User Experience

Improving an online authoring tool used to create customized marketing materials.
Upgrading the user experience of rural broadband consumers.
Using the Japanese origins of Agile methodology to empower employees.
Expanding career pathways for students from historically underrepresented communities.
Teaching the basics of creating user-friendly interfaces.
Learning how and why to design for people with less than perfect vision.
An accessible, effective framework for reading instruction.

STEM Careers

Teaching the data science skills that employers value most.
Building intensive digital learning experiences using the Canvas LMS platform.
Preparing students for financial technology careers.
Learning how to protect systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks.
Teaching students to define the why, when, and what of product development.
Learning software development life cycle methodologies.
Making STEM-related careers accessible and engaging for students.

Finance

Delivering real-time financial market coverage and analysis.
Delivering tactical and strategic portfolio guidance and goals-based advice.
Teaching financial literacy to college-bound students through a scholarship contest.
The Pet Card could be Chase's most popular credit card.

Math

Rethinking the visual presentation of scientifically-proven math curriculum.
Helping students become independent mathematical thinkers.
Developing software that gets young students excited about learning math.
Blending instruction and technology to help students become stronger and more confident with math.
Helping students at all levels of mathematical proficiency catch up and keep up.

Literacy

Helping all students read at or beyond developmental expectations.
Comprehensive support and engaging strategies to enhance foundational early literacy skills.
Developing language acquisition skills through commonly-used idioms and expressions.
Helping students become more proficient readers through differentiated small–group instruction.
Teaching students to recognize and identify elements of music.
Nurturing a lifelong love of reading.
Using data to individualize and differentiate reading instruction.

History

250 inspirational stories of African American achievement preserved for generations to come.
Exploring the role of music in America’s cultural heritage.
Teaching the culture and traditions of Texas in Benchmark Education's Spot On Social Studies series.
Working to make classrooms—and the world—unsafe for bigotry and intolerance.
Using the “People’s Document” to inspire and empower students to participate in civic life—and VOTE!

Health

Improving the employee healthcare experience while decreasing costs for employers.
Bringing new solutions and medications to patients in need.
Creating quality oral healthcare products — since 1873.
Using data, technology and creativity to build brands.
Introducing a cure for yeast infections that’s easier to swallow.
Teaching Florida students about the dangers of tobacco use.
Looney Tunes characters help families pick more nutritious food for their children.
Developing a visual identity system for a premium tea brand.

How do you improve an online platform?

Merrill Lynch financial advisors use a proprietary online authoring platform [Marketing Materials on Demand (MMOD)] to create customized marketing materials. The system allows them to upload content, select layouts, and generate high resolution PDF files for printing.

My challenge:

The platform was not living up to its promise and the financial advisors were struggling to use it. The interface could not accommodate the content users wanted to include. They were frustrated by the limited layout choices. Most importantly, they were expressing their frustration up the chain of command.

My solution:

I was tasked by the marketing team with analyzing and improving the user experience. I was able to resolve all customer pain points by:

  • simplifying the existing user flow
  • streamlining the interface
  • redefining the content requirements
  • expanding the template offerings
User ExperienceUser FlowRequirementsDesign SystemTemplatesWireframes

User Experience

Strategy Award

By simplifying the existing user flow, streamlining the interface, and expanding the template offerings, overall site use increased between 35 – 50%.

Financial advisors clearly appreciated the effort and so did the Gramercy Institute, which selected our team for a Financial Marketing Strategy Award.

User Flow

Analysis

Our team sought feedback from financial advisors who had been using the online authoring platform. Their input identified several pain points, but primarily the need for a simplified process. Analysis of the existing flow helped identify unnecessary bottlenecks and allowed us to streamline the user flow to just six logical steps.

Merrill Lynch Marketing Materials on Demand: Sequence

Requirements

Design Audit

Advisor input helped identify features that were missing from the existing tool:

  • templates that could accommodate growing teams
  • templates that allowed advisors to list all of their professional designations
  • templates with and without advisor biographies
  • templates with multiple photo options, including larger team and individual photos

I reviewed hundreds of existing printed brochures, flyers, and postcards and asked advisors to share examples of content that the current templates could not accommodate.

Merrill Lynch Andrews Group

Content Analysis

By prioritizing the required fields and establishing minimum and maximum character counts for each, I formulated a plan to accommodate and modularize the content. These newly captured requirements became the road map for the interface and template redesign.

MMOD Requirements

Design System

Modularity

I developed a system to define how advisors would be represented in their marketing materials. Combining an advisor photo with a content block consisting of fields identified in the requirements document, this “lockup” became the building block for a series of modular templates.

The lockup itself was designed to be variable (number of professional designations, with or without a biography, email / phone number—or both, etc.).

The appropriate lockup would be automatically triggered by decisions made during the selection process, such as:

  • the type of template selected (postcard, flyer, brochure)
  • the size of the financial team
  • inclusion/exclusion of biographies

MMOD Design Pattern

Templates

Production

Working with the development team, we identified and prioritized new production templates which I built in Adobe InDesign. Maximum character counts were defined so the platform could be programmed to alert users to text overages as they entered their content.

The overall number of template offerings was increased to:

  • accommodate teams of varying sizes
  • enable financial advisors to list all of their professional designations
  • provide multiple photo options per team, including larger team and individual photos
Merrill Lynch MMOD Template Flyers
Merrill Lynch MMOD Template Brochures

Wireframes

Authoring Tool

Feedback from financial advisors who had been using the platform helped identify pain points, including the request for a more user-friendly interface.

I created low fidelity wireframes to provide suggestions as the digital team considered how best to modify the existing interface.

Financial advisers logged into the platform to create customized marketing materials on demand.

The process involved:

  • selecting a collateral template
  • entering custom content
  • uploading team photos
  • reviewing for compliance
  • Generating Printer PDFs

MMoD Log In Screen
Login Screen
MMoD Brand Select Screen
Brand Selection Screen
MMoD Profile Screen
Create Profile Screen
MMoD Your Selection
Select Template Screen
MMoD Customize
Customize Pop Up Window