To further enhance the capabilities of Pixelied, we developed a comprehensive suite of color generation tools tailored for designers and non-designers of all levels. Our goal was to create an integrated platform that simplifies the processes of selecting, generating, and visualizing colors. By providing these tools, we aimed to streamline the creative workflow and empower designers and small business owners with simplified tools to make informed color choices efficiently across various projects.
Role:
Design & Development
Industry:
Design
Duration:
22 Weeks
Research & Exploration
In developing the color generation tools, we conducted extensive research to understand the needs of our diverse user base, which includes professional designers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners with limited design experience.
Our research activities included:
User Surveys and Interviews: We gathered insights from both designers and non-designers to identify common challenges and requirements related to color selection and palette creation.
Focus Groups: Sessions with entrepreneurs and small business owners helped us understand the obstacles they face when working with colors and how we could simplify the process for them.
Competitor Analysis: We analyzed existing color tools to pinpoint gaps in functionality and areas for improvement.
Key Findings:
Need for Simplicity: Non-designers desire tools that are intuitive and easy to use without requiring extensive knowledge of color theory.
Guidance and Suggestions: Users appreciated features that offer predefined color combinations and suggestions to inspire their designs.
Visualization: Both designers and non-designers found value in being able to visualize how color palettes would look in real-world applications.
Integrated Platform: Users preferred having all color tools in one place to streamline their workflow and reduce the need to switch between different applications.
Design
Discovery
Pixelied's color generation tools’ discovery phase involves understanding the user needs, identifying the features, extracting the opportunities from competitor analysis, and creating an all-in-one color tool for designers of various fields.
Key features such as a color wheel with predefined color combination suggestions, a color palette generator with various predefined styles, a random color generator, an image color picker, a live palette visualizer on UI screens, illustration, branding, and typography assets, templates suggestion based on color palettes and collections were prioritized to be worked on.
The timeline for this phase was around 1-2 weeks, with the aim to deliver some rough low-fidelity mockups to understand the UI requirements and to have a good starting point for high-fidelity designs.
Components
We used the existing Pixelied’s design system for the overall structure to ensure consistency across the design suite and created some new components that are specific to color generation tools like palettes, color wheels, styles sidebar, visualizers, color pickers, and more to ensure reusability and rapid iterations.
High-fidelity designs
We aimed to provide our users with a convenient all-in-one color solution, emphasizing user-friendliness and maximum accessibility.
To achieve this, we designed an easy-to-navigate top navigation with all the tools listed up front and the main tool user interface right below it, aiming to reduce the number of clicks and improve task completion time by creating a straightforward UI for each feature. In addition, we also added smooth interactions to ensure a delightful user experience.
Delivery
To facilitate hand-off, self-explanatory flows were created for each feature, with important notes and annotations to ensure a quick understanding of the flows simply by reviewing the design file.
Development/Implementation
We developed a comprehensive suite of free tools to enhance the user experience in working with colors. These tools include:
Color Wheel
Color Palette Generator
Random Color Generator
Image Color Picker
Color Palette Editor
Palette Visualizer
Each tool was meticulously designed to assist users in seamlessly selecting and editing colors for their projects.
Technical Challenges and Solutions:
Implementing an Interactive Color Wheel:
Challenge: Creating an intuitive and responsive color wheel that allows users to select colors with precision, including predefined color combination suggestions like complementary, analogous, and triadic colors.
Solution: We utilized advanced HTML5 Canvas and SVG technologies combined with JavaScript to render the color wheel. Konva.js was instrumental in handling canvas interactions. We implemented draggable handles and real-time color value updates to enhance user interaction. Ensuring smooth performance across different browsers and devices was achieved through optimization and extensive testing.
Developing the Color Palette Generator:
Challenge: Automatically generating aesthetically pleasing color palettes based on various predefined styles and user inputs.
Solution: We incorporated color theory algorithms and harmonic rules into our codebase. By integrating mathematical models for color harmony, the generator could produce balanced and visually appealing palettes. Users could select from predefined styles or customize parameters to tailor the palettes to their needs.
Building the Image Color Picker:
Challenge: Accurately and efficiently extracting dominant and accent colors from uploaded images.
Solution: We implemented image processing techniques using HTML5 Canvas to access pixel data. By applying clustering algorithms like k-means, we could identify the most prominent colors in an image. Optimization was key to ensure quick processing times, even for high-resolution images.
Creating the Palette Visualizer:
Challenge: Allowing users to visualize their color palettes on various design assets in real-time.
Solution: We developed a rendering engine that applies selected color palettes to predefined templates, UI components, and illustrations. Utilizing WebGL and optimized rendering techniques, we ensured that color changes were reflected instantaneously without lag. This required efficient management of SVG assets and dynamic styling.
Enhancing Performance and Scalability:
Challenge: Ensuring the tools remained responsive under high user load and with complex operations.
Solution: Code optimization techniques were applied throughout the development process. Lazy loading, code splitting, and caching strategies improved performance. We also leveraged Next.js features for server-side rendering and static generation where appropriate.
Implementing Smooth Animations and Interactions:
Challenge: Creating engaging and smooth user interactions without compromising performance.
Solution: We used CSS transitions and requestAnimationFrame for animations to ensure they were performant. By minimizing reflows and repaints, we maintained smooth interactions even on less powerful devices.
Tech Stack:
Frontend:
Frameworks/Libraries: Next.js, React.js, Konva.js
Technologies: HTML5 Canvas, SVG, WebGL
Styling: CSS3, Sass
Backend:
Runtime Environment: Node.js
Framework: Express.js
Database: MongoDB
Tools and Services:
Version Control: Git
Testing: Jest, Enzyme, Cypress
Deployment: Docker, Kubernetes for containerization and orchestration
Throughout the development process, collaboration between cross-functional teams was crucial. Regular stand-up meetings, code reviews, and agile methodologies ensured transparency and allowed us to address challenges promptly. We also established a feedback loop with beta users to gather real-world insights and make iterative improvements.
Outcomes
The launch of the color generation tools led to significant positive feedback from the users of Pixelied. Key outcomes included:
Improved User Engagement: Users spent more time on the platform, extensively utilizing the new color tools. The color tools are used by hundreds of creators on a daily basis.
Enhanced Workflow Efficiency: Designers reported a more streamlined process, reducing the need to switch between different tools.
Growth in User Base: Attracted new users to Pixelied, expanding our community of designers.
The project successfully met our objectives of providing a comprehensive color tool suite and significantly enhanced the user experience for designers using Pixelied.
