Transamerica’s Resource Center
Overview:
Transamerica saw the need and opportunity to design a brand-new Resource Center. The need was clear after testing the navigation with several users and noticing how drawn they were on the Resource Center option. The opportunity came together with migrating the current CMS to a new CMS, which allowed our team to explore new designs and possibilities.
Problem:
Transamerica doesn't currently have a hub spot for all the resources (articles, videos, podcasts, whitepaper, etc.) which leads to a lot of frustration from the user standpoint.
MVP Solution:
The solution for MVP, was to design a Resource Center that would offer almost all the resources Transamerica has available. Also, we wanted to provide the best user experience by allowing the user to search and filter the content based on what they are looking for.
Research
As soon as I joined Transamerica my main task was to join User Interviews and be one of the many note-takers that helped with this project. We interviewed several people, from financial experts to people that were just starting their financial journey.
We were testing two different designs for our new website navigation. One of the designs was product-focused, which meant that the user would see all the products Transamerica offers right on the navigation. The other design was audience-focused, where users could browse based on what audience they identified best like financial professionals or not.
We interviewed 30 stakeholders and 62 users that had similar attributes to hwat we would consider “prospective” clients and customers.
After several interviews, our team of designers worked together to card sort all the findings we had. We prioritize the highlights and pain points and divided all findings into different categories.
During the interviews, we asked users how they would go about finding a certain product or resource and most of them instantly wanted to click on Resource Center on the top left of our menu. They mentioned they expected to find all the resources the company when lading on the Resource Center and would like to see an easy way to search and filter all resources.
Competitive Analysis
The first step was to gather as much information on what other companies/organizations are currently doing and offering at their Resource Center. This search was not only focused on functionality, but also visual design, content, and interaction.
To ensure that we could deliver this project by MVP, we also looked at what the agency migrating our CMS did for other clients for their Resource Center. We wanted to ensure we were aware of our limitations and that we could provide the best experience on our new website.
Research on different Resource Centers, focusing on functionality, visual design and categorization
Different website with a Resource Center built by our partnering agency
Initial Sketches
For the initial sketches, I made sure to focus on designing as many ideas as possible and not really spend time on perfecting it. The goal was to come up with different ways to separate the content and through a lo-fi wireframe showcase different ways, the Resource Center could actually be like.
Once I had all the ideas on Sketch, I had the first design review with my manager where we started to dissect ideas and come up with a more actionable approach.
The Resource Center is supposed to be this main hub where we provide all of our available resources to users. We wanted to showcase new articles, as well as allow the user to search for what resource they were looking for, and also include some information on our products and partners.
We wanted to help users understand more about financing because that would help them understand us better. We wanted to make their lives easier, and be part of their financial journey. We also wanted to promote our products, and what better way than explaining to users what they need on a resource page?
After a few more rounds of design review, I started to funnel down the design and the idea of having a separate section on the Resource Center.
Section One: Articles
The user could move right or left and navigate through our new articles
Section Two: Search
This was the most exciting section because it allowed the user to search and filter our resources
Section Three: Curated Section
In this section, the user will be able to find specific content curated for their needs
Section Four: Partnerships
In this section, we would highlight our partners and Transamerica’s initiatives
