The finished home screen where users select their industry, and answer a few more questions

After the system has gathered information from the user, FD solutions are presented within the environments of the SMB: in this restaurant example, Front of House, Kitchen, Back of House

The user can zoom into the environment like Front of House to learn more, and interact with hot spots

As an SMB owner drills down into a product that they find interesting, they are presented with overviews, animated infographics, product details and more.

I conducted a discovery workshop with stakeholders to understand the use cases as another team worked through the logic of the recommendation engine.

I used a Lean UX output method for fast user stories that enabled our collaboration with FD’s developers in an agile environment.

Leading a co-creative, UX, and developer brainstorm to map out the key screens of the application.

Developed detailed, annotated wireframes to work through detailed features and functions that allow users to enjoy a great experience. The original business requirements were specified for sales teams to utilize the discovery experience on a tablet … — Developed detailed, annotated wireframes to work through detailed features and functions that allow users to enjoy a great experience. The original business requirements were specified for sales teams to utilize the discovery experience on a tablet versus landscape format at a kiosk. Although the last minute change was a challenge for the UX team we stayed with a lean UX approach not to update the wireframes with the final aspect ratio.

In my role on the FD account, I also led our NYC team’s UX work which was planning the best experience for the resources library section of the corporate website. We designed the intuitive UI using the card metaphor in an iterative process.

The CMS and IA allowed us to synchronize the demand gen and lead nurture content to needs seamlessly.

FIRST DATA SOLUTION CENTER

Clover station users TO discover solutions beyond the transaction

First Data (FD) makes the well known Clover Station point-of-sale (POS) system used for merchant transactions and business operations. FD needed to introduce a complimentary suite of tools to the market that help small-medium business (SMB) owners with data insights, security, gift cards and rewards program service offerings.

CHALLENGE: SMB owners are so busy running their business that they aren’t aware of FD’s full set of merchant offerings. We needed to increase awareness, engage and enable prospects and existing clients to upgrade through supporting cross-sell opportunities.

STRATEGY: Get merchants thinking about FD “beyond the transaction” and position FD as an indispensable partner. Show how FD can do more than deliver commerce solutions so they can thrive in a rapidly evolving market.

IDEA: In the busy lives of SMBs who are visiting a retail business center or their preferred bank branch, the Solution Center enables discovery of FD tools that help improve their business. By inputting a few pieces of information about their business, SMBs can explore customized recommendations to take their business to the next level. (First image is the installation at a business center).

RESULTS: The Solution Explorer was launched at the 2016 National Restaurant Association trade show, was installed at Huntington branch banks, and at over 30 regional SAM’s club for small medium business. Today, the Clover family of products is the default payment system for all of SAM’s Club Merchant Services.

MY ROLE

My role was to direct the development of the user experience starting with mining foundational insights, determining the collaborative approach and directing the user interface design.

During discovery I facilitated a collaborative workshop with stakeholders to gather business requirements in the form of user stories to support a lean UX and agile development approach.
We created the information architecture of the experience and defined the features and functions as the algorithm logic was being worked on.
We began a rapid prototyping process starting with whiteboard sketching sessions with UX, creative and developers.
Led the wireframing of the Solution Center and supervised the visual design process for accessibility and usability.
Led a second UX team to develop the FD corporate website resource library.

The initial UI brainstorming happened on large whiteboard space in our FD ”war room” including UX, design and front end developers. Then we began the wireframing process according tablet requirements and included annotation for client approvals. Even though the requirements changed to a wide touch-screen later, we were committed to keep the UX process lean so we kept moving forward.

It was a challenge to design for a non-responsive application versus a mobile-first approach.

DESIGNING THE FD SOLUTION CENTER

I was responsible for working through the designs to make sure it delivered on the vision and kept the UI intuitive.

To keep the experience simple, we focused the information gathering on 3 key questions to inform the logic: type of business, transaction volume and top 3 business needs. The customized solutions were mapped using hot spots inside of an industry relevant, photographic environment.

Every touch of the screen brings to life the environment and the solutions relevant to that part of the store.

Further exploration into the hot spots takes users to a full page where they can interact with specific benefits, infographics and a suite of videos that provide an overview and demonstrate each solution.

To collect lead information for the business, the user was invited to leave their email address and receive links to more resources.

The application allowed sales to log in and generate custom digital collateral and custom landing pages personalized for the SMB owner.

MORE RESOURCES:

As our team continued to work on the Solution Center, I also led our NY UX team to build the Insights resource center for the First Data dotcom.

We accelerated the process with a “web likes” workshop to help educate the client on the possibilities for search and filterable resources. A large content inventory and analysis helped us understand the breadth and depth of the thought leadership offering.

We moved into high fidelity wireframes showing how users can search, filter and sort resources depending on the filters selected from industry vertical to topics and their specific information need at the moment.