brand management across devices & platforms

Tags: Business,  Design,  Mobile applications,  Mobile web
May 7, 2007 by Barbara

I often hear brand owners talk about wanting a consistent user experience across devices, including computers and interactive televisions. They cite transferability of user knowledge, support costs, and brand identity.

Please know that “brand” is more than just a logo and color scheme. The US flag, its logo if you will, has seven red stripes and six white stripes and a blue field with fifty stars in a particular arrangement. Is that all that “American” is? Hardly.

Definitely control the presentation of your logo, but definitely do not impose artificial constraints on the experience of your total brand based on different user interfaces.

Consider the iPod and iTunes. Both present the same information (excluding the store), but they do it in very different ways. One is a simple menu structure with fast scrolling; the other is a multi-paned window with sophisticated controls. The user data is arranged in the same ways, but its presentation is different.

Why then should a web site look the same on mobile and desktop? Or between a Nokia E91 and a Motorola RAZR?

They shouldn’t. It doesn’t make sense for your brand, and it doesn’t make sense for your users. If it is necessary for your support desk, you need to reengineer your support system.

A brand that looks exactly the same on devices that don’t act or looks the same ends up looking brittle. Further, this forces a “least common denominator” approach to design; an internet watch device would either force you to reduce features across the board or instead not support the watch. Either way your brand looks more brittle, and your users are not fully supported.


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