THE PROBLEM
Project
Goals
1
2
3
4
5
Eliminate existing dependency on Java
Create an approach that is tablet and mobile-friendly
Decrease overall support tickets with a more intuitive interface
Enrich the holistic financial planning experience for advisers
Design a solution that will be easily customized for enterprise clients
User
Needs
REBRANDABLE
White labelled products were a very important offering - over 300 firms chose to add their branding to our products.
IMPROVED TIMELINE
Advisers love the interactive timeline in Voyant Adviser but dragging and dropping can be difficult for impaired users and does not meet accessibility standards.
ACCESSIBLE
The majority of our users are in Canada and the United Kingdom, where there are very stringent accessibility requirements by law. We needed to design a solution that would meet WCAG 2.0 standards.
RESPONSIVE
While most advisers do not use their mobile phones to plan, we have a large number of users that love planning on their iPads.
Approach
DEFINE
Working with our CEO and CTO as well as our development lead, I helped design the application’s architecture and user flows. At the beginning of the process, we spent many hours prioritizing features and determining the best approach to bring them to life in our new application.
DESIGN
Once the requirements for MVP 1 were determined, we worked in two-week sprints to design the application.
I worked with our development team to create white board sketches, user flows and low-fidelity prototypes in Sketch, and click-through Invision prototypes that were used by the development team to create a live version.
REFINE
We would test the application internally on our staging environment for up to two months (depending on the scope).
Generally, after a feature had been on production for approximately one month, we would gauge user interactions using Google Analytics and direct feedback through our in-house support team. We then used this feedback to finesse the existing features and add new functionality.
Features
INTERACTIVE TIMELINE
Tie the timing of finances and goals to events that can be infinitely adjusted to easily explore how retiring a few years later or living longer than expected can change a financial outcome.
WHAT - IF PLANS
Easily create copies of existing client plans, and compare different scenarios to each other.
SNAPSHOT
Using data from our third-party integration partners, connect accounts and track how your finances stack up against your plan over time.
INSIGHTS
Run stress tests on plans to ensure that clients will be adequately prepared for anything that might come their way.
Outcomes
Although the road was bumpy, ultimately the product has surpassed the business goals that were laid out at the beginning of the process. We’ve entered into partnerships with three of the five largest banks in Canada thanks to this product, and as a result have seen massive company growth. Our team has expanded from fewer than ten employees when I began, to nearly 30 now (and growing).
Lessons Learned
RESEARCH IS KING
If I could go back and do it all over again, I would have liked to do user testing from the moment I had a prototype, even if it was just a sketch on paper! Gathering user feedback from the very beginning could have saved the company time and money. All of us at Voyant learned through this process that we are not our users, and we are better because of it.
OFFLINE MODE
Style guides are essential.
When I began, I used Adobe Illustrator to create my mockups (not the most effective use of my time). Once I migrated over to Sketch my life (and my work) changed for the better. As AdviserGo has developed, I have slowly built out our style guide and I am consistent about maintaining it as the product evolves. If I could do it all over again, I would have carved out more time at the beginning to create a living style guide that could have grown with the product.
What's
Next?
REPORT SETS
The ability to create a custom report template that can be saved and re-used with a single click of a button across all client records.
ESTATE PLANNING
Estate planning and detailed estate distribution charts catered to each of the regions that we serve.
ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS
Including a fully customizable dashboard and easily brand-able style sheets.
OFFLINE MODE
Figuring out a way to ensure that people can access their data, even without an internet connection.