Brand · 2019–2021

UserTesting
Brand Refresh

A new identity for the human insight company. I contributed to the broader brand system as part of the in-house visual team, and owned the icon library + web motion proposal + advertising applications.

UserTesting refreshed homepage on an iMac
Role
Visual designer · UI/UX designer
Team
Brand & Marketing
Deliverables
Updated brand system · brand guidelines · website
The brief

Make a research company look as human as the word in its name.

UserTesting was building a category around human insight — but the old brand still read as enterprise software. The refresh had to keep the trust signal a category leader needs, while adding warmth, type with personality, and a system that scaled across product, marketing, environment, and merch.

The work was a team effort led by Amy Li, with Yunji Jun on visual and Nick Slater on illustration. I contributed across the system, and owned a handful of pieces end-to-end.

My contribution

What I owned and shaped in the team's system.

Naming what's mine in a team brand project matters — both for the team's credit and for the reader's clarity. Some of this I drove end to end; some I helped shape alongside the team.

Owned
Icon library

Led the system from scratch — drawing rules, weight, optical sizing, naming. Shipped across marketing, environmental, and product touchpoints.

Co-shaped
The human concept

Helped define the core idea behind the refresh — how to bring the human side of UserTesting forward — which anchored the new visual direction.

Designed
Web page design

Designed pages for the refreshed site, translating the new identity into responsive layouts and reusable components.

Explored
Color & pattern

Explored color directions and the supporting pattern system that gave the identity texture and flexibility across surfaces.

Designed
Social ads

Adapted the refreshed identity into paid social across the many unit sizes media needs, with templates the marketing team could extend without me.

Selected surfaces

A small tour of where it landed.

The refreshed system played out across the website, product, motion, and applications. A few representative artifacts — some I led, some I contributed to.

UserTesting refreshed website homepage
Website · 2020
UserTesting brand mark animated on Apple Watch
Apple Watch · motion
Page from the 2020 brand guidelines
Brand guidelines · 2020
UserTesting icon library system
Icon library · led
Homepage motion · proposed

The refresh held — the system shipped, the icons stayed, and the homepage motion landed in production. A small thread of mine inside a larger weave.

— Manjia Zhao