If I was only allowed to pick one project that encapsulates my range of abilities, it would be the work I did for PES Consulting (now Amba People).
The business needed to bring the disparate strands of their Employee Benefits Scheme service together into one cohesive system and I was asked to be the sole UX designer for the project.
Before I even put pen to paper (and this was a project that definitely needed plenty of sketching) I was part of a team that attended several face-to-face meetings with PES and then with one of their most important clients. This gave me that crucial human insight into the needs of the three user groups for whom the new system needed to be designed; the PES team (System Administrators), Employers (Individual Portal Administrators) and Employees (End Users).
Having collated this feedback, I then had to digest documents that detailed the functional requirements, competitor research and existing process flow of each benefit. From there I was able to start identifying key user journeys and begin drawing up draft site maps – I think I needed an A2 sheet for one of them! The next move was to consult with the back-end developer (technical lead) to make sure my ideas could be woven in with his. With this iterative process, I produced formal sitemaps and designed the first proposal document in which to present them (along with all the materials from the rest of the team) to present to the client.
Client consultation with results
Acting on feedback from that presentation and my sitemaps I went on to produce interactive wireframes in Axure. These formed the basis (from a page action and content point of view) from which the Creative Director could produce the initial direction for the look and feel of the portals.
I could then go on to produce more expansive prototypes for each portal that could really illustrate the functionality of the system in depth and detail.
Once the client approved the creative direction I then took ownership of the project from that point of view as well. I designed a complete set of UI templates and then worked with the front-end developer to ensure they continued to look good and work effortlessly through the build process. Also from a creative point of view, I designed a set of icons to represent each benefit, produced animation storyboards for instructional videos and even sliced out all the artwork for production.
Throughout this entire process, I stayed in close consultation with the Project Manager and Sales Director to ensure that this work was always within the budget and timescales promised.
