Coreto Design Language: time saved & well-spent

What we achieved?

Working with different departments towards the same goal describes almost every day in the life of a creative head. Using these working days to achieve a fully functional product that delights the eye and provides an — out of this world (ideally) — experience. The key is following a design language.

When you come across a “design language system”, you might shake it off as something only the design team should care about, but that’s not the case and I’ll tell you why. First, let’s try and define it.

A design language is a set of guidelines and standards which guide the creation of products underneath a brand.

This is essentially like breaking down a product into reusable building blocks, adding the ability of categorizing and grouping them. Imagine stacking a few lego bricks to create a digital platform. It’s clearly not that easy, but it makes the process more actionable.

We now start an iterative process that will perfect the design language over time. From this point of view, it’s a given that a DLS benefits more than just the design team. It greatly benefits the brand, the business, and the end-users.

What are the benefits of Coreto Design Language?

Now that we have a better understanding of what CDL is, let’s see what benefits it brings to the table.

Recognizability

CDL creates the personality of our platform. It allows it to stand out in this overcrowded space of digital products.

For example, in a few months, you will see how easily Coreto’s hexagon will be recognized. For the moment, it’s the base of our logo and token symbol, but soon it will serve as an important brand ambassador — as people will quickly associate the blue pointed hexagon with Coreto.
It’s our symbol for:

• progress
• connection, and
• trust.

Consistency

A fragmented experience with a non-consistent product damages the perception of a brand. A good design language takes into consideration the nuances of consistency and generates interactions based on context — without overdoing consistency.

Ease of Use & Delight

We can all agree on this one: the user’s experience is top-notch when he interacts with consistent, easy-to-use apps that he can understand. An enjoyable experience means he’s here to stay.

Without aesthetic, design is either the humdrum repetition of familiar clichés or a wild scramble for novelty. Without aesthetic, the computer is but a mindless speed machine, producing effects without substance, form without relevant content, or content without meaningful form. — Paul Rand

Efficiency and Cost

Having CDL in place enables Coreto’s team of designers, developers, and business persons to create, recreate, modify or iterate on the platform in a fast and cost-efficient manner. The Beta and Stable release of Coreto will align entirely with our developing ecosystem. This level of consistency can be attributed to CDL.

Stability

The CDL becomes our guiding beacon. Everyone involved in Coreto will make a conscious effort to align future builds with CDL. This brings stability. And as we said above, a design language is an iterative process, meaning that it is here to stay as it evolves with time and context.

A unified design language shouldn’t be just a set of static rules and individual atoms; it should be an evolving ecosystem. Karri Saarinen, Head of Design — Airbnb.

Better user onboarding

CDL brings to light opportunities to make the platform’s user experience better, which will benefit the business. These opportunities create more grounds for growth, as this process will radically increase the likelihood that new users become successful when adopting our product.

Why now?

We strive for harmony within our platform. Alpha is progressing rapidly and discussions about Beta’s features are intensifying. CDL comes as a natural evolution of our brand, this is true, but we also need to prepare for what Beta will become.

Coreto’s platform is not a simple website — it’s a complete digital product, preparing to onboard millions of users, lying at the crossroads between social interaction and blockchain research. No “on the knee” design system will deal with this complexity.

What’s next?

First, we will update Coreto’s online presence. Our social accounts have already been updated and requests were sent to partners, exchanges, and price-tracking websites. We should see the changes in the next few days.

Next on the list is our website. This will be the first time we’ll see a major by-product of CDL. We plan on building a modular structure, with real-time updates in our roadmap and, my personal favourite, a Learning Center.

And, the most important part, completing the Alpha phase. As we progress, improvements will be made as we discover new things about the users and the platform. Implementing these new solutions in Alpha with the current style guide, but the design and development team can now envision the final form of the platform.

The current features, along with the planned ones, will slowly morph and transform according to the new design language system. We’ve already tested parts of CDL, but the Beta release will be its true test.

I’m excited to see how this will play out! We’re eager to share our process and you can join the community👇 to be part of the journey.