiveness as a service. Nor about its advantage over the competition. Yet to realize the value of its redesign and understand why a company like Setapp might choose to shift the majority of its resources to rebuilding what’s already been squared away, these are essential considerations.
Our only competitor is Apple’s Mac App Store. In no way is that an understatement. They’re Goliath. The rest that may claim to be in competition are all anything but. We don’t blink an eye at discounted software bundles.
Bluntly, what the App Store’s got going for it is volume. They have heaps of apps. Even so, not every app on the market is Apple-approved, so there are many developers whose masterpieces are neglected and who therefore must rely on other marketing channels.
Setapp is about curation. It’s about having the tool around for the present task and knowing it won’t snap under pressure. Knowing the drill bit fits.
It’s anxiety-inducing to be faced with too many choices, and many SaaS companies are cashing in on the solution. Spotify knows the importance of fitting the song to the mood from a sea of millions. Netflix delivers content built for binging, because it’s not difficult to find what to watch next. The big-league examples suffice to explain here. But they’re not idyllic. The SaaS-y giants get one big thing wrong.
Power of voice or why we want to share with you
Ethics. At the core of business ethics lies the same tired-but-true message taught to children and oft forgotten in adulthood: The Golden Rule.
In life, it means sharing your chocolate bar because you’d have liked theirs to be shared with you. In business, it means distributing funds appropriately — supporting the artists, because you only really thrive through symbiosis. The blogging platform Medium is a great example of this, allocating members’ fees proportionally to the authors they read the most.
On Setapp, member payments go to the developers whose apps they use the most, or in other words, find the most useful. As with Medium and other like services, Setapp’s decision to spread a large cut of revenue among creators empowers creators to continue their craft. Ethically, it gives Setapp members and the creators of the content they interact with a voice that is more or less equal. This was the linchpin concept which drove our design thinking.
Plea for enchantment
Our previously non-cohesive design led to a high bounce rate on the main site and a low overall retention, possibly attributed to confusing jumps in UX. And our circular mistake in trying to repair these issues was trying to repair them in the first place.
Retention and conversion are, in essence, unfixable. What is up to change is the product itself. We’d gotten far too caught up in tweaking user flow that we hadn’t stopped to consider what the users are flowing to. A/B testing sent Setapp on a choose-your-own-adventure no one could feel 100% confident about.
What we were confident about was Setapp’s ability to really wow users during the app discovery process. To enchant them. So we heeded this plea for enchantment and stopped trying to appeal to the numbers.The first step toward this more magical, cohesive product involved narrowing in on vision. The first two years had involved over a dozen designers, which, at a hierarchically flat company, caused a lot of friendly crossfire and stepping on methodological toes.
Pies in the sky
During this rebranding haul, the word rebranding itself became a taboo. It winded us. We were working steadfast toward three lofty, attractive yet attainable goals:
1. Let users find their flows.
This is our brand promise. Setapp sets the mood to work hard, smart, fast, and without obstacles — in other words, to find and stay in a productive workflow. Notice we’re not forcing anyone into a flow. We are providing the platform by which to discover it, through a carefully curated selection of apps.
In a sense, we are providing the means and giving way to methods to develop on their own. Of course, part of Setapp’s next steps will be suggesting methods by way of community content. Which leads us to:
2. Foster an air of membership.
Gone are the days of subscriptions. We’re not stuffy like that. Subscriptions are far too give-take. Setapp switched to the ethos of membership because users, or members, belong to each other. They, with their ability to arbitrate which apps enter the lexicon of creative productivity, collectively make Setapp what it is. Supporting this community of creators and developers is what sets us apart from the voluminous other. And to support a community, we must absolutely:
3. Design for design health.
It’s no good if it isn’t healthy. Setapp is here to stay, and a sustainable business needs to run cleanly on ethical and feel-good principles to survive. Along with a product rebrand, we remodeled our design process to rid it of interdependency friction, feckless feedback, and frivolity — keeping, of course, the playfulness.
Personas
The members. The Setappians. The humans hot on their projects. We squared off who’s who in the world of Setapp to be sure our hard work lands in the right hands. It took a good two years to really nail this down, as it should. Deciphering numbers to break down a user base is tough.
Our research revealed five personas, or consumer groups likely to consider a Setapp membership:
Seekers
The single-app seekers are those looking for one tool in particular to get a job done now. They are ready to buy the app they’ve researched inside and out. So we give it to them. We provide immediate access. And then we surprise them with the rest.
