Introduction
Blindspot is a platform that simplifies Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) advertising, enabling brands to easily browse, select, and book billboard locations worldwide. It provides a centralized hub for planning, scheduling, and tracking outdoor ad campaigns, making traditional out-of-home advertising more accessible and measurable through digital tools.
As one of Webmarc's clients, I began working with Blindspot in 2021 as a UX/UI Designer.This project was a major milestone in my career, as I was responsible for managing both the platform and website. It gave me invaluable experience in simplifying the complexities of DOOH advertising through effective design strategies and UI implementation.
Research and Analysis
The Blindspot founding team, with their extensive background in advertising, played a crucial role in helping me understand the intricate needs of advertisers and brands in the DOOH market. Their expertise was essential in identifying key user pain points, such as the challenges of managing billboard locations across multiple cities, scheduling ad placements, and tracking campaign performance. This guidance gave me a solid foundation for designing an effective platform.
Testing various platforms that offered billboard booking and management services helped me uncover gaps in the user experience, such as inefficient navigation and confusing interfaces. This research was essential in shaping Blindspot into a more user-friendly platform that addressed those gaps while offering enhanced functionality.
An important part of the design process was mapping out the user flow to ensure smooth navigation from campaign creation to execution. I focused on breaking down the user journey into clear, easy-to-follow steps, ensuring advertisers could manage their campaigns efficiently without unnecessary friction. The flow was refined based on iterative testing and feedback, ensuring that both new and experienced users could use the platform effectively.
Concept Development
One of the biggest challenges for Blindspot was making the process of publishing and managing a campaign less complicated. We needed to create a system that would make these tasks easier to handle without losing the important details advertisers rely on.
The goal was to define essential features while keeping the user journey simple and intuitive. This meant designing an efficient flow for users to navigate through the process of booking billboard locations, setting schedules, and managing visual content.
Design
The general design of the platform was inspired by the familiar Netflix-style layout, but instead of movies, it showcases billboards. The homepage allows users to browse billboard locations across the globe with an intuitive, tile-based interface, making the selection process easy and visually engaging. Users can also access the "My Campaigns" list, where they can quickly see all their active and past campaigns, while each campaign page offers detailed insights into how their campaigns performed. These insights include metrics such as impressions, engagement rates, and other relevant data, helping users assess the effectiveness of their campaigns in real time.
Onboarding process
For the onboarding process, we designed a guided experience that highlights the platform's most important features. Through a mix of interactive highlights, clear visuals, and instructional videos, users are introduced to key functionalities like location selection, schedule configuration, and campaign performance tracking. This step-by-step introduction ensures users are comfortable with the platform before diving into more advanced tasks.
Create a campaign flow
In the create a campaign flow, users start by selecting billboard locations on an interactive map. After choosing the locations, they can configure schedules either individually for each site or apply the same schedule to all. Users then upload their visuals, with the platform providing guidelines for optimal content formatting. The final step involves reviewing all selections before launching the campaign. Throughout this process, users receive real-time feedback on their choices, including cost and projected reach, allowing them to make informed decisions at every stage.
Design System
Managing the design system for Blindspot was a critical part of the project’s success. I developed a scalable design system that ensured visual and functional consistency across all aspects of the platform. This system included a style guide featuring typography, colors, and icons, as well as reusable components for buttons, forms, cards, and more. These elements allowed for faster iteration and ensured a consistent and cohesive user interface. Additionally, it helped the development team stay aligned with the design vision, enabling smooth integration of new features without compromising the overall user experience.
Reflections and Learnings
Collaboration with Blindspot’s team was essential throughout the project. Their expertise in advertising provided valuable feedback, which helped me refine the user flows and ensure the platform met the real needs of advertisers. Our teamwork allowed for quick adjustments and improvements during development, leading to a product that both sides felt proud of.
We also took a Minimum Viable Process approach. By focusing on launching essential features first, we were able to roll out a functioning platform quickly, while planning for more advanced features in future updates. This approach not only helped Blindspot reduce time-to-market but also provided immediate value to users while allowing for continuous improvements based on feedback.
Conclusion
The Blindspot project was an eye-opening experience in balancing functional design with business needs. Developing an intuitive platform that simplifies the complexities of managing billboard advertising campaigns was a rewarding challenge. It reinforced my belief that, especially in startup environments, delivering a product that works well for the user is often more important than making it perfect right away.
