Boston’s Exhale Lifestyle Magazine seeks to inspire and simplify the lives of busy women through information, events, and community. The magazine offers female-focused journalism, strong community connections, essential resources, and lively events.
Why Viv
We developed a website for The Bay State Banner a year before, with then CEO Sandra Casagrand. When Sandra was looking for a team for her new project of launching a women’s magazine, she again looked to Viv.
Collaboration
Many other firms balk at having “too many cooks in the kitchen,” but the Viv approach invites and embraces client input. CEO Sandra Casagrand, brought together a star studded cast for this project, including Kristine Kennedy, who served for over ten years as an editor at Better Homes and Gardens, and Dan Goodwin, who has been a print designer for 15 years.
Curiosity and Engagement
Where it is possible for designers to use cookie cutter solutions, the results are better if a designer really channels the specific needs of a target audience.
Looking at wide array of example sites together allowed the team to hone in on branding that was both user-friendly and original.
The Results
How to inspire readers who only have a few minutes to spare?
We knew that busy women need to get the information they are looking for quickly
We ensured a clean and punchy experience through:
- A clear main navigation: on a menu less is SO much more…and we worked hard with the Exhale team to whittle the main menu down to just 4 main menu items and one intense “call to action,” button “join us.” Not give up real estate to any distracting elements gives the site…
- Estimates for reading duration on each article
- Icons, infographics and callout boxes in articles
Having fewer top level menu items was made possible in part by offering clear navigation within dropdown menus, some of which was able to use
We also designed quick paths from arriving on the site to engaging with its content by calling out how many minutes it takes to read an article, stripping author names, and creating evergreen content by eliminating publication dates.
