Bank of America Securities, Inc. (BofA Securities), previously Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is an American multinational investment banking division under the auspices of Bank of America. It is not to be confused with Merrill, the stock brokerage and trading platform subsidiary of Bank of America.
Bank of America Securities Insight Analytics
Position: Vice President, Delivery Lead | User Experience and Product Marketing
Background
Bank of America Securities Insight Analytics is a desktop application that combines execution, advisory, and consumption metrics for the Global Market Sales franchise. It provides data-driven actionable insights and consolidates the delivery of sales analytics. With over 30,000+ global users in FICC and Equity Sales, Insight Analytics serves as a trusted tool within Bank of America Securities. As part of an ongoing effort to enhance user experience and streamline functionality, I was invited into the team to lead the UX efforts to consolidate features from a legacy system called Compass into the application.
Challenge
Insight Analytics relied solely on their development and product management team to implement the user experience and migrate the functionalities from Compass to the application since its conception in 2013. An excess of information and unnecessary functionalities caused by this dynamic, generated a twofold challenge: firstly, it created a cluttered user interface and with overwhelming user experience. Secondly, increased the complexity of the information architecture and functionalities, making it difficult for users to find and access the information they needed, hindering the usability and performance of the application. The goal was to fully migrate the production tab functionalities out of Compass.
Solution
Based on the established product-centered approach culture, it was crucial to begin by advocating for a user-centered approach to UX Design. By emphasizing the value and importance of UX in the development process. I fostered open communication, shared processes in real-time to promote UX design empathy.
1. UX Advocacy: Begin by fostering a culture of UX advocacy within the team. Evangelizing technology management directors, product managers, and developers about the significance of UX designer led user-experience in driving user satisfaction, engagement, and overall business success.
2. User Research: Conducted structured and unstructured user research interviews with product managers and users to gain insights: a) to understand pain point, preferences, business drivers, and goals, b) create user personas and, c) map the user journey. In addition to usability testing two help prioritize the design scope.
3. Information Architecture: we used story-telling technique to organize and structure the application content and functionalities in a logical an intuitive manner. Reimagining the navigation system into a linear hierarchical structure, substituting non-linear entry points for strategic shortcuts, reducing the information clutter and improving usability.
4. Interactive Design and Prototyping: Included product management, developers, and stakeholders in the design process to obtain real-time feedback, reducing rework and gaining better visibility on edge cases due to technical limitations. As a result, the final product was always aligned with business requirements and user expectations.
Result
We were able to decommission the Production tab from Compass, train, and onboard users. We drove stakeholders and user satisfaction, improved engagement, and overall business success as we were able progressively onboard new users.
Due to a Non-Disclose Agreement (NDA) in place, I cannot display prototypes or design deliverables. Please contact me to arrange a discussion specific use cases.
