introduction
LPL Financial has many products in its portfolio, and Admin Solutions is one of the more unique offerings. Admin Solutions is a hybrid service product, where users access a self-service web-app in the front end, while a team of professional administrators carry out the tasks on the back end.
My primary role was an independent contributor, where I supported the team through design deliverables along with participation in the discovery process. This case study will be broken down into four sections: Research, Ideation, MVP, and a future V2 Concept. This project spanned about 6 months.
1. Research
End to end journey map
Research begins at the journey map, which takes the target user through the complete experience from beginning to end. The journey is split into 8 phases, with multiple key moments in each phase. Each key moment is dissected and analyzed through identifying pain points, what questions should be answered, what the users actions are, and what, if any, technological limitations exist. The 8 phases are as follows: 1. Evaluating Marketplace, 2. Activating Service, 3. Day over Day Workflow, 4. Setting Business Goals, 5. Managing My Account, 6. I Need More Help, 7. Am I Satisfied? 8. I No Longer Need Help.
PERSONAS
The journey map is synthesized to create five unique personas, each with unique needs and solutions.
2. Ideation
This first version was a design provided by a previous designer at the company. This concept didn't follow the design language, colors, or brand image of LPL, and so a re-design was requested.
Initial concept
The primary interface component of this UI are the card items. They’re designed to be user-shuffled, updated, and each card item can be given a priority.
second iteration
The second iteration is a rebranding of the initial concept. Same card-shuffling interface, but with the LPL design system’s components used to build the interface. This was designed by our team.
3. MVP
After gathering additional feedback and going over the design one more time, our team designed a V1 MVP, ready to deliver to the development team. There were major enhancements made, including making the tone more service-like. You can see that there’s a personal tone to the UI, as if the Admin is directly communicating with you. The MVP was delivered in three breakpoints: Desktop at 1920x1080, Tablet at 768x1024, and Mobile at 390x844.
4. Future V2.0
With the MVP handed off to the development team, we were free to continue to receive guidance from our research and other stakeholders in adding no functionality and features to make the web-app more robust. This future version has added functionality such as CRM and Quickbooks integration, as well as connecting to LPL’s other product solution called CFO Solutions.
