AEP rolled out a new corporate brand and intended the corporate site to be the flagship of that brand while serving the marketing needs of a diverse set of stakeholders.
THE AUDIENCE
I started the project by trying to understand the main types of customers that would be visiting out site.
Within each customer segment there were also factors that created subcategories of our customers. Our job seekers ranged from office to field work and our investors can range from individuals to institutions.
The corporate site needed to serve the needs of our cross functional partners as well as our external customers.
It was important to have strategic discussions regarding the needs of our cross functional partners. We needed to make sure we were satisfying their needs without compromising the needs of our external customers and the design of our new brand.
RESEARCH & TESTING
During the course of design exploration I established a baseline of research.
Establishing this baseline ensured that our changes would perform as well as, or better than, our existing corporate site. I wanted to make sure the proposed new design would still allow for visibility of the customer service areas.
I found that elevating these elements on the page and keeping with our stacked button convention was the best way to maintain visibility. I also found through a taxonomy study that there are two different ways customers think to complete transactions with AEP, through contact us and our customer service area.
SKETCHES
These sketches came out of a discussion with the product owner and our investment partners.
The investments side of the business can be very technical so discussions with our partners are key to fully understanding how we need to communicate this content.
WIREFRAMES
The sketches were translated into wireframes to fit the established visual language.
After defining the important information and content zones I then translated those sketches to fit into the established visual language.
FINAL COMPS
The final step in this process is to translate the wireframes to pixel perfect design comps.
