Pathfinder Improves User Experience of Leading Color Calibration System.

Company:

Datacolor is a global leader in color management solutions and color communication technology. The world’s leading brands, manufacturers, creative professionals and consumers have been choosing Datacolor’s innovative technology and solutions to consistently achieve the right color for 37 years.

Challenge:

We partnered with Datacolor to redesign their popular color calibration system, the Spyder2Pro. The application is paired with a hardware device that users place on their computer screens, which reads and, if necessary, recalibrates the monitor display in order to ensure precise, accurate and consistent color display. Plans for the new release, Spyder3Pro, focused on redesigning elements of the information architecture and streamlining the wizard-based calibration process. Additionally, we were asked to redesign the application’s somewhat dated user interface in order to complement the newly redesigned calibration device.

Solution:

Prior to the commencement of the redesign, datacolor conducted a customer survey to elicit opinions regarding ease of navigation, application speed, the help functionality, the effectiveness of the calibration process, and the appearance of the interface. Several respondents commented on the outdated appearance of the product and the lack of intuitiveness in using Spyder2Pro. Pathfinder conducted a competitive review of other major color calibration products to identify best practices that could be applied to Spyder3.

Then the current application was reviewed to determine where the flow could be optimized for the next release. Non-essential screens were eliminated, some actions combined, content was detailed and wireframe templates created for each unique screen. From this foundation, a sophisticated and appealing visual design was created to upgrade the presentation layer and reflect the improvements to the application. The visual design created for Spyder3Pro would also be applied to the accompanying product in the suite, PrintFIX PLUS.