Author: leslie

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Evite.com_v2

Increasing Invitation Creation and Response Rates

Evite’s core business was to use the web as a vehicle for the organization, communication and management of events; e.g. house parties, bachelorette weekends, movie nights, etc. While event planning is a crucial part of this process, its success relied on the approachability, usability and design of the invitation web page itself.

Through focus groups and user testing of the invitation web page, the team learned there were two crucial pieces to ensure a successful event creation and response rate. The first was the event host’s ability to customize invitations to reflect their individual style. The second was the transparency of event details for invitees. Therefore, the team’s approach was to establish a design structure modular enough to allow for visual customizations, streamlined site performance and reorganize the invite structure to prioritize the guest’s RSVP needs.

Overall User Experience Design Process

  • Reviews with stakeholders and site users. Product team collaboratively reviewed relevant user requirements and identified appropriate design prioritization.
  • Internal, multi-team work sessions. Facilitated creative sessions to explore redesign options.
  • Wireframes. Product team collaboratively participated in concept brainstorm sessions and revisions.
  • Visual Design Comps. Led visual design discussions, visual direction, client presentations and design-to-development presentation build.
  • Paper and Online Prototypes. Designed visuals used as the basis for paper and online prototypes. Worked with product team and user testing consultant to organize, plan and run focus groups and user testing sessions.

Outcomes

The redesign resulted in an increase of overall event creations, invitee response and high-levels of testimonials describing event successes.

Implemented Solutions

  • Increased user controlled visuals to include font and section header colors, links,page background image and/or color and ability to upload one user generated image
  • Restructured event information to include clearly defined headers identifying event information; i.e. event title, details, guest list and response area
  • Streamlined design elements by eliminating use of structural graphics; i.e. rounded corners
Posted on

Evite.com

Increasing Invitation Creation and Response Rates

Evite’s core business was to use the web as a vehicle for the organization, communication and management of events; e.g. house parties, bachelorette weekends, movie nights, etc. While event planning is a crucial part of this process, its success relied on the approachability, usability and design of the invitation web page itself.

Through focus groups and user testing of the invitation web page, the team learned there were two crucial pieces to ensure a successful event creation and response rate. The first was the event host’s ability to customize invitations to reflect their individual style. The second was the transparency of event details for invitees. Therefore, the team’s approach was to establish a design structure modular enough to allow for visual customizations, streamlined site performance and reorganize the invite structure to prioritize the guest’s RSVP needs.

Overall User Experience Design Process

  • Reviews with stakeholders and site users. Product team collaboratively reviewed relevant user requirements and identified appropriate design prioritization.
  • Internal, multi-team work sessions. Facilitated creative sessions to explore redesign options.
  • Wireframes. Product team collaboratively participated in concept brainstorm sessions and revisions.
  • Visual Design Comps. Led visual design discussions, visual direction, client presentations and design-to-development presentation build.
  • Paper and Online Prototypes. Designed visuals used as the basis for paper and online prototypes. Worked with product team and user testing consultant to organize, plan and run focus groups and user testing sessions.

Outcomes

The redesign resulted in an increase of overall event creations, invitee response and high-levels of testimonials describing event successes.

Implemented Solutions

  • Increased user controlled visuals to include font and section header colors, links,page background image and/or color and ability to upload one user generated image
  • Restructured event information to include clearly defined headers identifying event information; i.e. event title, details, guest list and response area
  • Streamlined design elements by eliminating use of structural graphics; i.e. rounded corners
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iPad App

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Increasing Corporate Effectiveness and Enhancing the Sales Process

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Overall User Experience Process and Individual Contribution

  • UX team collaboratively held discovery sessions with project stakeholders, identified relevant industry reports (Marketing Sherpa) findings and mapped them back to project’s objectives.

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Wholesaler Email Program

Deepening Client Relationships

Franklin Templeton’s sales forced wanted to strengthen their client relationships, as well as reach out to potential ones. However, their main challenge was one of resources; there simply were not enough sales people to establish the meaningful, in-personal connections with potential clients while managing their existing relationships. Therefore, the project approach was generate a weekly email with high-value content for clients to help close the gap.

