The Guardian Labs Microwebsite template
Industry: Editorial
Design area: Digital design, UX/UII
The client
The Guardian Labs, the branded content wing of British national daily The Guardian, dedicates itself to delivering exceptional branded content across devices. With a team of over 130 content specialists, The Guardian Labs reaches 131 million unique browsers every month worldwide.
The task
I was asked to design a flexible template that could pull together a variety of Guardian inspired modules to suit the content. The method was to create approved components that designers / developers could use a starting point for their single page websites.
The modules I designed are mean to to accomodate different kinds of content - from hero images to timelines, from photo galleries/carousels to infographics. I was also asked to create template guidelines and blank templates for other designers to follow. Guidelines include informations about all the available modules and directions on what elements should be given to the developer in charge of building the microsite.
Modules creation
Execution examples
The format accommodates bespoke art direction ensuring each execution uniquely visualises the essence of the story and no one execution looks the same.
Examples of live designs:
Spotify UK /Barilla / GSK / Open University
The Spotify microsite was the first real field test of the template. The creative features embedded Spotify playlists in an intuitive 'scroll to navigate' interface, perfect for 'mobile first'.
The second wave of the project, 'Then & Now', can be seen here.
