UBS - asking the right questions

UBS is a global firm providing financial services to private, corporate and institutional clients.

Their new brand strategy aims to adopt a more thought-provoking and personal approach to clients with a clear tone of voice that cuts through the clutter of a busy financial marketplace.

The rebranding is a full redesign that includes all elements apart from the logo, using both sight and sound with the introduction of an audio tone developed in conjunction with Leicester University.

The first expression of the new brand is a new campaign that demonstrates the power of a simple proposition - the first step to making the right choices is focusing on the right questions.

Client insight and research into what motivates clients across countries and across all client groups identified that some questions stay pretty much the same.

Thus questions form the foundation of the creative concept.

The narrative structure poses questions from different life stages - family, our values, the impact we have on other people - and suggests that asking the right questions can make things a little clearer.

The brand film of simple black text on a while background shows hypothetical questions asked by clients, whilst press adverts, using images shot by Annie Leibovitz in a muted colour palette, present personal stories as case studies.

The questions and case studies form a powerful story arc that engages the viewer by allowing them to project their own answers into the narrative.

And of course there’s a great emotional hook at the end.

A simple concept, based on solid research, well structured, gracefully executed.

In These Stones Horizons Sing

Continuing the theme of a visual language being structured by an overarching idea, graphic design can learn a lot from looking at architecture.

Wales Millennium Centre

The Wales Millennium Centre was designed and built in Wales. The brief to the architects, Percy Thomas, was that it had to be unmistakably Welsh and internationally outstanding.

Wales’ identity is conveyed through the materials used to build the Centre. They connect to Wales’ culture, landscape, and history.

The exterior walls are clad in horizontal layers of welsh slate, inspired by the architects’ memories of the stratified cliffs along Wales’ Glamorgan coastline around Ogmore and Southerndown.

This visual language ties the building to the Welsh landscape, and the structure of the fascia and colonnades also echoes the tunnels and galleries of the mines that once dominated Welsh industry.

You can see the clear line of thought that developed from the architect’s sketch books through the design drawings to the finished building. The success of translating the architects vision into a structure with a coherent visual language has produced a powerful statement of Welsh identity.

Just what was it about Richard Hamilton?

Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different,
so appealing?

Visiting the retrospective of Richard Hamilton at Tate Modern, I was struck by the way he constantly embraced new ideas in his art, and experimented with different drawing, painting, collage and printmaking methods and latterly digital techniques.

Hamilton took a very experimental approach to art, exploring the boundary between figurative and abstract images and the interface between organic and industrial forms.

In 1951, for his exhibition Growth and Form at the ICA, Hamilton used grid-based structures to look at form in nature and explore their influence on design trends in contemporary architecture and design.

In the seminal 1955 Man, Machine and Motion exhibition at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle and then at the ICA, Hamilton arranged around 200 images in a modular steel grid. The viewer was encouraged to explore the installation and see images around, above and below them.

His developing interest in popular culture led to the creation of the collage seen as the first Pop art work, Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? Hamilton listed the characteristics of Pop art;

• designed for a mass audience
• transient
• expendable
• low cost
• mass produced
• young
• witty
• sexy
• gimmicky
• glamorous
• big business

Effectively he was describing the next 50 years of modern advertising.

New structures for corporate reporting

In 2010 the UK government ran a consultation to find out what improvements could be made to non-financial reporting, and in 2011 the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) published Future of narrative reporting where a new structure for annual reports was proposed.

Draft regulations were published in October 2012 and the changes became law on 30 September 2013.

The new format replaces the ‘business review’ with a ‘strategic report’ and UK quoted companies now have to report on:

• their strategy
• their business model
• the number of women employed at different levels in the organisation

The main areas for change are:

• The structure and content of the Strategic Report changes (and no longer forms part of the Director’s Report)
• Changes to Directors’ Report, including Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting
• Revised UK Corporate Governance Code disclosures
• Changes to Going Concern statement
• Revised Auditor’s Report
• New remuneration disclosures and voting

The idea behind the changes is to;

• improve the value of information contained within annual reports for investors and UK compliance authorities;
• to make it easier to make comparisons between companies; and
• to increase transparency.

Current best practice in annual report writing is to produce an integrated structure that brings together strategy, the business model, market analysis, governance, management remuneration, risk factors and key performance indicators (KPIs) in an overarching narrative.

But this method of dividing responsibility for the creation and supply of content will become more difficult, as the various elements of the document now need to knit together closer than ever before.

So whilst the new reporting framework from BIS splits the report into four parts (the Strategic Report, The Directors’ Report, the Remuneration Report and the Financial Statements and Notes), in practice, the new reporting structure might look something like this;

Strategy report

• Highlights section
• Mission statement
• At a glance
• Chairman’s statement
• CEO’s statement
• KPI’s
• Risks
• Market landscape
• Sustainability statement

Director’s report

• Governance section
• Renumeration report
• Any other statutory content
• Accounts section

The regulations came into force in October 2013. This means that companies with reporting years ending after October are now expected to prepare their Annual Report in line with the new regulations.

