Problem:
‍ING Wholesale Banking faced a significant challenge managing 30+ separate websites for various countries and products. This decentralised approach led to inconsistencies in user experience, navigation difficulties, and high maintenance costs. Users reported frustration due to varying interfaces and disjointed content. The company sought a solution to consolidate these disparate sites into a single, cohesive platform to streamline user experience and reduce operational complexities.

Role & Responsibility:
As the lead UX designer, my responsibilities included managing user research to identify pain points, creating wireframes and prototypes, collaborating with the development team, overseeing usability testing, managing stakeholder expectations, and ensuring successful implementation of new branding, photography, and illustrative styles. The goal was to create a unified and user-centric design that would enhance the overall user experience for a diverse audience while aligning with the needs of international stakeholders.

Key Activities:

• User research: Managed extensive research to understand the unique needs and preferences of users across different countries and for different products.
• Stakeholder Management: Facilitated regular communication with international stakeholders to gather insights, align on expectations, and ensure their specific requirements were considered in the design process.
• Information Architecture: Consolidated content and streamlined the IA to create a unified user journey, reducing confusion and enhancing discoverability.

Key Activities:

• Wire-framing and Prototyping: Developed comprehensive wireframes and prototypes, ensuring a seamless and consistent experience across the entire platform, incorporating feedback from stakeholders.
• Visual Design: Implemented a cohesive visual design language, including new branding, photography, and illustrative styles. Maintained brand consistency while adapting to regional and product-specific nuances, keeping stakeholders involved in the design decisions

Key Activities:

• Usability Testing: Oversaw rigorous usability testing with users from various regions and gathered feedback from stakeholders to validate the effectiveness of the consolidated design, making necessary adjustments.
• Collaboration with Development Team: Worked closely with the development team to address technical challenges and ensure a smooth transition from multiple websites to a single, integrated platform, keeping stakeholders informed about the development progress.

Responsive:
‍Next to desktop view we naturally had to make sure the website responsiveness was top notch. However we did deliberately not design mobile first as our main target audience (business users) are primarily laptop users when it comes to their business operations. So desktop design was done first and transitioned to mobile after.

Results:
‍This project showcases my ability to navigate complex design challenges, cater to diverse user needs, collaborate with stakeholders effectively, and deliver a solution that brings tangible benefits to both users and the business.

• Reduced Maintenance Costs: Achieved a reduction in maintenance costs by consolidating and streamlining website management.
• Better Accessibility: Implemented design improvements for better accessibility, ensuring an inclusive experience for users with diverse needs.

• New Branding, Photography, and Illustrative Style: Integrated new branding elements, enhancing the visual appeal and brand consistency.
• Improved SEO Performance: Implemented SEO best practices, resulting in improved search engine visibility and increased traffic.