COMPANY

SOLE Financial

LAUNCHED

January 10, 2019

Overview

As the new UX Manager at SOLE Financial I identified a major opportunity to provide positive impact to the business; specifically in areas of client acquisition and client/cardholder engagement and retention by addressing the design of our public facing website. This project saved SOLE Financial over $100,000 (based on a third-party bid) and increased sales leads by 300% within the first month of the new site launch.

Problem

At the time, SOLE’s marketing team was growing and this quickly exposed friction in our workflow such as it being difficult for content managers to easily update and post to the blog, as well as additional challenges working through a third party agency to update anything more than copy content.

In addition to these challenges that the marketing team faced concerning the website, it was also apparent, through further investigation, that the overall design of the website did not facilitate easy navigation for visitors on the site, nor further the company’s business objectives overall.

Most of the content was neither discoverable nor up-to-date as a result. It was additionally made clear to us that the intended purpose of the website was not being fully realized given the feedback we received internally, from visitors, and based on site analytical data. From a functional-visual standpoint, the website lacked cohesive branding and general visual unity across its pages and features, and it was not surprising to learn that no style guide had ever been created for the site nor was the site mobile friendly as it was neither responsive nor adaptive which was especially problematic considering the majority of site visitors did so from mobile devices.

Users & Audience

Our solution needed to reach employers learning about SOLE, our product (the payroll paycard), how we could help them achieve their business objectives, and how the whole process worked.

Additionally, we also needed our solution to be accessible for cardholders to learn more about how their paycard works, to further build their trust in a product and a system they may be inclined to distrust, and help them navigate with greater ease to enrollment or login.

Roles & Responsibilities

As UX Manager, I led the entire redesign effort, reporting to our Product Director and Marketing Director. Once I had created a strategy and roadmap for the project, myself and our Product Director interviewed candidates to fill a front-end developer role. The project team consisted of: myself- as team lead, art director, and lead ux/ui designer, a front-end developer, our social media and content manager, and a graphic designer to create digital illustrations. We were co-located and met in-person throughout the life of the project. We managed our tasks through use of a kanban board and worked in two week sprints.

Scope & Constraints

Initially we wanted to extend the redesign effort to include the cardholder account as well, however, due to various budgeting and contractual constraints with the card processing provider at the time, the scope of the project was limited to just the public facing website with plans to later address the account experience after completion of this project.

Process

To initiate this project I first created a business case which began with investigation into identifying problems and opportunities. I met with marketing and content managers, account managers, stakeholders, subject matter experts, our CEO, our CFO, and compliance managers to conduct interviews and get a full picture of our internal workflow, as well as the customer journey for both clients (employers) and users (cardholders). From analyzing the information gathered in these interviews I was able to identify various opportunities that could be address by the website that were also connected directly to specific KPIs set by our CEO for the company.

I presented this business case to our CEO and received approval to proceed.

Moving forward with the project, and together with our social media and content manager, conducted a full content audit of the site. Because the content was of such great importance, the decision was made to proceed with a content-first approach. Designs were then wire-framed and later mocked up according to content needs with first consideration for mobile viewing and interaction.

Using this content and mobile first approach I also conducted several card sorting exercises to determine intuitive site navigation and hierarchy. I sketched mobile designs of the site’s pages and flows to create a paper prototype we could test amongst ourselves, friends, and family. As the solution was refined based on feedback from research that I conducted and usability testing I created higher-fidelity designs. Working with our graphic designer for digital illustrations to incorporate into the interface, and also our front-end developer to implement the designs in our sandbox environment we were able to finalize the website redesign.

Before launching we also made sure to set up more metrics and analytical tools to monitor performance after launch to measure our success and to support continued refinement to the design to meet specific goals as needed going forward.

Outcomes & Lessons

During the month following launch, SOLE saw a 300% increase in sales leads funneled through the lead form on the website. Site engagement increased and overall brand trust increased as well.

From leading this project, I learned how to select and hire an employee, set a strategy and vision for a product, further hone my skills in managing a project, manage a team, conduct ux research, and execute a major design solution from concept to implementation.

Shortly after the new website was launched SOLE Financial was acquired by ComData. After I no longer worked at SOLE, the new leadership decided to keep the website as I designed it, and only rebranded specific graphical elements in order to reflect the new FinTwist product branding.