Overall User Experience Design Process

  • Reviews with stakeholders and of industry reports. UX team collaboratively held discovery sessions with project stakeholders, identified relevant industry reports (Marketing Sherpa) findings and mapped them back to project’s objectives.
  • Wireframes. Led by UX architect, participated in concept brainstorm sessions and revisions. Also, outlined design presentation and co-facilitated client presentation discussions.
  • Visual Design Comps. Led visual design discussions, visual direction, client presentations and design-to-development presentation build. Also led art direction for weekly maintenance of email program and established content formatting templates for business.

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Our Funds

Recognizing Simplicity

After the recent redesign of Franklintempleton.com, it was soon recognized that users wanted a simple list that helped them quickly sort through the company’s 118 funds. Additionally, there was a business desire to showcase the depth and breadth of funds and to showcase Franklin Templeton’s product in new ways.

Overall User Experience Design Process

  • Conduct industry evaluation
  • Create conceptual design studies and visual design evolution studies.
  • Facilitate internal, multi-team work sessions.
  • Develop wireframes. Led by UX architect
  • Present recommended designs to executive team
  • Concept testing based on visual design prototypes
  • Manage design-to-development build
  • Usability testing with financial advisors
  • Evaluate and present findings
  • Identify future-state enhancements

Website

Finalized Design

Additional Explorations

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Franklin Templeton Retail Website(s)

Enhancing User Experience and Increasing Business Flexibility

For the first time since 2003, Franklin Templeton Investments set out to redesign its retail website. The main project objective was to evolve the visual presentation, information architecture, and existing CMS functionality to be reflective of business changes, current customer needs and the competitive market. Additionally, the company used the opportunity to modernize the corporate brand.

The final aspect of the redesign was to extend the newly established platform, templates, and brand to the company’s 35 unique country specific websites and create a global, corporate website.

Overall User Experience Design Process

  • Internal, multi-team work sessions. Participated in brainstorm session designed to expand existing site product tools and functionality.
  • Wireframes. Led by UX architect, participated in concept brainstorm sessions and revisions.
  • Art direction of agency brand explorations
  • Visual design evolution of brand explorations to site flows. Led visual design discussions, visual direction, client presentations and design-to-development presentation build.
  • Translation and application of design to international websites.
  • Usability testing of key redesigned pages

Websites

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Usability Testing & Focus Groups

Validating Design and Project Objectives

There are many was to incorporate usability testing into a project depending on time line, budget and priority. At Franklin Templeton, the User Experience team conducted a variety of testing methods; moderated, face-to-face testing of production environments, wireframe and visual design prototypes, hallway tests, remote sessions; etc. No matter which style of testing was done, the key was always to test early and test often.

In addition to usability testing, the team has found focus groups also serve as a key discovery resource. This process helps to validate design directions and project objectives before more defined artifacts, such as prototypes or staging, are available.

Overall User Experience Process

  • Identify usability testing time frames within overall project schedule
  • Evaluate and recommend usability testing tools
  • Create test plan and task scenarios
  • Develop focus group facilitation scripts and question prompts
  • Recruit participants and plan sessions
  • Fulfill session roles; facilitator, note taker, observer
  • Evaluate session data
  • Craft findings presentation

Sample Documents

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Mental Model

Aligning User Needs with Business Goals

Franklintempleton.com wanted to enhance their website’s online literature ordering process. As part of this effort, the team conducted a series of interviews with the website’s primary users, financial advisors, to gain an in-depth understanding of their order literature process.

Based on the Indie Young “Mental Model” methodology, the team then extrapolated core tasks from each interview and grouped them into unique spaces to create a high-level view of financial advisor’s relationship with the fund literature. This visualization was then used to inform the overall redesign process and ensure the project’s defined objectives not only supported the business goals, but addressed the financial advisor’s needs as well.

Overall User Experience Design Process

  • Recruit participants
  • Develop interview scripts and prompts
  • Conduct interviews
  • Evaluate transcribed interviews and “comb” for user tasks
  • Categorize mental space and build out mental model
  • Visualize mental model
  • Map business objectives and usability audit to mental model
  • Assess business goals vs user needs vs development feasibility to inform project priorities

View Mental Model