Explorers
These are the internet pioneers. The folks you go to for the latest tech trends. They want Setapp to sit with and peruse. See what’s popular and what’s just cropping up. For them, Setapp is a source of new experiences and tech talk. We provide these experiences so Explorers can share them with friends.
Researchers
In it for the info. Researchers may buy, may not. They’re a curious bunch, taking mental note of app descriptions and comparing them between alternatives. To appeal to them, Setapp has to furnish trust and provide the details they seek.
Hunters
Chasing the deal, saving the dollar. Hunters want to get a bang for their buck, and no less. They want to know that they are getting exactly what they paid for, ROI-wise. Hunters gladly accept a gift card or coupon and will jump at a percentage off via our referral program or holiday promos.
Testers
Finally, those who like to dip their toes. They might buy one month to try it out, knowing they’ll bow out when it’s over. A tough bunch to woo, Testers need strong reason to stick with a platform. Setapp can nurture their app usage, explaining benefits along the way.
Redesigning for clarity and trust
There should be no question as to what one gets with a Setapp membership. We’re now super up-front about how it works, what’s inside, and how much it costs. While we’re appealing to the emotional feeling of achievement rather than the logistical financial benefits of Setapp, the price point is still a point of pride for us. Pages display it prominently and the Pricing page makes it abundantly obvious that after a free trial, you’ll only pay one recurrent fee as value of the membership increases over time.
One thing we could not have leveraged at the start was credibility. And now, Setapp is more credible than ever. Organically, lovers of all things Mac flock to Setapp. Those with an eye for design and thirst for the latest software find it enjoyable to use. Developer communities rave about it as a source of passive income, automatic marketing, and kindly support. It’s been featured in a slew of tech publications, winning awards from the likes of Fast Company and Product Hunt. Tweets abound with praise for how it’s improved the lives of digital nomads and creators of all kinds. These blush-worthy bits are sprinkled about the site, sewing trust as visitors peruse.
As we built the site, we did so very strategically so as to misuse no time at all. Three pages were priority:
HOME
For potential members, the main page must answer any and all potential questions — or at least guide toward the right answers. For Explorers, Researchers, and Hunters, this is the front of the product’s box, if it were, and must impress. We made sure to include stamps of credibility, including testimonials from current members, the press and tech influencers.
In terms of business value, the front page of Setapp must cover legal smidgens and be extraordinarily economical in its ability to help users find new apps to solidify any wavering interest in the platform. The tag team of design and copy accomplish this quite well.
HOW IT WORKS
Title being overtly inquisitive, this page lays out the details for those who likely understand the value at their current stage of poking around and wish to affirm it. Showing Setapp’s tricks up the sleeve, so to speak, this page is all about honesty. Design-wise, honesty shows through intuitive navigation, layout of key features, and presentation of the finer details. For Seekers, Explorers, and Researchers, the clarity of technicalities proves that Setapp’s worth its salt, and not just a concept but a solid, fully functional product.
ALL APPS
Before, it was difficult to find what was actually included in Setapp itself. We had been selling more of a promise than a software-rich package, and now the rebrand focuses on delivering that promise and proving our capability to do so. This page contains the meat of the platform. It’s Setapp’s lifeblood, the curated content. No matter how nice the wrapper, the contents have to deliver on their own, and they do. Here, there are presented brilliantly. We have full control over categorization and presentation, and have thought through meticulously how best to show off the work of our partnered developers.
Conceptually, as much work as we’ve put into Setapp has gone into each individual app introduced on this page, so an exponential amount of devotion should burst from the pixels. And it does.
Mobile flow
There’s a lot of traffic coming from mobile devices. Unfortunately, Setapp isn’t yet mobile. That means we have to drive not cross-platform conversation, but across-platform. From one to the next. Phone to Mac. This is a work in progress, as it’s admittedly difficult. Yet we still aimed to provide a stunning mobile experience to drive interest and provide all relevant information on Setapp, because it would be foolish not to. Mobile cannot go by the wayside in any web project.
The others
Of course, many many many other pages were updated. They had to be. We’ll spare the details here because they could be book-length. All-in-all, the tangent pages fall off of the core three maintaining similar principles. Snoop around a bit to see.
The application
We now arrive at Setapp itself. To even approach the kind of surgical development that went into the application redesign, we had to break down our value streams of: Core, Growth, Editorial, and Membership, and reform them into: Requirements, Design, Approval, and Delivery. It was simple… well, simply mad. We’d just reorganized after a big wave of hiring, and then we’d swapped groups again. To do this was a test of our malleability.
