Unified branding
Develop a unified brand identity for grants.gov
Summary details
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
Deliverable status | In Progress |
Responsible parties | |
Link to GitHub issue | Issue #88 |
Key sections |
Overview
Summary
What: Develop a unified brand identity, including some visual and communication assets, to communicate the vision and principles of Simpler Grants.gov across multiple platforms with a focus on designing assets for easy transition to becoming the branding assets for all of Grants.gov.
Why: Establishing a comprehensive brand strategy and identity for Grants.gov is crucial to align with federal directives for a digital-first public experience.
Who
Internal stakeholders
General public
Business value
The unified cross-platform branding and identity initiative aims to enhance the project's overall identity and outreach, and ensuring a cohesive impactful presence. By aligning the brand with our users, organizational goals, defining key differentiators, and creating compelling messaging, we seek to elevate the Grants.gov user experience and strengthen stakeholder engagement and consistency across all communication channels.
User stories
As a HHS staff member, I want to:
have a well-defined brand identity and messaging framework so that communication aligns with organizational goals, fostering a consistent and impact representation of Grants.gov
As a project maintainer, I want to:
a finalized brand identity with clear guidelines and assets to streamline communication efforts, ensuring a cohesive and recognizable presence across various channels.
As a member of the public, I want to:
see a Grants.gov have a memorable brand identity that builds trust in the platform's services
As a an open source contributor, I want the:
Grants.gov brand to reflect an inclusive and open community, encouraging collaboration and engagement with external contributors
Technical description
Branding identity, marketing, and communications audit
Description
Initiating the data collection phase to inform the initial internal/external synthesis that will inform branding efforts. Gathering metrics, user engagement, feedback, and relevant data from various sources, such as newsletters, grantor communications, research findings, legacy brand documentation, etc.
Goals
Complete audit of current brand landscape using collateral, brand standards, marketing material, social media, data, and other relevant sources
Complete audit of competitor and similar organizations’ brand identities
Consolidate data in a shared repository or folder for collaborative access and synthesis
Analyze the current brand with a thorough audit and define a clear brand position that is aligned with organizational goals. These efforts inform the design of the brand identity
Primary and secondary brand audience identification
Description
Starting with a deep look at all the audience info and internal/external user groups, we can then define the different audiences for the brand and potentially the language/outreach/identity needs they have.
The brand identity will not only be the specific users of grants.gov. It will be policymakers, members of the media, and internal HHS/Grants staff who work on the product. The new brand will need to account for their needs and focus as stakeholders.
Goals
Define the primary and secondary brand audiences for Grants
Define how we engage with those responsible for governance internally
Brand positioning, characters, and behaviors
Description
Develop and iterate on the brand positioning statement. From there, develop and iterate on the brand characters and behaviors.
Brand Characters: The combination of five distinct characteristics that we share as an organization. We demonstrate them through our behaviors.
Brand Behaviors: Short actionable statements that interpret our characteristics into clear guidance for how we look, speak and act. They guide anyone representing Grants – through design, in writing, or in person
Goals
Define the what the key differentiators and brand position is for grants in the wider ecosystem.
Define, iterate on, and finalize a set of five of brand characters and their behaviors
Develop Key Messages
Description
Create compelling, memorable, and consistent messaging that effectively communicates Grants.gov identity and unique value. Key messages define what the Grants.gov stands for, its personality, and the key benefits it offers to its audience. We’ll craft these statements by conducting research with the PAC so that messages resonate with our target audiences.
Goals
Develop the value proposition
Develop a set of compelling, memorable statements that can be used across audience types
Test and develop 2-3 key messages for each audience type
Deliver brand strategy
Description
Deliver the approved brand strategy to the team for approval
Goals
Deliver and get approval for all key brand strategy and communications items
Develop visual concepts
Description
A set of activities that use the audit, brand behaviors, and key messaging frameworks to collaboratively develop 2 visual directions. The tasks are focused on getting feedback and participation from a wide variety of stakeholders and using activities to focus the team on how the mission gets represented visually.
Goals
Involve stakeholders in the visual brainstorming process
Develop 2 visual directions for selection by stakeholder
Develop visual identity system
Description
Develop a final brand identity and specified associated assets, templates, and guidelines.
Goals
Deliver a final brand guidelines and specified associated assets and rules
Gain alignment from all key stakeholders on the brand direction
Definition of done
Following sections describe the conditions that must be met to consider this deliverable "done".
Must have
Planning
Assumptions and dependencies
What functionality do we expect to be in place before work starts on this deliverable?
n/a
Is there any notable functionality we do not expect to be in place before works starts on this deliverable?
