Context

RBC Insights help advisors and client get informed and knowledgable regarding the current market and industry and is apart of the advisors daily. However, the Insight platform suffers from poor search functionality, outdated design, lack of responsiveness, and inadequate reporting metrics, resulting in user frustration and inefficiency in content utilization.

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The Work

Wealth Wise began in October 2023 with a small team: myself as product designer, a design lead, product owner, and developers. Early on, the design team spotted a misalignment, the product team saw it as a simple makeover. The issue being on what our goal was, either a full full design or just a UI refresh. Being that we were divided I conducted a UX Audit. The UX audit revealed deeper flaws in RBC Insights. I used that audit to push for research and alignment, setting the tone for the project. To keep pace with business goals, the design team introduced plans like UX Lean Canvas and worked with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Their input was valuable, but another minor road bump occurred where I noticed decisions leaned too heavily on SME opinions instead of user needs. That’s when the design team doubled down on advocating for research until it became part of the process.

To get a user researcher involved in the project, I mapped the old site’s information architecture and built user flows that exposed navigation pain points. These artifacts became persuasion tools, showing stakeholders why assumptions weren’t enough. Once research was approved, I rapidly designed mid-fidelity prototypes as design mocks are generally fast and cost effective while coding the wrong solution is slow and expensive. Usability testing scored the design a 78 on the SUS scale proof we were heading in the right direction. User sentiment validated: “You’ve saved me quite a few clicks, I love it” (Associate), “It’s cleaner, faster, more intuitive, this is a step up” (Associate Advisor), and “Just being able to search within a report and email it directly? That’s a game-changer” (PAG).

As I continued to design high fidelity with the mindset of create meaningful experiences. A pilot test uncovered three major issues, mostly within the dashboard. Instead of seeing it as a setback, the design team ran a workshop with users, directly applying their feedback into a sharper redesign for each session and testing on the next user to gain consensus of the experience. After aligning stakeholders on the redesigned dashboard and flows, I finalized high-fidelity designs and handed them off to development.