The Job

Led UX initiatives at Prudential Financial, enhancing user experiences across digital platforms. This involved optimizing the customer journey, streamlining processes, user testing, and ensuring a seamless interaction with financial products and services.

UX/UI Design

User Testing

UX Research

Data Analysis

The Overview

Prudential Financial has established a robust online presence and platform which reflects its commitment to providing accessible and comprehensive financial services to its customers. The company's digital ecosystem offers a range of tools and resources designed to empower individuals and businesses in managing their financial futures. Prudential Financial's online presence serve as a valuable resource for individuals and advisors seeking to navigate the complex world of finance. The platform's commitment to user-friendly design, financial education, and accessibility aligns with Prudential's mission of helping customers achieve financial wellness and security.

My role of Senior UX/UI Designer at Prudential Financial centered on shaping exceptional user experiences within the financial services sector. The UX department plays a pivotal role in crafting digital solutions that align with Prudential's commitment to providing top-tier financial services to its clients, and building trust, satisfaction, and loyalty among Prudential's customer base.

The Needs

The key responsibilities and expectations for the Senior UX/UI Designer role included:

  1. User-Centered Design: Championed a user-centric approach by conducting in-depth user research, understanding customer needs, pain points, and behaviors to inform design decisions.

  2. Design Strategy: Developed and executed design strategies that optimized the customer journeys across various digital flows.

  3. Prototyping and Wireframing: Created interactive prototypes, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs that effectively conveyed user flows, interactions, and new or enhanced features.

  4. Usability Testing: Planed and conducted usability tests to gather feedback, identify areas for improvement, and iteratively enhance the user experience.

  5. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborated closely with multiple teams, including product managers, developers, content strategists, and stakeholders, to ensure design solutions align with business objectives and regulatory compliance (ADA).

  6. Visual and Brand Consistency: Maintained visual branding consistency across digital products and ensured alignment with Prudential's brand guidelines.

  7. Accessibility: Integrated accessibility principles to ensure that digital products are usable by individuals with disabilities, in compliance with accessibility standards and regulations.

  8. Innovation: Explored innovative design trends and emerging technologies to continuously improve and evolve the user experience.

  9. Data-Driven Insights: Utilized data and analytics to inform design decisions and measure the impact of UX enhancements on user engagement and satisfaction.

  10. Documentation: Created and maintained design documentation, style guides, and design patterns to facilitate consistency and collaboration across teams.

The Approach

This role undertook a multifaceted approach to fulfill the array of responsibilities effectively. These were the primary categories carried out:

1 | User-Centric Research:

  • Conduct in-depth user research to understand customer needs, pain points, and behaviors.

  • Leverage various research methods such as interviews, surveys, and usability testing (UserZoom).

  • Collaborate with multiple teams to gather insights from stakeholders and subject matter experts.

2 | Design Strategy:

  • Develop a comprehensive design strategy that aligns with the company's business goals and customer-centric principles.

  • Define clear objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) for design initiatives.

  • Prioritize projects based on stakeholders and journey management’s objectives, as well as user research findings and potential impact on customer satisfaction and business outcomes.

3 | Prototyping and Wireframing:

  • Create interactive prototypes, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs to visualize and communicate user flows and interactions. As well as conducting user testing sessions (moderated and unmoderated).

  • Ensure designs are responsive and accessible across various devices and platforms.

  • Continuously iterate and refine design concepts based on user feedback and testing results.

4 | Usability Testing:

  • Plan and execute usability tests to gather valuable feedback from users.

  • Analyze test results to identify pain points and areas for improvement in the user experience.

  • Iterate on designs to address usability issues and enhance overall satisfaction.

  • Create readouts to inform stakeholders of user research findings in order to help decision-making processes.

5 | Collaboration and Communication:

  • Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including product managers, developers, and content strategists.

  • Maintain open lines of communication to ensure design solutions align with business goals and technical constraints, with either the design system department or stakeholders.

  • Present design concepts and rationale to stakeholders, gaining buy-in and feedback throughout the process.

6 | Accessibility and Compliance:

  • Incorporate accessibility principles to ensure that digital products meet relevant compliance standards.

  • Conduct regular accessibility audits and testing to identify and rectify potential barriers for users with disabilities.

7 | Data-Driven Decisions:

  • Utilize data analytics to inform design decisions and measure the impact of UX enhancements on user engagement and satisfaction.

  • Implement an array of testing methods and user behavior analysis to optimize user interfaces.

8 | Documentation and Knowledge Sharing:

  • Create and maintain design documentation, including style guides and design patterns.

  • Share knowledge and best practices with the broader design and development teams to foster a culture of design excellence.

9 | Innovation and Continuous Learning:

  • Stay informed about emerging UX trends and technologies in the financial industry.

  • Explore innovative design solutions to maintain a competitive edge in delivering cutting-edge user experiences.

10 | Leadership and Mentorship:

  • Provide guidance and mentorship to other designers, fostering growth and development within the organization.

  • Serve as a design advocate, promoting the importance of user-centered design principles within the company, and to stakeholders as well as executive leadership.

By following this comprehensive approach, I successfully fulfilled the responsibilities of the role of Senior UX Designer, contributing to improve customer engagement, product effectiveness, and overall business success.

The Research

The important and ever-constant process of gathering data involves conducting user research to gain insights, engaging in customer panels for diverse perspectives, and analyzing data meticulously. Through this synthesis, actionable insights are derived, informing UX decisions and strategies to enhance user experiences.

Usability testing as well as customer panels are constantly carried out in order to learn and gather data, to help inform and direct the design solution process.

Readouts are also a big part of the research process, as it serves as a creation of tools and insights not only for our team and needs, but they also serve to inform and educate stakeholders of the work UX does, how we do it, and what drives our decisions and solutions.

Gathering insights from the extensive research conducted not only taught us what users think and feel about the experiences we create, but these insights help to shape how we develop designs, and how other departments (Journey Management, compliance, leadership, content creation, etc) think of how to further their objectives in-line with user’s concerns and needs.

The Ideation

The process of transitioning from wireframes to high-fidelity designs is a crucial step in creating a polished and visually engaging user interface. Design exploration and iteration is always carried out simultaneously for desktop as well as mobile. Here's an outline of one of these processes (for Mobile):

The Refinement

Starting from stakeholders objectives, and with the guidance of the Journey Management department, a high fidelity user flow creation aids to lay down the foundation of the path to take, and use as platform structure.

The Result

At Prudential Financial, my work resulted in seamlessly integrated digital solutions which prioritize user needs, enhanced customer experiences, and foster trust and confidence among consumers in their financial journey. Here is just a glimpse of the work oversaw during my experience with Prudential.

The Ask

Conduct comprehensive user research, promote user-centered design, and create wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs for the primary web portal (Pru.com). Additionally, plan and conduct usability tests and collaborate with cross-functional teams to align design with business goals.

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