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Kaplan Thompson Architects

After ten years of success and leadership in the green building realm, KTA was ready to reboot their brand with a new look and feel. The key for this highly creative, hands-on team was not just doing their version of what ever other architect was doing. They needed our UX-inspired process to not just evolve their brand, but to completely reinvent it. 

View Content Strategy and UX User Stores  ·  Website Prototype

The Problem

To anyone who had worked with the architects, KTA had their own unique brand values: they are warm, creative, innovative, and committed to their craft. But to prospective clients, they merely had beautiful photos and a bunch of copy telling project stories—Just. Like. Every. Other. Architecture Firm. KTA wanted to think differently, stand out, and connect in a more human way with their clients.

The Project

We decided right away that we would apply a UX process of research, visioning, and user stories to figure out what was special about KTA and how to reflect that across the project. 

After interviewing clients from a diverse range of residential, commercial, and restaurant projects, we discovered that KTA excels at bringing deep level of understanding to its work. All architects think about what a building will look like and how it will perform--KTA considers how its users will actually live in the space and how to optimize its construction so it's not just efficient and eco-friendly, but actually contributing to a better quality of life at every level. 

We latched on to the idea of humanity as the backbone of the user journey, the content strategy, and visual design of the entire site. Every touchpoint includes beautiful buildings, of course, but they're also full of people and signs of life. The message is clear: KTA's thoughtful, human-centered process creates buildings that contain real, vital stories of people living well. 

The Payoff

Our process resonated strongly with the client. Work sessions moved quickly and consensus on user flow was easy to reach. Working with a highly creative, detail-focused team of creators meant that we focused a lot of our time on perfecting aesthetics. Once the visual components were finally agreed on by their opinionated, expert team, we were able to move into a tight agile UX process that will deliver an outstanding site in winter of 2018.