First Snow Embraces
Forbidden City
An interactive WeChat H5,
exploring the myth in this ancient palace
on its first snow day.
We crafted an interactive adventure on social media, WeChat, to promote the co-branding of Kindle and the Forbidden City.
Timeline
Dec, 2018 (10 days)
My Teammates
1 PM
1 Content Designer
1 Developer
My Focus
Creative Strategy
Design research
Visual Design
Interaction Design
Usability Test
The Result
Positive data, new business, media appreciations 🥳
1. The engagement and follower number soared on its launch day, surpassing its initial KPI, and became the best performance among previous Kindle projects.
2. It helped us pitch the long-term collaboration with our internal client, Kindle.
3. Shuying, a Chinese mainstream advertising sharing platform, recommended our project as "An Intriguing Chinese Culture Adventure."
The Background
The business goals of Kindle
1. Promoting its new seasonal package, a co-branding with Forbidden City.
2. Attracting new subscribers for Kindle's WeChat official account.
A developing need of my team
Due to internal structural change, our team needed to forge collaboration with new internal clients. Kindle was a perfect opportunity.
The challenge from a dream client
Our team has longed for long-term collaboration with Kindle, our internal client. This project was a fabulous chance for us. However, given its expectation and the resources, the opportunity was a tough one.
👇 The brief ...
10 Days
$0 Budget
1 Unique Social Campaign
1500 New Followers
The Challenge
A social media experience for Kindle & Forbidden City to attract subscribers with limited time and resources.
Let's get to know "them" first !
Brand Analysis
Kindle
Forbidden City
🤔
Erudite
Mysterious
Royal & Pride
Knowledgeable
Curious
Young & Sociable
After analyzing, we paired some interesting key characters from both brands. These provided directions to our next step, solution exploration. We decided to do research and interviews to explore opportunities.
Research & Findings
Due to the tight deadline, we started with interviews to explore opportunities and then did secondary research according to the interview findings.
Interviews
Legends & Secrets
People are passionate about the first snows in their cities.
First Snows
People are passionate about the first snows in their cities.
Secondary Research
Sacred Creatures
The Royal Palace lasts for centuries due to the guard of Sacred Creatures.
Special Power
The first snow is deemed to have Special Power in the palace.
Provide
Never Opens?!
The palace Never Opens on its First Snow Day.
The Opportunity
An Adventure To Explore The Myths?
On The First Snow Day!
Kindle
👉
Forbidden
City
Defining Design Style
Then how to visualize the adventure?
Provide
The Solution
An interaction H5, exploring the myths of the Forbidden City with Kindle crane and cat on the first snow day.
When the first snow embraces the Forbidden City, Kindle Crane and Kindle Cat start an adventure in this mysterious palace. With the help of sacred animals guarding the place, they uncover the secrets hidden in the ancient palace.
Kindle Crane and Kindle Cat, the cartoon characters of the brand
One of the sacred animals in the Forbidden City
Design Challenges & Research Goals
With an initial impression of my project style, I listed challenges in my visual design, which became my my goals of the next step.
1. How to craft a unique space for the story?
2. How to put elements from 2D, 3D & the real world, into this space?
Design Research
Based on the matrix, I conducted my design research in two fields, ancient Chinese paintings, and retro design. Ancient Chinese paintings in Song, Qing Dynasty, and artworks from Tao Sun, guided me to the art direction.
Visual Style Guide
After analyzing my research, I detailed my visual design guide into 3 aspects, color, dimension, and composition, to help me solve 2 visual challenges in this project.
Color & Dimension
Composition
Provide
Unintentional branches avoid dullness while maintaining the order and power of royal architectures.
Omitting part of the symmetric pattern breaks the routine and triggers audiences' imagination towards the space.
Unexpected reflection corresponds to the palace in the first scene, building a connection to the first two scenes.
2. Unique Space
Adding reflections to extend and create uniquness.
1. Intypical Symmetry
Adding or omitting elements to break the dullness
The subtle shadow on invisible water creates an intriguing world for our story.
Interaction Design
According to my visual design guide and the story, I came up with animation and interaction design. We could not wait to test our first version.
Usability Test|AB Test
How do users feel?
Due to a disagreement with the dialogue layout, we set the test as an AB test. Here are the 3 user tasks.
1. Visual
-
Do you like the visual style? (1-5)
-
Which layout do you prefer? (A/B)
-
Comments
2. Story
-
Do you think the story is attractive? (1-5)
-
Do you think it is understandable? (1-5)
-
Comments
Provide
3. Experience
-
Did you accomplish the h5? (If not, why)
-
Do you think the h5 is interesting? (1-5)
-
Comments
AB Test Evaluations
How Did They Feel?
Feedback & Implications
Comments 👉 Implications
Iteration
Invite Users To Trigger & Explore
My teammate, Nora, the copywriter, was in charge of the first two implications. My part was turning the third one into design solutions, which were more related to interaction.
Final Art
