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Title designs are an essential part of the merketing of the content on The Great Courses platforms. It brings diversity and visual power to the content and provides the user with insight about the contents subject matter. These designs are provided for every program on The Great courses Plus and are delivered in various vertical and horizontal formats.
Catalog redesign results in lasting revenue growth
Account linking gives customers new options
App gets download functionality
Digital ads
Landing page
The Great Courses Plus
Wonder Campaign - TV and online
The Great Courses offers thousands of in-depth video based courses by top professors and leading experts, on a wide range of topics and subjects. The company also offers a streaming subscription service called The Great Courses Plus delivered via web and app, as well as OTT apps on Roku, FireTV and Apple TV. In addition the company has two other offerings for it's content that are available via Amazon called The Great Courses Signature Collection and The Great Courses Living. Currently, the company boasts over 500,000 subscribers.
The Great Courses Signature Collection designs
Podcast Logo
Subway and Airport Poster Series
Banner Ads
Landing Pages
Social media designs
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Winter Solstice
Oil and graphite on frosted mylar
Download functionality adds offline streaming or listening
THE RESULTS
The payoff was immediate, as the consumption rates increased across the board. When the app was released the customer base was very happy to have the increased mobility and usibility for their content. The Great Courses Plus app continues to be a key element for customers to engage their content.
Another addition of functionality for consumers was a toggle to allow users to jump back-and-forth between video and audio without missing any of the content. This extra addition was a huge success, and increased the users ability to engage their content visually or audibly.
Named in a 2017 Time Magazine article as one of the top 25 apps for that year! Read the article
THE RESULTS
The payoff was immediate, as the consumption rates increased across the board. When the app was released the customer base was very happy to have the increased mobility and usibility for their content. The Great Courses Plus app continues to be a key element for customers to engage their content.
Another addition of functionality for consumers was a toggle to allow users to jump back-and-forth between video and audio without missing any of the content. This extra addition was a huge success, and increased the users ability to engage their content visually or audibly.
Named in a 2017 Time Magazine article as one of the top 25 apps for that year! Read the article
Team brainstorming sessions
THE STRATEGY
The app for the service at launch was basic in it's functionality, but offered the customer a connection to the library of content with their iOS or Android mobile device. While the app was well recieved intially by the customer base, it was not without a major shortfall in it's functionality, The user was required to be connected to WIFI to stream or cast the content. THE SOLUTION: Design and introduce download functionality for offline consumption.
To ensure a successful launch we worked closely with internal stakeholders across departments to fully understand business goals at the projects inception. Customer surveys and platform analytics were gathered to help define functional requirements. Because the service was new, budget limitations were in play, so three design approaches were presented as options. This allowed the leadership team to make decisions that would best meet the goals of the project while controlling the development cost.
THE STRATEGY
The app for the service at launch was basic in it's functionality, but offered the customer a connection to the library of content with their iOS or Android mobile device. While the app was well recieved intially by the customer base, it was not without a major shortfall in it's functionality, The user was required to be connected to WIFI to stream or cast the content. THE SOLUTION: Design and introduce download functionality for offline consumption.
To ensure a successful launch we worked closely with internal stakeholders across departments to fully understand business goals at the projects inception. Customer surveys and platform analytics were gathered to help define functional requirements. Because the service was new, budget limitations were in play, so three design approaches were presented as options. This allowed the leadership team to make decisions that would best meet the goals of the project while controlling the development cost.
The mobile app for the Great Courses Plus has been a fundamental tool for customers to consume content since the launch of the service in late 2015. The app has undergone multiple iterations and added various functionalities to accomodate the growing demands of the content and customer engagement. Here is a case study of a key piece of the functionality of the app.
Interior single page design
Interior single page design
Interior spread
Interior spread – After
Interior pages – Before
History Catalog Interior spread
History Catalog Cover and Back Cover
Contents Page – After
Contents Page – Before
Cover – After
Cover – Before
Catalog re-design creates big lift in sales
THE RESULTS
The results were solid, as the sales for the first quarterly was up over 15% from the previous quarter. The designs was rolled out for the proceeding quaters over the following year and ultimately produced continued consistency in sales that did not go below an 11% lift for any topic that the new design was applied to. The design has been well recieved and will inform our future re-designs of subsequent catalogs goong forward..
THE RESULTS
The results were solid, as the sales for the first quarterly was up over 15% from the previous quarter. The designs was rolled out for the proceeding quaters over the following year and ultimately produced continued consistency in sales that did not go below an 11% lift for any topic that the new design was applied to. The design has been well recieved and will inform our future re-designs of subsequent catalogs goong forward..
THE STRATEGY
The concept was to produce designs that could be replicated for each topical subject that would create a continuity from quarter to quarter, but also creating a fresh modern design to present the content. This series of catalogs had not had the design updated for 10+ years, and the sales had been trending down YOY. I wanted to bring the design a new look and feel and update the use of typography, and create a clean powerful way to allow the type and images to interact and give the customer a new way of viewing the content being presented, even if they were familiar with The Great Courses.
