Thu 11 March 2010

Gloria Petron

User Experience Research & Design

Integration of HSBC Private Bank's International & Domestic Online Banking websites

Objective: Combine websites from three different banking divisions into a single site.

Comments: It wasn't just a front-end design project. Because back-end technologies were also being combined, our team also built a new CRM system and gave clients a new log-in process. I handled user interviews, front-end design and prototypes, the user testing, and massive amounts of visual aids and presentations. I also created employee training guides, directed an outside agency on client materials, and was heavily involved in the QA process.

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After.

 

Integration & redesign of TD Waterhouse (iXL, 2001)

Objective: Combine the retail brochure site with the brokerage login portal, and update the design. I co-pitched design directions to TD Watherhouse and we won the bid. I handled art direction and information architecture, directed junior designers, and wrote the style guide.

Once the project was completed, we won a second project: the TD Waterhouse Retirement Center, which integrated approximately 20 calculators, tools, and resources into a single look and feel. I handled this project as well, which presented my first real CSS nightmare as the 3rd party vendors kept dribbling their products in every time we thought we had everything assembled.

Comments: My time at iXL was when I was first exposed to prima donna junior designers, who were usually young and male. Experience prevailed; they didn't like me at first, but eventually I won their respect and got them to perform beyond their comfort zone.

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After.

 

Redesign of Moody's Investor Services (iXL, 2000)

First financial site I ever worked on, at iXL. Disturbingly still live.

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Redesign of Bodyreserve.com (Freelance, 2007)

This was for my neighborhood gym. I had been frustrated by my inability to get accurate class info, and I had a hard time reading dark text against a black background. I pestered them until they let me redesign the site, and used a card-sorting exercise to prioritize content and navigation.

Comments: This was a fun site, and statistics demonstrated its effectiveness. Unfortunately, the owner wanted to try out the web page capabilities offered by his spreadsheet program, so this version is no longer live.

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Redesign of Seido.com (Non-profit, 2004-2007)

Objective: Redesign the website to provide resources to existing students, attract prospective students, and spotlight our involvment with vision-impaired, deaf, and YAI programs.

Comments: I was webmaster from 2005 to 2007, and set up Seido's first online store using Yahoo's e-commerce tools. Statistics steadily increased during the time this version was live. I also wrote The Stairwell News (named after the stairwell where we posted all our posters and notices), which was a weekly blog.

In 2006, I created an additional website for Seido's 30th Anniversary Global Tournament. The event was called SAITEN, and ultimately drew one thousand participants from all over the world. The SAITEN website was built in PHP on a Drupal platform; I worked with a programmer who handled the code while I handled the front-end. The SAITEN website offered online registration, calendars, merchandise, fundraising, photo galleries, and press relations; I handled design, writing, information architecture, and iconography. Once the site went live, I also handled customer service and password resets. All of this was built on a volunteer basis over the course of a year, and was very successful.

Before...

After.