Leonardo Leite

Product Designer

UX UxD UI & Visual Design


Leo @ ASCENTIAL

Ascential is an international business-to-business media company. They inform and connect business professionals in more than 150 countries through market-leading exhibitions & festivals and information services.

As full time an interaction designer at Ascential I participated in great projects contributing to empower the digital identity. I assisted multiple products and projects providing UxD, UX and UI deliverables for the information service products and online magazines. I had the pleasure of working with great products and brands as Groundsure, Planet Retail/RNG, EMAP publications, Retail Week, and WGSN.


Overview

Groundsure is UK authority on environmental risks and helps a range of individuals and businesses including solicitors, homebuyers, businesses, Environmental Consultants, Surveyors, Architects and Lenders with information on land contamination, flooding, ground stability, and more. Groundsure Homebuyers search is the market leading search combining flood and environmental data for complete risk assessment of a new property. When you buy a new home, a survey like Groundsure Homebuyers is required.

The Problem

Ascential wanted to improve the user experience (UX) and information architecture (IA) of the product and make it more interactive for users.

Looking to empower the brand awareness and increase customer engagement with the information provided, we were engaged in the digital transformations of the Groundsure Homebuyers search report a printed custom environmental report that solicitors or homebuyers can purchase online.

The Challenge

I really enjoyed leaning about environmental risks and how the searches are performed.

Some of the challenges in this project were complex information, digitalization datasets, online pdf maps, and increasing the engagement and experience with the homebuyers report.

The Approach

Being a digital transformation, our initial approach was to understand the current users, technology, and processes to find opportunities and touch points and provide research and design in a strategic and prioritized way, with present and future interactions in mind.

Discovery

We had stockholders’ meetings to discuss ideas and solutions for the report. I interviewed Groundsure researchers, custom care personal, homebuyers and solicitors. I also worked with designers and project managers on the contents of the report.

The research provided information for a strategic revamp and digitalization plan for the report with more updated and engaging information.

Design

We tested the IA and visual design elements on the printed report, and we created a digital version of the report.

We also designed a new experience for the product with improvements in email communication flow to keep the users updated on the process, and an online dashboard and map providing more complete information about the searched area. The solution provided an online version of the report, more engaging and complete, to improve communication and increase engagement with the product.

Delivery

We delivered a fresh version of the printed report with restructured and optimised content, and we created a digital version of the new report. We improved the experience with the email communication by personalising and branding it.

I created a prototype to amalgamate the ideas we had explored during the research and to prioritise development efforts for implementing it.

Results

We received great feedback from the users on the report and email revamp and the solution was implemented.

The prototype was well accepted, and the stockholder were pleased with the designs and ideas explored.


Overview

Planet Retail and RGN merged and the two retail intelligence companies, RNG from the USA and the Planet Retail from the UK, Ascential need to make some business decision after the merge and wanted to learn more about the products and users.

The Problem

Ascential wanted to investigate the current products and what they offer, to improve and possibly unite the products in one solution. They an expert review of the websites and user research to learn users’ needs and wants.

The Challenge

The reports were very complex and provided high volume of information in different ways in each product with different focus. The interfaces were different and needed a review. The users were clients in management and senior positions, being difficult to interview.

The Approach

For the first phase it was decided to perform an expert review on the products and user research to identify user goals, problems and needs.

Discovery

An information architecture and UI review were conducted by me and assisted by the project manager, stockholders and data analysts. I also spoke heavily with customer care and phone assistants to gather user information.

I participated in several user interviews run by the BA, he wanted to learn about business opportunities, but the interviews also helped me with the UX questions (wants & needs). I worked with the user segmentation created by the BA to create personas and flows.

The project manager and I also conducted interviews on users and we spoke with data analysts, and managers of both products to gather knowledge to refine the product features and information architecture.

Design

I designed wireframes and low-res prototypes to show ideas and test the IA of the reports for both products internally and with users. I explored data visualization of the datasets using charts.

I also worked heavily with the DEV team on the UI issues found in both products designing and investigating new patterns and solutions in agile.

Delivery

We delivered great research insights to the business, they could make intelligent strategy decisions and traced business plans to improve the product and user experience.

I designed a homepage merging both products and I also provided wireframes, prototypes, visual assets, mock-ups, HTML and CSS for both products.

Results

The results were very satisfactory for the business. The designs for the new report tested well with business and users.

We implemented the homepage combining the products. This project is still till happening and I am looking forward to the outcome.


Overview

EMAP is a b2b publishing company with many brands under its wings using Content Management systems (CMS) to deliver information for their users.

The Problem

EMAP wanted to review and optimise the user experience of 15 magazines. We already had some data demonstrating problems with the new members acquisition and payment flows. We also observed some design patterns that could be replaced.

The Challenge

The main challenges were technical to implement and test the new designs. We had data analysts using google analytics, but we needed more insights to make better decisions.

The Approach

We would implemented tools to observe user behaviour, gather information, and verify the expert review and UX requests from stockholders, also we would test the ideas and if successful, implement it in agile.

Discovery

We used crazyegg to analyse Heatmaps, scrollmaps & Click Reports and Optimizely to run A/B and user tests. After reviewing the data we could verify and prioritise the main issues and tests.

I interviewed project owners and editors of each magazine to gather their views, suggestions and opinions, I also spoke with a few users on needs and wants.

We focused our efforts initially in bouncing and abandon points and new members acquisition flows and journeys accordingly with user types.

Design

I designed wireframes and low-res prototypes to demonstrate and test the new UI ideas and patterns.

Delivery

We delivered research insights to the business showing the data from the UX tools we implemented.

I also delivered assets and a plan to implement and test the conclusions of the research.

Results

The results were very satisfactory for the business and we reduced bouncing rate and improved the acquisition journey considerably increasing profitability.

The dev team implemented many of the UI UX features we worked on and we received good feedback from business and users.

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Other works

BYZGEN logo image

Product Designer UX UI

I helped to build a state of art blockchain platform and created Prototypes, POC’s, and MVT’s to explore possible uses of the platform for customers in diverse industries that require high level of data security

I had the opportunity to work with big companies in the private and public sectors like RFS, Ministry of Defence, BAE Systems, Atos, and others.

Deliverables and Technologies: User Research, Personas creation, User flows, UI design, Visual design, Wireframes and Prototypes in Axure, HTML, CSS, JS, Angular, bootstrap, git, Jira, slack, and others.

visit www.byzgen.com
Experian Logo

UX UI Designer

Contributed with UX and UI design for CreditExpert.com and Experian.com also I led the redesign of CreditMatcher.com a comparison site for credit cards, loans, and mortgages

I also worked with the innovation and new product development teams exploring new concepts and improving existing applications with new features.

Deliverables and Technologies: Personas, journey maps, UX, UI, & Visual design, Wireframes, Prototypes, User testing, A/b Tests, Data analysis, Session recorder, Axure, Angular, Agile, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Jira, slack, and others.

visit www.experian.co.uk
Created by leo 2019