The consequence of this is going to be more intensive work in the run up to publishing your Annual Report; gathering and verifying the content, identifying any gaps and managing your reporting team  in a more active and integrated manner. It may mean a minor tweak to your workflow, or a complete overhaul of your reporting structure, but if you haven’t got your plans in place, maybe now is a good time to get started.

Structured writing

Be clear what you want your writing to say before you start to write it.

What impression are you trying to create? Are you just giving information, or do you want your readers to do something? Who is your audience? Who will read your writing? Think about these groups, what interests them and what you want to say to them. How do they like to receive and use information? Is the visual impact important to them or not?

Inverted pyramid writing
Most people are taught to write by setting up a proposition, building an argument and coming to a conclusion.

However, this presupposes that your reader has the time to read your content all the way through to the end. However, most people skim and scan text in order to extract the salient points as quickly as possible.

Journalists and web editors recognise that their readership is transient and have adopted the concept of inverted pyramid writing to communicate with a time-poor audience.

This style places the most newsworthy information at the beginning of the story and orders the remaining content based on relative importance.

• Story lead (who, what, why, where, when) > Supporting information > Details

Using this structure enables the viewer to grab the core message quickly. In turn, your design should clearly frame the content and enable skimming and scanning.

Writing for the web
People don’t read websites in the same way as they read books or newspapers. They tend to scan, looking for the information they want, and ignore long documents and large blocks of text. You can make it easier for your users by following a few simple pointers:

• Put the most important information at the top of the page
• Use sub-headings, bullet lists and links, so people can find topics easily
• Use plain English and avoid jargon (remember, you are writing for everyone, including people whose first language may not be English)
• Keep it brief – internet users like short bites of text
• Keep pages short – don’t make people scroll down too far on any page. 
• Use short sentences
• Make sure your content is relevant – do I really need to include this?

Structured content

The organisation of content directly affects our ability to receive a message.

Some people want to know all the details, others just require a general understanding. Structuring information in a way that provides the viewer with multiple levels of understanding is a fundamental principle of communication design.

Will the editorial approach be story, news or feature? Narrative or bullet point? Q&A or monologue?

Understanding the structure of your content, having an overview of the likely sequence of content types and applying the LATCH and AIDA communication models will help you to structure your design.

LATCH and AIDA structural models
There are two standard models for organising content. Created by Richard Wurman, LATCH (Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, Hierarchy), identifies five key ways to categorise information and is generally used at the document level. AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), Developed by E St Elmo-Lewis describes the sales process and is a generally used in advertising and at the story level in narrative.

LATCH (Location, Alphabet, Time, Category, Hierarchy)

• Location - Structures information based on spatial positioning ie. transport guides, the human body. Use location when physical connections are important to understanding.
• Alphabet - Organises content structure on letter sequence. Use the alphabet when seeking a structure that will be broadly familiar to a diverse audience.
• Time – Chronological frameworks should be used when users need to understand a sequence of events ie. calendars, timelines.
• Category – Group together information with similar features or attributes. Organise data by category when you need to emphasise connections between data sets.
• Hierarchy - Organise information by measure or perceived importance. Use when assigning weight or value to information.

These categories are not mutually exclusive. For instance, a newspaper is divided into different categories; business, sports, arts etc. Within these sections, editors use hierarchy to place stories in order of perceived importance. The obituary section is ordered alphabetically, whilst the sports results are listed chronologically and weather is mapped by location.

AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)

• Attention or awareness must be developed so that the audience is aware of the product or service.
• Interest must be generated so that the audience learns more about the offer.
• Desire must be created, evoking an emotional response.
• Action is then taken.

For example, in a magazine article or advert you grab attention through an engaging image or arresting headline. The copy creates interest in and desire for the product or service. Finally, the call to action prompts the viewer to act.

You can see that the AIDA model can be used most effectively if you fully understand the needs of your customer or end users.

Messaging

According to the New York Times, the average person is subjected to over 5,000 advertising messages a day. The more messages we perceive, the greater the background noise.

The more you shout, the more noise is created. Everybody wants to be heard. Everybody shouts. To rise above the noise, you need to shout louder.

Or do you?

What your clients need is a message that cuts through the noise, even if you only whisper.

Formulating and structuring your message is therefore critical to making sure you are heard.

Needs
Establishing the needs of your target group – and therefore the types of messages that are likely to resonate with them – is a key component of your message.

Maslow expressed his triangular hierarchy of needs in 1954. Basic physical needs form the base of the pyramid. Once these are satisfied, people’s desires move up to the next level, safety needs, and then social, esteem and self-actualisation at the apex. We move up and down through these levels depending on our lifestage and circumstances.

To be successful, messages, goods and services need to be aligned with the needs of your target audience at their appropriate lifestage.

For instance, expensive makeup is neither a physiological, safety nor social need. Loreal plays on esteem needs of the professional woman with disposable income ‘because you’re worth it’.

Arguments
Rather than shouting louder, it is better to convince a person with a series of statements establishing your proposition.

