SMART Technologies - Information Architecture

 

Context

Background

For over 30 years, SMART Technologies has been a pioneer in classroom technology. Inventing the first interactive whiteboard and many products that mold education as we know it today. Unfortunately during the last few years, their digital experience hasn’t been prioritized. 

The website was standing still for about 6 years. Occasional content edits were done but not enough updates to bring the online presence to match the business that was done offline.

Problem

  • The information shown on the website was outdated, and it didn’t represent where the company was and its business goals. 

  • Content redundancy, multiple pages were created by different teams talking about the same thing

  • Inconsistent submenus created open loops 

  • The website was not up to standard practices of accessibility

  • SEO  practices were outdated

Constraints

  • Resources allocated for this project were small and we had to hire an agency to add an additional onboarding period to the timeline

  • We also had a timeline pressure from the executive team to have something ready to show in 3 months

 

Discover

During this time it was important to understand the business goals and align them with the UX strategy I was putting together. I met with stakeholders and managers to discuss what they identified as goals for the business that were influenced by the website performance. 

An audit was performed to identify usability issues, a set of interviews throughout the organization was done to identify user needs and customer feedback was analyzed and categorized per topic. With all of this information, a list of use cases was created that was referred to constantly throughout the project.

A set of user journeys for the main interactions were also created at this time. One of the main interactions we spend a lot of time conceptualizing was the “book a demo” experience. 

All of this information from the discovery phase was summarized and presented to C-level executives to share the project process and validate our concept.

 

Define

Project Goals

  • Introduce industry segments to the main navigation to help users identify and navigate the product offerings

  • Create a resource library to showcase relevant content by category 

  • Move from product-led focus content to user-led focus content

  • Add unique regional sites

  • Reduce friction in conversion points

 

Gallery

Reflections

What I did

  • Lead UX designer of the project - plan and lead design sessions

  • Manage and collaborate with a team of designers from outsource agency

  • Meet, listen and advise stakeholders with current XD methodologies

  • Write documentation of the discovery phase, interaction, and project goals

  • Create information architecture diagrams for the new marketing website

  • Produce wireframes, customer journey maps, and clickable prototypes

What I learned

  • Documentation is key. Always handy when you have to remember a discussion, when you have to defend your theory and when onboarding new team members.

  • Having clear business objectives is necessary to create a comprehensive information architecture diagram.

 

Working at Smart Technologies as UX Designer - Digital & Creative team

Scope Deliver a new information architecture for their global website

Tools AdobeXD, Miro and InVision