About the Company

Towni is a digital platform that allows service industry employees to share and monetize their local expertise with customers they naturally encounter each day.

Headquarters

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Industry

Startup, App Development, Hospitality

Services Provided

Website Design

The Problem

Towni is an innovative digital platform that strives to promote local travel by working with hospitality and travel industry workers. The platform allows workers to earn tips by simply giving out their ideas and recommendations to travelers on where to eat or drink and what to do while in town.

“Your tips don’t have to end when your shift does.”

The Problem

Towni came to us with a vision of how they wanted their website to look. Their colors and fonts had already been decided on, but their logo was still undergoing proofing and development. They needed a design that would be adaptable through the proofing process; to change and adapt when their logo and brand imagery was finalized.

In addition to ensuring the site adhered to the new and shifting brand guidelines, they also needed their site to support future “Townis” on the platform. This meant that both the front-end and back-end of the website needed to be aesthetically pleasing and user friendly – for both Townis and travelers alike.

Project Goals

JSL needed to create a modern and upbeat design that would appeal to Towni’s target demographic, which included college students, recent graduates, and young professionals ranging in age between 20 and 35.

Our team set up a workflow that would enable adaptability at a moment’s notice, should the brand guidelines change mid-project. Our final goal was to create a user-friendly, no-hassle interface for both Townis and travelers to navigate and update as quickly on their mobile devices as on their desktop and laptop computers.

The Process

From the very beginning, JSL knew that we would need to make the most of Adobe XD’s styling function to set up rules and conditions that could be altered in one place to affect multiple instances across the site. With brand guidelines not solidified, their logo, colors, and fonts could change at any moment. By utilizing styles, we were able to ensure that however the branding changed, we’d be able to accommodate those changes quickly and efficiently.

JSL researched the industry to see how companies with a similar target demographic approached their audiences to ensure that we were reaching their target demographic. Through this research, we decided to use imagery that represented the target demographic in an artistic way. Potential users wanted to see themselves reflected in the photography choices. We also determined that we would need to gauge the interface’s efficiency with rigorous testing to determine the site’s user-friendliness.

The Result

After much testing and trouble-shooting, the JSL team was able to deliver a final product that was user-friendly, easy to navigate, and beautiful to look at. We are excited to see how Towni grows over the coming months and years, and look forward to the success that it is sure to bring its users.