Basics

Process

Design

Feedback

Next Steps

Global Financial Data

UX/UI Design / Web Design

Redesign of the corporate website.
The Basics

My Role: Research, Wireframes, Front-end Design and Development

Project Timeline: 8 weeks, with revisions ongoing

Problem

Global Financial Data's website design was inconsistent, out of date, and bloated with content that was not as easy to navigate as it could be.

Challenge

Collaborate with the Head of Technology and stakeholders to come up with a new website design with an updated look that is more contemporary, has a consistent look and feel, and facilitates navigation from one page/section to the next.

The project began with a good amount of time spent studying the site, the type of information offered, and interviewing stakeholders and the sales team about their experience with the website and feedback received from clients and prospects.

These efforts yielded the following insights:

  1. There was too much content to expect vistors to wade through.
  2. The navigation could benefit from being more intuitive.
  3. The site didn't look "professional" due to lengthy and superfluous animations, comic-style fonts that looked incongruous with what users should expect from corporate website
  4. Much of the imagery doesn't communicate the company's story or mission
  5. Styling was in some instances completely off-brand.
  6. The key call to action, to either request a demo of the company's data platform, GFD Finaeon (to see my project work involving UI improvements to this platform, click here) or register for a trial version of the account, was both unclear and difficult to find.
The Process

It was clear that the first task was to get an understanding of the website's content and figure out how to address the first and second insights, as solving for the other issues would flow out from this.

The old website had over 80 pages of content. Navigation was not intuitive because links were inconsistently labeled (i.e. "Business" in footer, and "Business Access" in the top navigation) and some sections were only accessible via the home page or footer (i.e. The "Deep Data" page could only be found at Home or by clicking "Data" in the footer)
The new design sought to cut the number of pages by about 70% by consolidating similar content, presenting a navigation that was more intuitive with greater clarity and consistency of how the links are labeled and where they are located. The overall goal being a site that wont overwhelm with content, and is easier for the user to move from one section to another.

The next step was to create some guidelines for how color, typography, and imagery should be used. This was a helpful reference for me and the stakeholders.

All of this was brought together to begin creation of wireframes, first in black and white, and later high-fidelity color wireframes were developed.

The Design

Even though iterating on the designs was ongoing the wireframes served as a necessary guide when it came time to develop the website.

The new home page features a looping video of clips with data visualizations created by one of the company's clients, along with attention grabbing text and a call to action to learn more.

The new content and language on the home page (and the rest of the website) aimed at improving the user experience by providing clear and unambiguous descriptions that answer the "who" and "what" of the company. The language also looked to be more marketing focused and less "academic" than it was in the old website.

Every section contains some a call to action that looks to spur users to either learn more about the companies core competencies, request a demonstration of their data platform, or start their own trial account.

Another notable addition to the new website was the "social proof" section, which shows where Global Financial Data's clients reside, their impressive list of clients, and major media that has featured the company. This information, which is useful in estabilishing credibility and trust, was not something previously leveraged by the company.

A more nuanced improvment can be seen in the blog widget, which previously only showed a thumbnail image. The new site features a title and excerpt, helping users determine their interest in the post without clicking blindly.

The rest of the website followed a general template: A "menu" follows the content of the page and allows the user to learn more about the section of content they are in. Below that are the calls to action (as seen on the home page) to either register for a trial account or request a demo of the platform. This addressed the business concern that these actions were difficult to find on the old website. It also gives users a reminder on every page they visit, and it also provides users who find the website organically the opportunity to see them regardless of which page they enter the site from.

The general "article" page template. Each page features a section "navigation" that helps spur the user on to the next page. Also included on every page are the calls to action for account creation and demo requests that are seen on the home page.
A leadership page was created to help spur a greater sense of trust with prospective clients. Clicking the executive opens a modal with their bio.
A listing of publications GFD has appeared in, the previous version was one big list for almost 200 citations. The new page uses tabbed navigation.
The new contact page includes previously unavailable features such as a dropdown for the subject, a confirmation message, and language considerations that help enhance the user experience.
The company's blog has been renamed "Insights," and includes the ability to search posts by keywords as well as thumbnail images that are more descriptive of the posts subject matter (the previous website used GFD charts for every post regardless of relevance). .
The page for the individual insights now benefit from the use of sidebar widgets that allow users to peruse a post archive, the company's Twitter feed and even visit the legacy blog.
Feedback
Comments from stakeholders and users invited to audit the site indicated the redesign has been on the right track:

“The video (of the data visualization in motion) is a powerful illustration of how the data is used.”

“Much more professional.”

“The content seems easier to scan. Before it was a ton of text, everything is now broken up in a way that is easier to read.”

“This new website looks awesome.”

“Adding the leadership page and client list really do help (Global Financial Data) look legitimate and trustworthy.”

Next Steps
The stakeholders for this project see the redesign as "phase one." There are some items they want to see going forward:
  1. Bring over content from the legacy blog now that the website and blog are on a platform (Wordpress, the previous blog was on a custom CMS built by the company's IT department) where posts are searchable.
  2. The legacy website has a section that covers the history of currencies for 200 countries, the stakeholders would like to see that either brought over to the new website or as a site of its own.
  3. Explore ways to allow users to interact the data via the website, a trial before the trial of sorts.

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