Developing a new product: Sky Q
Creating brand guidelines and the on-screen content

Developing Sky Q from an idea into a product took two years and involved working with a small team of talented creatives. The overall brief was simple: to take the things that people loved about Sky+ and make them even better. My role was to create the brand guidelines and all the on-box content.

The main obstacle with the legacy system was that Sky was often perceived as more of a utility company than an entertainment brand. That was partly due to Sky offering broadband services as well as TV, but also because the existing tone of voice was too cold and clinical. I wanted the Sky Q content to sound warmer and more human. And because we were developing something exciting, the branding and the style had to reflect this - it needed to sound passionate at every touchpoint.

Creating the on-screen content involved everything from high-profile menu labels to error messages. It also included several user journeys, such as box office purchase and the start-up screens.

Logic and reasoning was required for all the features. Whether it was the behaviour of the touchpad aspect of the remote control or the way the on-screen toggles worked, heavy user testing was required throughout the project to understand how customers were interacting with the different functionality.