At the beginning of 2018 the Nationwide User Experience team was tasked with establishing a content framework for the Nationwide Retirement Institute topics section of NationwideFinancial.com.  This framework would launch with one program area with additional programs being updated through the next year by marketing. The project began with a three hours meeting to understand how these pages are utilized by the sales team and the advisors.

Personal responsibilities included visual design and content prioritization of of the NRI topics page, visual design of the Social Security Program, and preparation of pages for launch in mid-April.

Establishing the project goals

How Might We exercise was used to establish wants and needs for the project. From this we learned that advisors need quick access to tools and resources and easy access to topics sections. And that our business partners need a structure that would allow for more timely information and deep linking for campaigns.

The Social Security Planning topics was used to establish a new framework for each program area. This involved finding a balance between new advisors and more experienced (who typically just need the tools). During that process, we met with our marketing partners to understand the theming and visual expression style that had been developed for the individual programs. These were then applied them to new designs, along with illustrations liven up the pages and help connect the timely content to the National Financial Advisor Blog.  The topics sections are set up to move the advisor through less to more specific education, resources, tools and solutions, with quick access to the main tool along the way.