Designers, writers, and devs all peered at each other’s work, ensuring a standard of consistency. Perhaps we should have strictly defined content styles prior to content creation, but not having any set guide allowed the product to gel together more naturally as we experimented with what fit our new product feel the best.
The new Setapp went through countless iterations, sometimes being entirely discarded for fresh ideas, only to be discarded again once it didn’t sit right.
To improve app discoverability and reinforce the ethos of membership, we ended up with a new desktop client that is extraordinarily comfortable. It doesn’t stray too far from the familiar Setapp, but has been sanded and smoothed and filled with just a bit more vigor. The on-boarding process is more playful and tailors to the tastes of each new member. The app description panels are more pleasant to take in. Overall, it feels much more premium. But the real power is in its potential. As a 2.0, Setapp’s redesign is more of a flex on flexibility than immediate features. It’s laid out a framework on which to construct more meaningful content rather than flakey incentives to buy. And equally important as impressing current and new members, the new Setapp impresses us. This is the Setapp we had dreamed about from the beginning, but couldn’t fully realize without giving it some room to breathe.
Guiding summary
This text is meant to explain our process, but is nowhere near comprehensive relative to the seemingly endless amount of time poured into something that, to the untrained eye, looks incredibly simple. We’ll spare the quotes on simplicity and design. More material will be released on this rebranding journey, for those interested. It’s our way of contributing to the product design communities that inspire us. Now before we put our noses to the keyboard, our fingers to the grindstone (ouch) to mould the new Setapp further, we wish to provide a reductionist guide to what we’ve taken from this all.
1. Rebranding must have a purpose.
This really goes without saying, but sometimes someone at the table floats the idea of a refresh when it’s totally unwarranted. It’s a huge resource investment, and needs a driving factor aligned directly with the product development strategy. Everyone will be involved, so everyone must have sights set on the long term goals and desired effects of such an effort.
2. Define timeline. Define budget. Define execution.
How long will each part take? How much will it cost? How exactly will it be done? Broad questions that require brave estimates before dipping any toes into creative.
3. Success versus failure.
To know if whether you’ve done it or not, you have to say what “it” is. And measure it for certainty.
4. Use user feedback as fuel, not navigation.
They’ll love and hate what happens, but polarity should motivate the changes being made. Encouragement should not, however, guide rebranding efforts away from an original vision. You or your stakeholders decide how and why, and users who align with the underlying values will accrue.
5. Foreground brand culture, mission, values, and tone.
Seemingly trite, these elements make your brand what it is and have a direct impact on the outcome of the rebrand. Don’t neglect them.
6. Have a strong visual concept as a framework.
Everyone will be excited to think of new ideas, and those ideas will float around in separate brains. Presenting visuals like fonts, icons, illustrations, and wireframes can help solidify a common vision. This way no one feels unheard.
7. Create harmony.
Fluffy as it sounds, harmony is a great way to consider the design process. There are so, so many elements involved that must groove together to create something worthwhile that is more valuable than the original product and falls within timeline and budget.
8. Don’t lose sight of details.
Big concepts are just as important as the tiniest of details. If the product will lose stability due to rebranding, it isn’t worth it. Rebranding is a privilege afforded to products who are ready to mature and won’t be successful if it’s initiated to try to fix a product that isn’t stable to begin with. Stability means everything is functional and weak links are accounted for, otherwise, faulty functionalities should be cut off.
9. Be ready to let go.
You’re rebranding. Out with the old. Back to the drawing board for all user flows and product features. Ask why about every element of your product, and cull the junk. Kill the darlings. At the same time, don’t reinvent what works well. It should be the same product in the end, but better — not something entirely different.
10. The team treatment.
It won’t work without everyone. And how everyone’s arranged. Consider the crew, and think about how abilities could be redirected for a stint while the rebrand is taking place. Rebranding is full-on, so those involved must care about setting aside their regular tasks and be prepared to get both creative and destructive.
Rebranding hurts. It’s uncomfortable. It also feels insanely rewarding. It shakes things up. Gives new life to something that may have been in a creative rut. It’s bold. It’s sloppy as hell. It’s calculated. You may want to give it a go. Maybe now, maybe later. Either way, we’ve been through it, and you can see the result.
The new Setapp is soft. It feels really good. And we feel really good about it. We know you will too. Thank you for your trust in us and support of all the developers on Setapp.
Discover more apps you never heard of with Setapp, try for free.
