Quick links to sections of work: Product & UI/UX Design Marketing/Branding Sponsorships
Forum Redesign Project
Overview: Provided art direction and UI design guidance for a redesign of the “Forums” of Gaia Online. By far the most popular feature on Gaia Online, which receives roughly 1 million posts a day.
Objective: Come up with a new design for the Forum thread-page, that would accommodate a new 300×250 ad placement above the fold.
Result: Worked with UI, visual designers and front-end developers on a few designs that would be accommodate the ad. In the process we decided to redesign the entire Forums thread-page to provide a more logical user experience for the core Forums product on Gaia. After a few iterations, we ended up with a design that was received well by the users and solved many pain points. We also created a more clear hierarchy of the important interactions on the page.
Forum Redesign (after) currently live
Forum Redesign (before)
New Garage Feature
UI/UX design, visual design and art direction for a new garage feature on Gaia Online. This new feature set the stage for new monetization opportunities selling multiple cars as well as new animated car parts.
New Like/Dislike Forums Feature
Art direction and UI/UX design guidance for a new Like/Unlike Forum feature that has been received very positively
by users in the “Site Feedback” forum.
New Calendar Homepage Module
Art direction and UI design guidance for a new Event Calendar module that is now a permanent feature on the logged in homepage. Used mainly as a retention tool, letting users know about events/activities coming up on Gaia.
Also received well by users in the “Site Feedback” forum.
New Video Ad Game
Art direction, design and UI/UX design for a site-wide video product that integrates a gold/virtual item incentive
and light gameplay into a sponsored activity.
- Lead design/brand strategy and execution for all marketing, sponsorships and monetization efforts for the company.
- Also lead the email product focus team, providing email marketing strategy and execution for the entire company.
- Provided art direction and strategy for all email marketing campaigns and transactional emails.
- Art direction for all monetization promotions on the site and all acquisition and retention marketing campaigns.
Email Campaigns
A sample of some of the email campaigns from 2010 that I provide art direction and overall strategy for.
Gaia Cash Cards 2010
Provided art direction for 2010 series of Gaia Cash Cards that are available in Target, CVS, 7-Eleven, Wal-Mart, Game Stop, etc.
As the Art Director for sponsorships at Gaia Online, I was responsible for concept, design, presentation, execution and production of deeply integrated sponsorships, new ad products and ad placements in custom and existing virtual worlds, mini-games, community boards and the main site.
The sponsorship campaigns included: Skittles, Random House, MTV Movie Awards, Alice in Wonderland, P&G: Venus Embrace, P&G: Secret, Cartoon Network, Paramount, Six Flags, Dreamworks, Scion, Coraline, Random House, EA, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Harry Potter 6, Microsoft: Halo Wars, Land of the Lost, Toy Story 3, Coca Cola and many others.
Sponsorship Reel 2009
This video showcases most of the sponsorships that I directed and designed in 2009.
Skittles Campaign 2009
A quick overview of the Skittles 2009 campaign.
Alice in Wonderland Campaign 2010
A walkthrough of the Alice in Wonderland campaign from 2010.
Venus Embrace Campaign 2009
A walkthrough of part of the Venus Embrace campaign from 2009.
Year One Campaign 2009
A walkthrough of the Year One virtual world and quest from 2009.
The Othersiders Campaign 2009
A walkthrough of the Othersiders virtual space and quest from 2009.
Some Other Sponsorship Examples
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