BlackRock

Challenge
How might we create a system to close the communication gap between advisors and home offic users?
My Role
UX Design, Research, Interaction Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Ideation, and UI Design.
Year
2023
Timeline
3 Months
Tools
Figma

Campaign Dashboard

Campaign Template Guide

Simple Parameter Search

Exposure Parameter Search

Campaign Publish Step

Campaign Details
01
Background
Context
After the launch of both platforms Focus and Vision, a new use-case appeared; communication based on data the tools display. Both tools were created to monitor and optimize client portfolio accounts. Vision is the home office user tool and Focus is the advisor's tool.
The communication gap between the home office users and advisors became evident when client teams discovered how they shared notes/data; emails and phone calls. Clients were already running campaigns regarding client portfolio accounts but in a hacky, round about way.
The process of in bulk emailing can be a very manual task for repetitive use. Sending emails is a time consuming way to communicate client data while also using 3rd party applications to finish a task.
Business Problem
Through conversations and feedback with home office users, a clear picture emerged of the business's pain points:
-
Relationship management - Clients choosing to solve problems outside of the tool can have a negative affect on relationships and longevity of client tool usage.
User Problem
Communication gap - Home office users found it necessary to email advisors in bulk regarding client accounts after viewing data on Vision.Custom workflows - Different clients have different needs and practices for the tool/communication.
How might we allow the process of 'in bulk email', while also creating a streamlined, configurable tool?
02
Gain Confidence
Ideation
With my PM and team, I sketched out a number of different interaction model concepts for the Campaigns workflow.
The biggest challenge for this project was creating a comprehensive design that aloud users to perform a simple parameter search with filters only and an advanced parameter search with filters and exposure search. Use-cases for campaigns fell into those two categories.

Filters and exposure search in the left rail

Exposure search in workspace and filters in the left rail

Filters and exposure search in left rail with tabs for discover-ability

Bifurcation step for complete division between the two searches
Together, we discussed pros and cons of each direction, and quickly decided on option D as it was the best option that showcases a distinction between the two us-cases most clearly and better aligns with our design system than the other options. Option D aloud each search process to have exclusive design flows rather than compromising and sharing one flow.
Validate + Iterate
Finally, I created the final hand off file for ENG and a final prototype. My team and I ran usability testing for the final concept.
Additional access to campaign details
To access additional details about a campaign the user has to click the campaign row, resulting in the details panel to appear. When asking participants to complete this task, they looked for it in the actions menu. "View Details" has been added to the actions menu to solve this problem.
Tool education
Though the testing participants are not our clients and wont be use to BlackRock's tool suite, we found there may be parts of the tool's process that may not be 100% clear because of the finance complexity. A guided tour was added to the tool to walk the user through its capabilities, ensuring successful usage.
Language change
When asking the participants to reopen a draft campaign, the word edit did not register to most as an indicator to finish a campaign saved as a draft. The action Edit was changed to Continue to clear up any confusion.
03
Polish
Final Designs
This new Campaigns feature for the tool Vision is scheduled to go live with BlackRock's current clients Q1 of 2024. Vison is now equipped with a campaigns feature that allows home office users to communicate with advisors via campaign launches for client suitability issues and opportunities
Isaac
Thomas