Last week Hillel shared some thoughts on Let it Out, a brand experience sponsored by Kleenex. The TV spots do a bang up job in telling really engaging stories about the most emotional and important events in peoples’ lives. The message is clear and meaningful. But when you get to the site, Let it Out experiences fails to deliver on the promise made in the spots. It appears that somewhere along the way while implementing the gratuitous flash pieces and out-of-place sales pitches, the Let It Out online team forgot about the heart, meaning, and expressiveness of the campaign.

We thought it would be neat to do a quick little experiment to see how we might rethink the site. Nothing we’ve done here is earth shattering in terms of design but we think it illustrates that most the time when it comes down to a good user experience, it’s simply a matter of focus.

Before:

After:

Some notes about our quickie rethink:

• The redesign looks cleaner and more professional in terms of design. Not a jumble of incoherent colors, fonts, and boxes.
• The site is completely focused on being a place to express your emotions, and not littered with ads for Kleenex
• And yet, it’s very clear that Kleenex is behind the site, and any value you give the site is accruing to their brand
• The focus is on the user generated content, as it should be. Front and center a rotator moves every once-in-awhile between some of the most popular/recent/highly rated posts by the community
• There is one dynamic tag cloud. Not two static ones.
• The iconic box of tissues is worked into the aesthetic in a natural way, instead of plastered in on a billboard.

By no means do we think this is rocket science or brilliance and originality. There are numerous talented people and companies who could have helped deliver a much improved experience. In fact, it’s because delivering a higher level of quality can be relatively simple to do that the Kleenex site is so disappointing in its execution. Because Let It Out is based on a fundamentally engaging concept, it has the capability to be a great branded interactive/software experience. And it wouldn’t take much to make Let It Out into a place that users will readily make their home. If anyone at Kimberly-Clark is reading, we’d be happy to help in any way we can. :)