Date & Timeline
May-July 2024
Team
Research & Operations Manager with Aspen Leadership Group
Toolkit
Figma
Figjam
Overview
I engaged with the executive search and consulting firm, Aspen Leadership Group (ALG) to examine the company’s website. The project's objective was to assess the website's visual appeal and clarity of its service offerings. ALG knew the website needed an upgrade, but their small yet capable team did not include a designer. I was brought on to tackle the company's design challenges.
Despite the limitations of this project I was able to design a complete prototype, create a style guide, and hand it off to a third party for development.
Unique Challenges & Constraints
This project was unlike any I had worked on before because there was little clarity around the company's needs. There wasn’t a specific problem to solve, nor was there a defined goal. My task was essentially to see what I could create based on my knowledge.
Here’s where the challenge came in: I had nothing—no users, no research, no ability to test, nothing! It was just me and the operations manager discussing designs for two months. I was told, in so many words, that ALG needed to understand how they were presenting to users. I was to make changes that would ensure that their offerings were clear to potential clients and candidates.
What I did have was analytics, which provided valuable insights into where users were spending most of their time. The analytics inspired most of my design decisions.
Methodology & Defining Goals
I started by laying out a sitemap. I then combed through each individual page, noting changes I thought could be made.
Click and drag: A look at the sitemap and notes from my initial audit.
After a deep dive, I found what I believed to be 4 common themes on the website that were impacting the user experience.
I sat down with the team to discuss my findings and get clarity around exactly how much they were willing to redesign. I did not want to impact the integrity of the website, as they already had high traffic and a customer base that regularly interact with the site.
Redefining Goals
After presenting my findings, I got much needed context about some smaller goals ALG had for the website. Those are as follows:
We want users to…
This information provided me with a new direction. It became very clear to me that ALG's viewers were not interested in most of the items featured on the website.
I reassessed each goal against the current content. I reviewed the website with each goal in mind to see how well ALG's needs were being met. ALG's analytics were aligned with what I already knew...users typically spend less than a minute on a webpage before they exit.
With that in mind…
How might we prioritize pertinent information for users without sacrificing the UI and other page contents?
A look at my notes on the existing CDO Network page on ALG's Website.
Designing & Meeting with the Team
With a better idea of what ALG needed from the redesign, I presented a list of design pitfalls, proposed changes, and mid-fi mockups. Keeping in mind that I wanted to maintain the heart of the website.
Alongside the proposed design changes, I encouraged the team to consider a design that would have better organization.
A look at the original formatting of the published books page.
A reimagined version of the published books webpage.
See the wireframes above. On the left is the original formatting of the published books webpage. Its original design included a column style, taking up valuable space. The books were varying sizes. Here, there was no clear distinction between the books and the webpage because most of the book covers were white. They looked more like floating elements. The book links acted as a filtering system, but I believed that it was unecessary as there were only 4 books. As you'll see later, I included a filtering system that can be used universally without taking up so much space.
I suggested that we put the elements in a container to make a distinction between the foreground and background, pictured on the right.
Summary of Design Changes
Along with a full prototype I delivered a presentation to the COO, CMO, and CEO to explain why the decisions were necessary.
01
Thought Leadership Page
Instead of column formatting, the articles are now displayed in rows. The search function and category filters live at the top of the page.
02
Clients Page
The original design included a lengthy list of clients. The new design filters the clients based on their industry.
03
CDO Placement & Support
The new CDO page includes a CTA button at the top of the page rather than at the bottom.
Learnings & Takeaways
Design implementation may deviate from the protoype
Some design changes that went live were not discussed in detail, and some were only briefly discussed. The developer made the suggested changes but I’m not entirely satisfied with how they turned out. Looking back, I would have asked to work directly with the developer on implementation to ensure the prototype was understood. The design implementation on some pages is inconsistent. I would have liked to spend time going over UI with the developer. Discussing UI principles like sizing, spacing, and padding would have resulted in a cleaner look.
Documentation, documentation, documentation
In hindsight, I would have documented more of the conversations I had with the team along with other small changes made along the way. While there were no dire consequences in this case, it's a good habit to develop, especially when working in large teams or with other designers.
Communication
This was my first time handing off a prototype to a developer. I would have provided more detail in the style guide had I known the process with the developer would not be collaborative.
Efficient design practices
Throughout this project I worked on more complex designs in Figma. I realize that as I continue in this profession, I will engage in continuous learning to hone my skills. I am interested in managing design systems and being a UI designer at some point in my career, and I am taking courses to ensure I am prepared when the time comes.