The Participant Advisory Community deliverable will be starting at a similar time as this effort. While it it's a nice-to-have to get PAC involvement in the branding decisions, the timelines may not apply and we can incorporate PAC involvement of the brand in a future deliverable
Not in scope
List of functionality or features that are explicitly out of scope for this deliverable.
Final approvals from leadership
The websites and public spaces where the assets may be used (such as, logos) will not be updated in this deliverable
Open questions
Integrations
Translations
Does this deliverable involve delivering any content that needs translation?
No, not in this deliverable
If so, when will English-language content be locked? Then when will translation be started and completed?
n/a
Services going into PROD for the first time
This can include services going into PROD behind a feature flag that is not turned on.
Branding assets will be introduced. We will also need to determine where assets will be published and shared. This will most likely use existing services, such as the wiki or the repo but it will be determined in this effort
Services being integrated in PROD for the first time
Are there multiple services that are being connected for the first time in PROD?
n/a
Data being shared publicly for the first time
Are there any fields being shared publicly that have never been shared in PROD before?
Not necessarily fields but these branding assets may be shared publicly
Security considerations
Does this deliverable expose any new attack vectors or expand the attack surface of the product?
We may need to consider how we can share branding assets in an open source project while considering the risk of bad actors using the assets for unintended purposes
If so, how are we addressing these risks?
Currently, anyone can copy branding and images from the site itself so it should not be a different if it is in a repository. We will explore how different audiences will interact with the brand. For example, internal staff may get a simple URL to access the logo, or do we need to consider building it in to the tools. HHS has the basics up on a public page, but not all the stuff like powerpoint decks and letterhead. so we should consider a middle-ground. See the guidelines for use here: https://www.hhs.gov/web/policies-and-standards/web-policies/logo-seal-and-symbol-policies/index.html
Logs
Change log
Major updates to the content of this page will be added here.
| Date | Update | Notes |
|---|---|---|
4/5/2024 | Added change log and implementation log | This is part of the April onsite follow-up |
4/30/24 | Agreed with HHS Project leadership to descope brand metrics & potentially narrowing the required Brand identity assets to be developed. | Scope reduction is with the goal of hopefully keeping scope within range to be completed by May 14th. If additional review cycles are necessary to achieve a visual direction that project leadership is confident in, delivery of final presentations and brand identity assets will extend past Sprint 23. |
Implementation log
Use this section to indicate when acceptance criteria in the "Definition of done" section have been completed, and provide notes on steps taken to satisfy this criteria when appropriate.
| Date | Criteria completed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
1/29/24 |
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2/21/24 | List of approved primary and secondary audiences (including stakeholders and key governance staff) | Done: https://github.com/HHS/simpler-grants-gov/issues/1075 and incorporated into presentation https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BO-lT_LJdtD6omZYGEVzWBOOsWv1COAo/view?usp=sharing |
2/29/24 | Complete a brand characters and behaviors workshop | Workshop completed on 2/29/24. Here is the mural to the characters workshop: https://app.mural.co/t/nava4113/m/nava4113/1709046331121/75fcf5ec68bc7fd70e32f196edd338619ff119d4?sender=sumithaiveettil7756 This was the following agenda: What we are doing: Since late 2023, the Grants team has been working on a unified cross-platform branding and identity initiative. We aim to create an impactful, cohesive brand identity for Grants.gov. By aligning the brand with our users, organizational goals, defining key differentiators, and creating compelling messaging, we seek to elevate the Grants.gov user experience and strengthen stakeholder engagement and consistency across all communication channels. Where are we so far: The team has delivered a strategic approach, brand audit, comms audit, and defined audiences for the branding and comms work. Next, we will be defining key brand characteristics (key words that define our brand), brand personalities (what kind of organization we want to be) and a voice and tone (the language we use to talk to our different audiences). That’s what we need your help with. What we will cover during the brand characters session
What we won’t cover during the brand characters session We are not yet ready to dig into branding questions about color, logo, typography, site design, etc. This session will not cover those topics. We have additional sessions booked for all of us in March and April, once the key brand personalities and voice and tone have been defined and agreed on. |
3/27/24 | Brand characters and behaviors findings presentation and documentation |
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4/10/24 | Complete a voice and tone workshop to define value proposition and key messages |
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4/12/24 | Visual directions workshop | Done on 4/12/24: https://github.com/HHS/simpler-grants-gov/issues/1707 |
4/30/24 | Presentation and documentation of key messages and voice and tone guide that develops a compelling value proposition and key messages, tested and generally endorsed by participant stakeholders | Reviewed and approved by HHS Project leadership - https://github.com/HHS/simpler-grants-gov/issues/1109 Will be posted on Public wiki. |
4/30/24 | Collaboratively developed two visual directions endorsed by stakeholders in the process | Developed directions, but stakeholders have requested additional reflection and design to get to a visual direction that speaks to the brand characters and voice. |
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