How&How celebrate the full spectrum of human emotion in the rebranding and relaunching of Hotjar: the global user insights platform. Hotjar had an image problem. Their iconic flame looked a little too much like Tinder’s, and user feedback had told them it seemed to be in its first steps and wasn't representative of its users. Since its founding in 2014, Hotjar has enjoyed exponential growth, and its brand needed to catch up. Now, it has become an essential tool for millions as its industry-leading product allows companies to understand how users behave on their websites—allowing them to see what they need and measure how they feel. 

Hotjar approached How&How to collaborate on their rebrand. Designers came up with full animation and illustration packages and built their new headless CMS website. “We wanted to craft a brand for the future,” explains How&How co-founder and creative director Cat How. “One that took into account three hugely important factors: their Audience, their Vision, to put people at the center of every product and their Purpose, to inspire change through empathy.” Combining these three into an icon that had to work primarily—and most importantly—at 16px by 16px was one of the most complex design problems the London and Lisbon-based team had to solve. “Starting with an expressive line to represent the user journey, we then duplicated it to show the human connection and support the Hotjar product gives their customers,” Cat explains. “We then added a gentle curve to the lines to suggest the heat from the iconic Hotjar flame, as well as the H inherent in the company’s name.”

As the product shows the full spectrum of human emotion—from angry clicks to happy, contented browsing—the How&How team developed a design system structured around effervescent lines and ponderous orbs. Lines, therefore, have a combination of happy curves and angry jagged ones. The Hotjar color palette received inspiration from the two warm and cool color components set in a flame. Plus, it helped to convey the warm and cool emotions visualized in the product itself.