Google: Signage Redesign + Icons

Our research team found that shoppers were largely ignoring our on-shelf signage as it was too wordy, too much marketing speak, and the design was identical across all products (see example image, left). We needed to find a way to engage with shoppers, convey benefits succinctly, allow shoppers to comparison shop across products, drive sales, and reinforce the brand.

I collaborated with our marketing and research teams to develop various designs and conduct user testing. The winning new design was favored by 71% of consumers, who reported that the new design was much easier to scan quickly, easier to understand, stood out on shelf, and had a “Googley” look and feel. I then created templates and communicated the new guidelines to our international partners..

I leveraged the existing Google icon library which was created solely for digital UI to adapt, remix, and create new icons that would work for our needs in printed retail signage while still feeling consistent with other consumer-facing touchpoints such as the UI on Google devices and the online Google Store. Colors were carefully considered. Some are intuitive (i.e. blue for water, yellow for the sun), while some colors are emotional (i.e. green for movement and energy, red for security and warnings). Red can feel intense and is mostly used for icons with thin lines so that they have an equal weight to the thicker icons, while yellow can be hard to see and is used for larger areas of color. I also considered making it easier for consumers to scan quickly by grouping similar features together (i.e. audio features are always blue, device control is always green).

The vast majority of stores use a very small 4x4” card format as seen on the left, but some markets utilize larger 8x4” or 4x6” cards.

A selection of our cards. For each one I collaborated with our writers, product marketing managers, research, and go to market teams. Many consumers are not familiar with smart home products and these cards are quite small, so it was a challenge to convey key information succinctly and clearly.

Some fixtures have room for additional signage, with input from retailers. Some retailers would like signage that goes deeper into a single product, such as how a mesh Wifi system works.

Some retailers prefer to show how the Google family of products work together. We created a consistent system to meet various retailer needs, product combinations, and fixture sizes while still maintaining the Google brand globally.