ROLE: Lead Product Designer
Our team of three worked closely with our stakeholders over eight weeks to conduct a series of 20 interviews, build a 64-page usability report, and then construct an end-to-end prototype of their future-state system. We spoke extensively with the ground and executive-level staff to ensure that every decision we made to construct the platform would be tailor-made to the use cases for the Firm's employees.
1 Project Manager
1 Researcher
2 Product Designers
2 Stakeholders
I was responsible for Research Consolidation, Persona + User Journeys Creation, Custom Home Dashboards, P&L Reporting Dashboard, and overall deliverables.
User Interviews
Breakdown Of The Current Systems
The initial report used research from 20 interviews, a heuristic evaluation, and data analysis of the current platforms. The interviews were conducted with screen and audio recordings of navigation through the firm’s current platforms and were used to collect and catalog both pain points and where the systems succeeded. The evaluation was conducted by four separate designers in isolation to give an overall usability score. And, finally, the data analysis was a dissection of current, everyday use patterns collected on the backend of the Firm’s current website. The data included common pathways through their systems, time spent on pages, and heatmapping of mouse movements and clicks.
User Needs:
Also, as a result of the user interviews, we found that:
Both user groups (Financial Advisor/Operation Staff) want one single home instead of the current four separate systems.
The “Request” workflow needs to be transparent and actionable.
Design Iteration
Whiteboard brainstorming and Low-fi Wires to break down what we will create overall.
Mid-fi Wires to review the design and flow with users and stakeholders:
We found that two user groups have significantly different needs for information prioritization on the main dashboard.
Knowledge base, page needs for operation stuff.
Mobile use-cases.
Hi-fi prototype review with users, stakeholders, and engineers.
Finding out corner cases to prepare for the deliverables.
Final Product
Customizable Home Dashboard
We built a home dashboard that allows for customization and toggling of panels so that the home screen that every user lands on gives them the overview they need at a moment’s glance.
In addition to customization options, we recommended that each role at the Firm has a standard boilerplate built out to not burden the user with constructing the landing screen. We wanted an ecosystem where you toggle and tweak to perfection rather than build it yourself.
Team-focused Request Tracking
We rebuilt the Firm’s request system to be trackable by all the team members to be transparent and show a point of contact to be actionable so that no team member needs to hunt around the Request progress and information.
Our system provides simple-to-understand categorization to reduce the number of requests going to the wrong group. We also built additional ease-of-use functions around prioritization that allow for the most urgent requests to reach the top of the pile without the risk of “everything’s urgent, so nothing is.”
We also provided several avenues to update the user on where their request sits so they’re never left in the dark.
Request: Knowledge & Community
Our team built a directory to help users find the person they need inside the Firm or among its many clients. The system was built to keep the user in touch with who they seek and encourage interaction between team members and incentivize support and use among the firm’s community channels. We worked to provide a robust directory for users but also constructed a user-based forum to help them help each other.
Next Steps and Mobile Explorations
Upon completing the requirements for our project, our team explored possible architecture around a mobile platform. We based the construction on feedback from our interviews regarding what users wanted on the go.