Bluebeam Revu is a PDF markup, editing, and viewing solution for the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry. For the 2018 release, the UI was updated, which included a revised icon library. My responsibilities were beginning to end, from conceptualization to full asset delivery.
Bluebeam was missing opportunities to land new users, with much of it attributed to Revu’s aging UI. A major contributor to the perception of the UI’s overall dated appearance were the colorful and skeuomorphic icons, which hadn’t seen a revision or usability test in almost a decade.
Not only was there a problem with visual clutter, there were thematic problems with many icons. Several features and tools were represented by icons that had been influenced and designed too heavily against Bluebeam’s brand.
Revu had been using skeuomorphic icons since 2005, and while skeuomorphism in itself isn’t necessarily bad for certain applications, UI design had long since moved forward in favor of flat icons to reduce visual clutter.
I conducted competitive research specific to other AEC software our users were using to get a better sense of their day-to-day digital environment.
To keep the users’ cognitive load low as they moved from one application to the next, the goal would be to find the most common visual language they were seeing and apply it to Revu’s iconography, as well as staying true to Bluebeam’s own brand.
Working from a small set of nine, I re-drew Bluebeam’s icons several times, all linked by a common flat theme. Color was also removed to reduce distraction.
The iconography in Revu 2018 helped achieve a quicker on-boarding experience for new users than the old UI had of years prior. Not only because of reduced visual clutter, but many icons were redesigned as more recognizable and industry standard objects.
To help ease the transition for existing users, legacy use of color coding in the icons was thoughtfully brought back.