THE SOLUTION:
The Design is
To ensure a successful launch we worked closely with internal stakeholders across departments to fully understand business goals at the projects inception. Customer surveys and platform analytics were gathered to help define functional requirements. Because the service was new, budget limitations were in play, so three design approaches were presented as options. This allowed the leadership team to make decisions that would best meet the goals of the project while controlling the development cost.
THE STRATEGY
The concept was to produce designs that could be replicated for each topical subject that would create a continuity from quarter to quarter, but also creating a fresh modern design to present the content. This series of catalogs had not had the design updated for 10+ years, and the sales had been trending down YOY. I wanted to bring the design a new look and feel and update the use of typography, and create a clean powerful way to allow the type and images to interact and give the customer a new way of viewing the content being presented, even if they were familiar with The Great Courses.
THE SOLUTION:
The Design is
To ensure a successful launch we worked closely with internal stakeholders across departments to fully understand business goals at the projects inception. Customer surveys and platform analytics were gathered to help define functional requirements. Because the service was new, budget limitations were in play, so three design approaches were presented as options. This allowed the leadership team to make decisions that would best meet the goals of the project while controlling the development cost.
The Great Courses began as a catalog company and that tradition continues today 25+ years later. With a customer base numbering over 3 .million, catalogs have continued to be an effective way to present new course releases and promote the growing library of content to existing customers as well as prospective customers. This case study details the re-design I created for the topical catalogs that typically mailed quarterly and presented topics such as History, Science and Better Living.
Linked account showing purched content. I added purchases searching and sorting options in this deployment to help customers who own a large number of courses manage those purchases easier.
OTT Account linking
Account linking provides Great Courses customers more streaming options for purchased content
THE RESULTS
When this was rolled out it was applauded by our customer base, who responded with a rush of linking activity. The intial steps for our ultimate goal of converting our users to one app is well underway. The process to design and create this experience for our customers has proven that thoughtful design, and clear user interfaces are always the key ingredients to ensure users respond confidently to new functionality.
THE RESULTS
When this was rolled out it was applauded by our customer base, who responded with a rush of linking activity. The intial steps for our ultimate goal of converting our users to one app is well underway. The process to design and create this experience for our customers has proven that thoughtful design, and clear user interfaces are always the key ingredients to ensure users respond confidently to new functionality.
THE STRATEGY
Create an experience for Great Courses customers to stream their purchased content on the Great Courses Plus. The experience needed to be simple and engaging for the Great Courses customer base. The experience would serve two purposes, ultimately as the log-term plan would be to only offer one set of apps for customers of both platforms to use instead of two, and, it would continually expose The Great Courses customer to the streaming environment and provide us ongoing opportunity to convert them to a subscriber.
THE SOLUTION
Design a 'Link Accounts' process for The Great Courses customer to have their purchased content available on The Great Courses Plus.
I worked closely with other teams in marketing and customer care to consider not only the functionality to create, but also develop a smart communication plan to point the new options to The Great Courses customers ensuring their confidence to link their account and create a new account on The Great Courses Plus if they did not have one. With a clear plan in place my designs were fashioned into a simple three step process that would be visually clear using a green arrow system to communicate to the customer where in the process they were at any given point.
The new functionality when released on our website, native iOS and Android apps, as well as our OTT apps would be a big step forward in seeing our goal achieved. This new option of linking would also be an added benefit to the customers have purchases and who link their accounts, as they would now be able to stream their owned content on our FireTV and Apple TV apss which is not available on the Great Courses app.
THE STRATEGY
Create an experience for Great Courses customers to stream their purchased content on the Great Courses Plus. The experience needed to be simple and engaging for the Great Courses customer base. The experience would serve two purposes, ultimately as the log-term plan would be to only offer one set of apps for customers of both platforms to use instead of two, and, it would continually expose The Great Courses customer to the streaming environment and provide us ongoing opportunity to convert them to a subscriber.
THE SOLUTION
Design a 'Link Accounts' process for The Great Courses customer to have their purchased content available on The Great Courses Plus.
I worked closely with other teams in marketing and customer care to consider not only the functionality to create, but also develop a smart communication plan to point the new options to The Great Courses customers ensuring their confidence to link their account and create a new account on The Great Courses Plus if they did not have one. With a clear plan in place my designs were fashioned into a simple three step process that would be visually clear using a green arrow system to communicate to the customer where in the process they were at any given point.
The new functionality when released on our website, native iOS and Android apps, as well as our OTT apps would be a big step forward in seeing our goal achieved. This new option of linking would also be an added benefit to the customers have purchases and who link their accounts, as they would now be able to stream their owned content on our FireTV and Apple TV apss which is not available on the Great Courses app.