Second Life
Second Life is the original virtual world platform created by Linden Lab.
It is the largest online user-created virtual space where anything is possible, including selling virtual goods for real money.
Homepage Redesign
The Second Life website was overdue for a design refresh so I was assigned to lead the design and art direction for creating a responsive website with a new look and feel for a younger audience.
My first step in this process was to research our brand and other competitors to see how Second Life differentiated in its product, features, content and messaging. Through this process, looking at data stats, speaking to other teams, and getting to know our current users and the users we were trying to reach, I settled on a bright, colorful palette that would speak to a younger, modern audience. I also chose to call out facts about Second Life that gave it credibility and stability, and because Second-Life is a platform with user-generated content, I wanted that to continue to be the focus of the imagery.
For the three content sections, I chose to focus the first on community because Second Life is known for having users from all over the world with lots of varied interests. The second was about creativity. Since Second Life is a platform where users create their own content, we wanted to speak to our core users and encourage them to create. And finally, the third section talked about the people behind the avatars. Second Life has many videos that go behind-the-scenes to document how people have met in virtual reality and taken their friendship or romance into the real world.
My process for this project involved brand strategy, research, sketching, wireframing, designing, staging in-game photography, and preparing assets for implementation.
Product Design
I was approached to redesign the UI/UX of the Second Life viewer log in screen, which is the first thing you see upon loading Second Life. The look was outdated and needed to better match the darker aesthetic in-game and on the website. I worked with Product on redesigning the screen and partnering with an Engineer to implement the changes according to spec.
Virtual E-commerce
To promote the sale of virtual goods on the Second Life Marketplace, I designed themed banner ads for various shopping categories to increase sales. I also managed a schedule to update banners monthly with seasonal or evergreen content.
Infographics & Logos
In celebration of Second Life’s 15th anniversary, I created two logos and an infographic in the chosen crystal theme to commemorate this event in-game and to the outside media. The logo project involved meeting with the Product team to go over their chosen theme, then brainstorm on colors and shapes to come up with a logo design. One version was created for official press outreach, and the other was created for community events.
Based on data provided to me about Second Life stats, I created an infographic visual to represent the evolution of Second Life in the last 15 years.
Email Campaigns
To communicate Second Life’s many virtual events and celebrations, I designed and wrote copy for every email that went out about 2-3x/month. Working with the data team, we gathered information about the cohort we were sending this to and carefully planned where the email would drive the user to create a seamless end-to-end experience in and out of the game. Second Life emails would get some of the highest click-through rates for industry standards.
When our team switched email providers to Mailchimp, I redesigned dozens of new email templates from scratch.
Digital Banner Ads
To advertise Second Life to new users through retargeting, I worked with the Marketing Manager to determine a broad range of targeted themes as well as evergreen themes to create hundreds of banner ads displayed across Google and Facebook ad networks as well as standard display ad networks in 9 different sizes and localized into 8 languages.
Experiential Design
For Second Life’s first ever trade show at Momocon, I designed several hanging and standing banners to invite guests to visit the booth. I met with Product team stakeholders to discuss themes and curated specific user-generated images to show off the beauty of Second Life. I also communicated with print vendors to make sure the projects were done according to spec, budget, and time constraints.
