Morningstar
Morningstar, Inc. is a global financial services firm specializing in research, analytics, and investment management services.
Overview
After an assessment of Morningstar's suite of websites and their user base we discovered new users were struggling to engage. We would need to introduce onboarding pathways for these new users that would help them understand the value of Morningstar's content.
The Problem & Goal
To reduce the number of new users dropping from Morningstar's websites we would need to remove the information barriers experienced by new users.
To achieve this we needed to create pathways for intercepting and onboarding new users pre-arrival at Morningstar's dashboard.
My Role
UX Consultant - Engage in all areas of process. Create design materials, artifacts, style guides.
Legal
Australian regulations and law pertaining to the information you can provide to and/or gather from users in relation to financial investments are strict.
Our teams first hurdle was to overcome issues that Morningstar's legal team had with asking their users relevant questions.
We were required to onboard and align Morningstar's team with UX research practices as they did not know this would be a fundamental part of our design process.
Our questions would need to be vetted and interviews attended by a legal representative. The time to be taken for the processing of our questions by legal could be counted in weeks and their legal representative would only be available in between their daily schedule.
These barriers made conventional user research infeasible within the proposed time frame and so we moved to gather, interview, and test with users unofficially.
Expectations
During our project briefing it became apparent that Morningstar's expectations were unrealistic.
Our task was to create a new product within three weeks that would reduce dropoff of new users from their website. We were directed that their preference was for us to look into their current "Learning Platform".
The expectation conveyed was that the new product was to be designed, prototyped, and ready for build within the three week period.
This created a rift in our team as some thought that the proposed time was adequate for executing the brief and others did not.
Being comfortable with not arriving
Unrealistic sprint expectations can often overwhelm.
Watching time slip through your fingers - even with the knowledge that the work you are producing is moving at the correct speed - is harrowing.
It took a long time for the team to align on an understanding that "whatever you produce… is enough".
Process & Methodology
Structure
We moved rapidly through the double diamond up until ideation. After creating a high-level prototype we decided to pivot on our deliverables and instead my focus became design and guidance documentation.
Research
We wanted to understand Morningstar's current learning platform and how other platforms taught new learners. While conducting a heuristic evaluation, business analysis, and competitive & comparative analysis provided insights into problem areas - usability tests & user interviews created the most value.
Understanding our users
Users were sourced through acquaintances, online forums, and meet ups.
We conducted testing with two main user groups - users who were actively investing and those who were not.
Within these groups we were able to identify key perspectives which formed the base for our archetypes.
Understanding our content
User reactions to Morningstar's content was very black and white; either they knew how to read the information provided or they had no idea what they were looking at.
Users that did not understand the content fell into two subgroups; those who would attempt to engage and those that would leave.
Users who tried to engage got lost in the density of content and would leave around the 2-3 minute mark.
If a users found the existing "Learning Platform" they would attempt to engage with most leaving after a further 5 minutes.
The users journey
While digesting the insights collected from user research it became apparent that the new users journey was surprisingly consistent.
Knowledgeable users, when asked to think about the challenges they faced when first starting to invest, were identifying the same issues that were evident in the way unknowledgeable users progressed.
Users in summary
Sprints often feel like they have a finish line or a point that you are racing to get to.
Watching time slip through your figures - even with the knowledge that the work you are producing is moving at the correct speed - is harrowing.
It took a long time for the team to align on the understanding that "whatever you produce is enough."
Creating the solution
Entry flow
How users moved into the website via entry pathways set them up for either success or failure.
Users would arrive at an advertisement before being forwarded to the homepage where they were left to solve a not so simple riddle: "why am I here and where do I go?".
Clunky pathways blocked continuation to their learning space and so our solution would be to overlay their entry with a widget pointing them towards the new learning platform and follow them through their experience.
This would allow new users to both explore and have a place to go once they needed to gain more information.
The platform
After looking through and understanding the foundational makeup of knowledge required to engage effectively with Morningstar's products we plotted out a high-level learning structure for users.
This was then translated into a lightly gamified interface that would track users progression through core investment language and concepts.
The platform would direct users through Morningstar's website and help identify products and readouts that relate to each section of learning materials.
Mocking up
Deadline tension intensified as we rapidly documented and mocked up our solution, with everyone aware there would be no time to put our work infront of users before our consultation time elapsed.
Our efforts focused on producing handover materials so that in leu of our presence, work could be continued by internal product teams.
Handover
As was expected
Results & Impact
The redesigned voucher application process was well received by users, as indicated by a high volume of applicants. Although specific applicant numbers remain confidential, the platform achieved a 96.5% Customer Satisfaction rating as of September 2024. This positive feedback underscored the effectiveness of our iterative design approach and the usability improvements implemented throughout the project.