That’s right, you came here for an argument.

The first stage in an argument is to delimit the terms of reference. What is in and what is out. Provide too much unnecessary information and your audience gets bored.

Then there has to be a structure to the message to make it worth listening to; a narrative with a beginning, middle and end; a dialogue; a setup and a payoff.

The actual message itself can consist of a primary argument (eating 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day is healthy) and secondary arguments (fruit and vegetables are cheap and easy to prepare) that help convince the receiver by supporting the main argument.

The optimum message is based on the primary argument, but where there are several supporting arguments, the strongest one is normally used first with the second strongest left until last and the weakest ones in between.

Both primary and secondary arguments may appeal to logic (health benefits) or emotion (better skin tone) to get their point across. However, whilst the receiver can be convinced by rational arguments, logic is no more important than emotion in decision-making.

This is because the receiver firstly identifies with and adopts a position on your message. Based on the position takes, the receiver then filters all the arguments and counter-arguments. If the pros outweigh the cons, then a subconscious decision is made and the receiver rejects the opposition position. In essence, the receivers convince themselves of the course of action to take.

Generally arguments are one-sided, as the receiver can be relied upon to provide the subvocalised opposition. However, two-sided arguments, where the sender expresses the disadvantages as well as the advantages of their position, can suggest honesty and integrity.

Finally, it is important that your audience feels involved and proactive in the messaging process. Your story leads the way, but by allowing the receiver space to work out your message for themselves, they are more likely to come to the desired conclusion.

Aligning your message with the needs of your audience and developing a clear argument gives you the cut-through that you need and the best chance of being heard.

Evolving English

© British Library

On Tuesday I went to a fascinating lunchtime gallery lecture given by the curators of the Evolving English exhibition at the British Library.

In the course of my visit, what struck me was that no sooner did individuals or institutions try to fix English within a set of rules, so the language evolved as accepted usage changed.

The first part of the exhibition gives an overview of early, middle and then old English, using documents from the permanent collection to chart the development of the language. Whilst the court and state used French, and Latin was the language of the Church, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was the first widespread text seen in old English, the language of the people.

The rest of the exhibition is non-chronological, but divided into themed pairs;

• Written and spoken English
• Native and foreign English
• English at work and play

The development of English as world language is bound up in the development of England as a nation, with social class and with the literary, scientific, manufacturing and trading links forged with countries round the world.

The growth of the British Empire helped spread English around the globe, and also enabled it to absorb a vast number of new words from other countries into the language.

Structurally, everyday English continues to develop. Useful words are added whilst unnecessary words quietly fall into disuse. Today, young people mix yardie, east asian and estuary English to create a new street language that is owned by its speakers.

Concerns about the decline in the quality of English usage, never far from the headlines, have been regularly expressed since 1712 when Jonathan Swift proposed an ‘Approved English’ committee along lines of the Academie Francaise. This suggestion has never been taken up officially in Britain, so as a language English has been free to adapt, add, appropriate or coin new words as required – and in doing so has evolved into a dynamic and flexible world language.

It's a tool that too many designers ignore.

Narrative structure

All stories operate on two levels, the action level and the narrative level.

The action level describes what happens, while the narrative level describes how it happens.

The narrative provides the structure to a story, the framework that allows the action to take place.

The structure of storytelling was set out by Aristotle, who stated that a drama should have a beginning, a middle and an end. It should be constructed according to a unity of time, place and action, with the various characters and plot elements intertwined to create a unified story.

In schools, children are taught about a five stage ‘story hill’ with an introduction or set up, a rising crisis, a turning point, the climax and the ending.

A similar structure can be seen in films, where in order to keep the audience’s attention, the screenplay uses a time based grid to change the pace and focus of a film.

Typically there is a first act that sets up the main characters, before an incident happens that disrupts their world and launches the second act. Partway through the second act something major happens to change the tone and nature of the film. This mid-point climax re-energises the narrative. At the end of the second act, a significant event signals the drawing in of all the plot strands and the third act brings the climax of the film.

Of course, it’s more complex than this. Each act is made up of scenes, each of which needs their own structure to help drive the narrative forward.

Traditional stories relied on a dramatic triangle involving a victim, a persecutor and a rescuer in a tight and closed narrative.  Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. How the story ends may not be clear at the start, but the drama is always resolved.

More contemporary stories allow for a non-dramatic journey where the audience is encouraged to make its own mind up as to the meaning of the story and the ending may be ambiguous.

In the interactive world, immersive role playing games allow the viewer to become active participants in the story. Role playing games have evolved  stoytelling from a liner narrative with a single ending, to a tree structure with multiple endings, and now a web-like structure where there is no first or last page and everything relates to everything else. The illusion of freedom is complete, even if it takes place within the limitations of the imagined world.

How then to make narrative sense of this?

To paraphrase screenwriter Robert McKee, the secret of a successful narrative is to use these principles, not to write the story, but to understand why these structures resonate with the audience and to understand how to use them at the macro and micro level to tell your story.