GLOBINVEST
WEBSITE CONCEPT
Globinvest
The Back Story
Globinvest is an innovative Romanian company with tradition in the field of investments. Their expectations were high and our mission was challenging, as we had to combine a lot of data and investment information into a clean, modern, and perfectly structured website. But despite the intimidating demands, we saw in Globinvest a great project right from the start.
Our objective was to design a website that will cater the needs of a wide range of visitors - loyal clients and first-time visitors, experienced traders and first-time investors alike. They all had to have access to the right information. Obviously, it was a lot of technical data to process and facilitating the transfer of raw information relating to funds and investment solutions into structured data and pie charts was serious business. We did all that and even more, with the sole purpose of offering everyone a smooth user experience.
Our Roles
Art Direction & Design
User Experience
Concept Development
Planning For The Best
/ Phase 1 /
We take pride in carefully planning every single stage of our projects. Given the complexity of the client’s business profile, as well as the overwhelming amount of information, we started with planning the sitemap - a lot of pages had to be taken into account, therefore, a thorough planning was essential.
After careful consideration, we decided to restructure the website into four major parts:
- A nice and clean homepage with relevant information for any user (a small description of who they are, details on the funds they manage, the latest news in the field etc.);
- A simple and intuitive fund management page with sub-pages for every single fund;
- A well-structured useful information page, where users can find answers to their most common questions;
- A dedicated “My account” that gives users access to valuable resources inside the community.
User Experience Without Rival
/ Phase 2 /
Every website’s goal is to be simple, intuitive, and to offer a flawless user experience. But sometimes, when information is challenging, the structure itself can lose clarity. Globinvest was one of those websites where we had to put extra work just so we can properly structure the high amount of data.
As we were struggling to make accessible tables, pie charts and intimidating indices, we had to focus on displaying the most relevant information first. Responsiveness was another major challenge, as the entire above had to look perfect on any device.
The Nuts&Bolts Of Research
Most agencies expect their customers to provide all the necessary user research data. We didn’t, so approximately 30% of time went into our own research. User types and behaviors, investment and financial markets, we figured out the most relevant information that would lead to a successful investment in a given fund.
Featuring a minimalist design
Numbers, indices, timeframes, performance indicators - investing is overwhelming. Experienced investors know how to tackle it, but a newbie will easily get lost. We wanted to make it simple for everyone, yet beautifully designed. We wanted to create meaningful and beautiful tables & charts that work on every screen. For all that, we’ve been following the latest, modern trends and spent countless hours conducting usability tests.
Categorizing the products
The old website was cluttered and overabundant in information. The new platform had to be narrowed down to the essential data, structured by a logical flow. So we condensed information by specific investment funds, emphasizing the details relevant for making new clients sign up and the old information that would maintain existing clients’ interes.
Implementing a grid system
To us, creating the perfect user experience meant taking simplicity to a new level. We took the rough information, the most complex concepts, and polished it into structured tables and data charts. We made sure that everyone accessing the website will get a clear sense of where to go, what to access, why and how to create an account with Globinvest.
The User Interface
/ Phase 3 /
With user experience we covered the flawless navigation and readability, offering practical information. The user interface, however, pushed us to create an aesthetically remarkable platform.
Explore this slide on the right side for a better view of what UI means to anyone who lands on the Globinvest website.
Information Architecture Process
/ Phase 4 /
From beginning until the end, our objective was to create an infinite better platform, on every level. To make sure nothing goes unsettled, we established the four essentials of information architecture as follows:
Vision, Mission, Goals
Simply put, defining objectives in accordance to the primary and secondary target audience. The information we were about to display should have served the purpose of both our client and its audience. In order to determine what the website was supposed to offer, we had to get a clear image of the primary and secondary target audience.
So it was only after we classified visitors by different audience levels, we established the main functionalities of the website, the information we had to display, and the values we had to reflect.
A Customer’s Journey
We put ourselves in the customer’s shoes and mapped out every step of his journey throughout the website. At this stage, we only had to identify their needs and desired actions, following their footsteps.
From creating an account to setting passwords, configuring profiles for different types of accounts, and administering funds, to all the other navigation steps in between, we left no stone unturned.
Sifting Through The Content
The content inventory was truly challenging and demanding, as we had to overlook the entire process and analyze every possible interaction on site from the content perspective.
Again, we mapped every single piece of content by certain features such as navigation title, type of page, title of page, links, breadcrumbs, downloadable files, it was all laid down and put under scrutiny.
Finalizing The Scripts
First, we created the sitemap and then, we went on with the content inventory. But the time has come to bring all those scripts together and reevaluate how they work and what are the technical processes from behind.
We also looked into the main differences of creating all the available account types and we went into the complicated details of user permissions. By the end of this stage, we had the entire workflow crystal-clear, in mind as well as on paper.
Wrapping Up In Tech Specs
On the final stage of our information architecture planning, we set the technical specifications of the entire project. From assigning the tasks by departments to listing all the subtasks for each of them, we made sure that everyone knows its responsibilities and objectives.
Technical specifications were divided by frontend and backend departments, with a special section dedicated to the third-party tasks.
A word from our client
Next case study: Local JobsSince 2008 when we first started working with Design19, I was very pleased with the services and the promptitudewith which my request was answered. A strong point was the approach, the initiative and imagination in terms ofweb design.
Thank you for your patience in working with a difficult client that changed about 11 times the website’s interface
Gigi Vasilache, General manager Parchet pe Viata