YubiKey

The Challenge

YubiKeys were built for security teams and mostly bought by them. Putting them on a Best Buy shelf meant explaining phishing-resistant authentication to a shopper walking past in about three seconds, while keeping YubiKey clearly its own product brand and Yubico clearly the company behind it. Retail entry usually takes around nine months. We had two.

The Approach

I led it from the logo up, starting with the YubiKey wordmark, which I designed, and how it sits next to the Yubico name.

The packaging was built around one idea: the insert. Instead of describing what a security key does, the whole box demonstrates it. On the front, the YubiKey is drawn plugged into the outline of a phone. Inside, it sits in its tray with arrows showing where it goes, next to a fold-out that says “Let's get you set up”. Someone who has never seen a YubiKey understands what it's for before they've read a word.

Around that idea: plain-language benefits, one clear message per face, and tamper-evident construction, because when your product is trust, the box has to earn it too. The same system rolled straight into in-store displays, print and launch assets, so nothing had to be reinvented for the store floor.