Karus is an AI decisioning tool that empowers all participants in auto finance processes. Karus approached OAK'S LAB on the premise of building their first public product and creating a new brand identity.

The immediate product of Karus is the AI algorithm, already integrated with some of the partners' databases. A piece of a puzzle was missing - the stakeholders' team wanted to create Karus B2B platform and a solid brand, which would become the first touchpoint for most users within institutions and car dealerships.

Initially, our team was provided with dozens of big data tables and charts. We hosted interview sessions with the stakeholders and the startup advisors to better understand the context, environment, and industry nuances. The general strategy became to create a functional, modular, and scalable layout and design system and rework all the analytics to the current tech industry standard while not entirely challenging the auto finance industry's somewhat outdated ways of displaying the big data for the MVP.

When wireframing, I found out the standard layout with a left sidebar did not prove to work - there were simply too many items in too many different categories. Instead, I split that sidebar into two pieces, one for dimensions and one for the items in them. While this layout is still to be proven based on data that will be collected when the platform is live, basing it on research done on similar data products, I believe the selected structure provides a better sense of hierarchy.

The primary value that Karus provides to users are accurate metrics; readability and accessibility became the main factors when picking font and color scheme. I tested several different fonts and, based on the results, chose one that provided the best readability on various font sizes with a focus on the numbers.

The color scheme was based on Stripe guidelines of creating a functional palette, which works for different component states, provides clear rules on which hue to use on which background, and is ready for scaling into light mode. We knew we had a lot of different charts to display; therefore, diverse and contrasting hues would be necessary.

While working with branding, my main focus was around clarity and accessibility. During brainstorming sessions, we came up with a set of words of how the product should feel - professional, refined, innovative, and accurate. The brand name stands for "precious", or "valued" in Latin, and we based the visual identity on the analogy with a diamond - clear, exclusive, and sharp (both in its most literal visual way and also as a synonym for precise).

Check out a live version of the marketing website at karus.ai.