PwC
Helping employees worldwide work more effectively
I led research, strategy, UX design and testing of tools that help 370,000 workers worldwide be more effective at their jobs and help PwC, a leading consulting firm, stay ahead of competition.
Project goals
Conduct research to understand how people worldwide approach their work
Conceptualize, design and test a suite of productivity tools and related experiences
Create a scalable design system for updating tools and creating new ones
My role
I led research, information architecture, user experience strategy and design, working closely with stakeholders and project teams on design and execution.
Research
Understanding the challenge
I planned and conducted a broad research study to understand the needs of our audience, align on stakeholder priorities and analyze the competitive landscape. Additional research led by my colleagues completed the picture.
What we inherited
The existing hub and resources didn’t have clear connections to the work people were actually doing. Key content was only available in GoogleSlides and PDF formats.
Stakeholder and staff interviews
In-person and remote conversations with stakeholders and staff worldwide uncovered specific needs and unique challenges faced by people in different parts of the firm. This helped shape our design strategy and messaging.
Testing the existing experience
To give us a baseline, I conducted in-person and remote usability tests of the existing experience. I captured findings in a format where patterns emerged visually.
Competitive landscape analysis
To uncover effective solutions, I examined competitive and inspirational experiences that solved similar problems and documented our findings.
Presenting research
Ensuring insights are actionable
I merged our findings and presented key takeaways to stakeholders and project teams that were responsible for development, activation, education and marketing.
Synthesizing lots of research data into digestible insights was a challenge. I focused on evidence with the most impact and takeaways that project teams can act on.
Brainstorm workshops
Using research insights to generate ideas
To capitalize on the momentum and excitement our research generated, I led brainstorming workshops with project teams, using our insights to guide the sessions.
A prioritization exercise elevated ideas with the most value, feasibility and impact. By the end, each team generated and committed to an action plan. To help them follow through, I checked in periodically.
Strategy
Focus on scalability and simplicity
Armed with insights, ideas and requirements, I helped formulate a design strategy that accounts for business and user goals. To ensure adoption and engagement, we focused on flexibility, scalability and clarity as key design principles.
Planning the experience
I created detailed user flows that documented experience ecosystem and captured the information architecture of the new hub in a sitemap.
Wireframing
Exploring design ideas
Great ideas came from many different sources. To capture them, I started by sketching with a pen and paper early and often.
I then documented wireframes in Adobe XD, collaborating closely with business, marketing, tech, content and design teams worldwide; often in real time.
Knowing that workers are busy, I included one prominent CTA per screen, to make starting an activity as easy as possible. I relied on chunking to break up dense content.
I defined responsive behavior to ensure our approach looks good on all screens sizes.
Design
Ensuring strategy is guiding design
Once I defined the user experience, I worked closely with the design team on a flexible modular template system to accommodate new and existing resources.
Design iterations often involved slight variations. In this example we explored different approaches for the activity introduction and setup section.
Version 1
Version 2
I made our design process more efficient by sharing usability testing notes next to their corresponding design elements.
Usability testing
Validating our decisions
I created prototypes and led several rounds of usability testing that allowed us to make updates based on direct observations and feedback. Since PwC has several lines of business with distinct capabilities, I invited test participants from all key audiences.
Ensuring expectations are clear
People had to be clear about legal rules around using the tools we designed. I relied on visual cues and simple language that I refined with the help of test participants. Showing realistic time estimates made people more likely to try an activity.
Show me, don't tell me
I noticed that people understand an activity a lot quicker when they can see a simple example. In many cases, good ol' stickies were a familiar and effective visual aid.
Pre-filled invitations are a hit
I considered every touchpoint, including default pre-filled email invitation copy that people would send to their team; thus removing friction and increasing adoption.
Checking a box is deeply satisfying
An interesting observation was, people love the act of checking a box when a task is completed. So we put extra effort into designing this micro interaction.
Development
Implementing our vision
I worked closely with the tech team to ensure that the live experience matched our UX, business and design strategy and captured decisions effecting development in a comprehensive template and module guide.
I included detailed annotations with all designs.
Outcome
We designed and launched a flexible web based modular content platform for 73 existing tools and activities while allowing for new ones to be added seamlessly.
During a limited roll out, our activities were used over 300,000 times by 72,000 people across PwC.
After a successful internal launch, PwC is making it available to the firm’s clients.
