We created Vagon to provide a collaborative workspace for creatives with a limitless hardware capability. Even an emerging digital artist can create a high-poly 3D geometry, edit a video with Adobe Premiere Pro, or run SideFX Houdini simulations from an ordinary laptop by using Vagon.
Starting from this point, we redesigned all Vagon applications to provide the best and most powerful cloud computing experience for creatives!
We wanted to share our story about the creative process of generating our brand new look, how we created our user journey, and the problems we’ve solved.
The whole design process has been both compelling and inspiring with its technical challenges and possibilities. Our creative process is rooted from our user comments and feedback, as a natural outcome of our open communication.
Talking with our users to discuss our upcoming features and current issues, and trying to provide the best possible solution for their needs is our first priority.
Also, from a technical perspective we aimed for lowering the resource consumption and enhancing the streaming quality of Vagon to be as amazing and efficient as streaming an HD video on YouTube.
It was really challenging, but now Vagon consumes the same amount of resources with Youtube and we have much more plans to reduce it.
Creating a Unique & Inspiring Brand Identity
Marty Neumeier, a branding pioneer, defines brand identity as “the outward expression of a brand, including its trademark, name, communications, and visual appearance.” In other words, brand identity is the sum of how your brand looks, feels, and speaks to its users.
We collaborated with the Sömestr Studio, Istanbul based creative studio, to recalibrate our strategy and redesign our visual language. They created a unique and memorable brand identity, logo, typography, color scheme, and visual assets from scratch.
Our user base deals with cutting edge creative technology and 3D is getting more popular by the day. Therefore this new look was an elegant way to create the identity of Vagon which incorporates 3D compositions to create a new and vivid visual style. Sömestr Studio also designed a custom typeface to be used throughout all Vagon products and communication.
Creative users already have the skills and knowledge of using a computer in order to produce creative projects. So, we just tried to not get in the way between them and the cloud computers. The Vagon product team made the connection process as smooth as possible. As a result, we have a simple and intuitive product that we use in our everyday lives as well.”
Sömestr Studio
Designers and artists chase the most seamless experience and ground to play for their workflow. - For us, it’s also the same!
Our logo is a combination of three slightly connected basic squares. It was exactly what we are looking for: an empty canvas which gets filled with creative input.This simple and versatile logo enables us to transform it with various artworks and different backgrounds.
Advert Cognitive Aspects in User Experience
Besides being a complex high-tech product, our target is to provide the simplest experience.
It doesn’t matter how excellent your product is, especially if you are working with creatives. We challenged ourselves to create the best experience to highlight the technology of Vagon, by creating a flawless UX.
There are a bunch of cognitive biases and principles that help us to improve our user experience. We set our priorities to focus on user psychology to design a familiar, consistent, and friendly interface to achieve a perfect balance between the expectations of our users and their intended outcomes.
After over a thousand hours of remote brainstorming sessions, where we addressed the user issues and product opportunities, we created user flows for each product feature.
Tons of wireframes were designed until everyone on the team was sure that the frames cover the whole flow.
A new era of Vagon product has started
We started to this journey to become the smartest, most professional, and the most easy to use cloud computer. Finally our user interfaces and flows make this happen. The whole experience of the Vagon application is crafted to make the users feel that this is the product they possess.
We decided to welcome our new users with a clear registration screen. The registration screen is simple without asking for any unnecessary information.
Users place a higher value on a product if they think it is theirs and we wanted to make them feel it; the Endowment Effect.
Blank Canvas to Your Personal Computer
Imagine you purchase a new computer, the box of it in your hands, and you are ready to open it. We wanted to create a similar feeling that your personal computer is ready to be unboxed with one-click.
Furthermore, we went one step further and enabled the user to embrace different kinds of computer options. We tailored the whole experience in a personal way to give the feeling of uniqueness.
It is your supercomputer, experience, and community built up according to the options you choose. Our new design is planned to increase the engagement between the product and the user via plenty of choices. We decided to collaborate with our users to provide them the best experience by enabling them to partially affect the flow. In the market, this strategy is called the IKEA Effect.
We did not just give the same flow to all users but enable them to lead the flow by choosing between the options we provide, to create their own experiences like a blank canvas with lots of possibilities.
Creating Your Vagon Computer
Buying a new computer is always an incredible moment for all of us. Removing the cover, opening the box slowly, and seeing the shiny new gear!
We wanted to provide the same excitement of this experience to our new users.
Vagon is your cloud computer, so we replicate the basics from physical devices to make it simple. Guess what the “Run” button does: pretty obvious. That is the feeling we exactly wanted to mimic. You create your computer, configure your preferences, and then power up and unleash the beast.
Take a deep breath and click “Run Computer”, and the button will come alive, like a living thing that breathes in and out.
Frictionless Experience with Dock
The dock is the place that our users set their preferences for their computers and engage their Vagon experience with their physical computers.
We respect our users’ time and livened up our dock design and its capabilities with a new fresh look. The categorized design makes it easier to scan for the options and tools you may use on a daily basis.
Most computer actions are located in the dock to enable one-click changes, such as the virtual keyboard.
The whole new UI is visually unified and redesigned to be more functional and user-friendly.
Creating the Simplest Cloud Computer Experience
A good user experience is not just about clearly providing useful information. Instead, it’s about providing useful information in an engaging and pleasing manner to form a connection with users.
If a product experience is creating burdens for users and isn’t engaging enough to catch the users’ attention, everything is worthless. Therefore, the design team of Vagon invested time and effort into creating an engaging, personalized new design.
At Vagon, we always prioritize building together with our users to make our product better and more useful. We will continue delivering new features to provide the best experience for our users. Let us hear your thoughts and feedback!
Stay tuned for the news by following our blog, and try Vagon now if you haven’t already.
