Project Description
ExactTarget
Site Builder App
In mid 2013, ExactTarget recognized the need to offer their users a tool to create microsites in-house. ET already had a tool to create simple landing pages but found that their customers were turning to recently launched solutions such as Squarespace and Wix to create anything even moderately more complex. Wanting to keep users within their own ecosystem as much as possible, the Site Builder App project was launched.
In the dedicated role of Interaction Designer, my involvement with this project lasted from ideation to the creation of the prototype used for the final round of user testing. Development, QA, and final release happened after I had moved on. You may launch the final prototype via the link to the right or learn more about the project below.
A Robust and Experienced Team
INTERACTION DESIGNERS • VISUAL DESIGNERS • RESEARCHERS • DOCUMENTATION • LEADERSHIP
Of all the places I’ve had the pleasure of working, ExactTarget had the largest and most robust UX department I’ve ever encountered. The director of UX was a VP level position and there were dedicated roles of varying seniority for Interaction Designers (IxD) and User Researchers in the main office in Indianapolis with additional support from the documentation team. We also had a veritable army of Visual Designers (VxD) in California.
With a UX team comprising over 30 individuals, this allowed us all to focus on our specialized roles and both teach and learn at all levels.
Team Composition
Ideation
Thanks to the groundwork laid by the research team, we Interaction Designers were able to get to designing immediately. We knew what the software needed to do, now we just needed to figure out how to do it. To that end, we met multiple times weekly with the product owner, project management members, and senior developers to flesh out our ideas via discussions, whiteboarding, and paper sketches.
Initial Wireframing
Once we had agreed upon a general flow (and what was technically feasible according to development), we moved on to low fidelity wireframing in Balsamiq. At this stage, we met internally daily to review and critique our work and shared our progress with stakeholders weekly. The low fidelity assets allowed us to iterate quickly and change course rapidly when necessary without attachment to previous ideas.
High Fidelity Wireframing
PIXEL PERFECT ASSETS YEARS BEFORE
ADOBE XD, FIGMA, AND SKETCH
With the help of the Visual Design team, the Interaction Design team benefited from a robust library of Adobe Illustrator assets that allowed us to create 1:1 pixel perfect wireframes long before specialized UX software like Sketch was common. The document below is the final deliverable that was given to development to begin building the product.
While every document at ExactTarget was a team effort, the document below is my work, excepting the analytics section. Please note that the embedded document has 54 pages of design collateral.
Interactive Prototyping
The final phase of this project before I moved on was to develop an interactive prototype for user testing during Connections, ExactTarget’s massive annual marketing conference. It was important to have this prototype be as robust as possible as real users were recorded using it and that research influenced our final revisions before development.
Given the state of Axure at the time, collaborative work was not possible on this prototype so the entire piece of collateral is my own work. Finishing it solo in time for Connections made for some very long evenings in the office, admittedly, but it was worth it to have it ready for our users!
Go ahead, take it for a test drive!
Case Studies
Check out the case studies below
or visit my full portfolio for additional UX and non-UX related work
Sphera – Laying the UX Foundation
Leadership, Administration, Technical Writing, Research, Wireframing, & Prototyping
How I laid the foundations for a robust UX department by building a team and creating a UX framework, style guide, and design system.
Sphera – Creating a Centralized Platform
Leadership, Research, Wireframing, & Prototyping
Working from the design system and foundations laid here, I lead my team to create a central platform to unite all of our disparate product offerings in the cloud.
ExactTarget – Site Builder App
Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, & Teamwork
As part of a well-established team with a robust design system, this case study showcases my portion of the interaction design and creation of a website builder app from ideation through prototyping.
Insite360 – Streamlining the AVA Process
Research & Wireframing
Wrangling a suite of tremendously complex business products to play nicely together including defining metrics and business outcomes as well as designing an elegant unified cloud based experience.