Case Study:

Designing an Exceptional Support Portal that Delivers Efficiency Gains

Nov 2021–Apr 2022 UX architect

Fidessa, a provider of financial trading systems, had in recent years developed a Support Portal to help customers find solutions to their problems. Investment and broker communities demanded not only exceptional support services but innovative technology for their business.

To maintain the high quality of our support, we aimed to enhance the usability and user experience of the Support Portal.

In order to comply with a non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted confidential information in this case study. The content presented is based on information available to the public and does not reveal any confidential procedures.

Client Portal homepage after the redesign.

Discovery

Definition of Success

One of the primary business goals for the portal was to enable customers to self-serve and find solutions to common problems. Customers were encouraged to report issues directly through the portal, ensuring that requests, complete with all necessary details, were routed to the relevant team for a quick resolution.

I began by speaking with support representatives from multiple regions to assess how successful the portal was in achieving this goal. Through these conversations, I quickly realized that users were reluctant to use the portal; they felt it wasn’t helpful and reverted to the old habit of emailing the support team directly. This negatively impacted the quality of support, as multiple communications were often required to fully understand the issue at hand, delaying the resolution process.

User research and benefits of User Experience design

In the next phase, we set a project goal to better understand user needs, pain points, and potential opportunities.

Management was eager to make quick improvements to the user interface, but user research wasn’t seen as a priority. Many stakeholders did not fully understand the value of UX design, often viewing it as merely aesthetic. As a designer, I took every opportunity to advocate for the benefits of UX design, and we eventually persuaded stakeholders to allow us to conduct a few client interviews. With real data, we could focus on improvements that would provide meaningful value to our customers.

We chose remote user interviews as our research method. From a broad client base, we selected 10 participants and scheduled 60-minute, one-on-one sessions. During these calls, I asked participants about their roles and how they typically used the portal.

This allowed me to identify different user archetypes, each with specific goals and tasks as part of their work. We then discussed the portal in detail, which uncovered valuable insights. These insights allowed me to remove biases and assumptions, and to clearly recognize the users' needs and challenges while interacting with the product.

User Interview Guide used during the interviews.

Share Findings and Define Next Steps

After completing and analyzing the interviews, I presented the key insights and findings to the stakeholders. As anticipated, users did not find the portal useful; they expressed that the site’s structure was confusing, and they struggled to find answers to their queries. Since users often needed to resolve issues quickly, they preferred using email to communicate with support. The challenge, therefore, was to make the portal as appealing, easy to use, and efficient as email, so it could effectively compete as a preferred communication method.

Based on the conversations with end-users, I drafted a typical "as-is" journey, outlining the main tasks users performed and the most common paths they followed to achieve their goals. I then reimagined an improved user journey, considering the opportunities identified during the research and addressing the needs and pain points users had admitted facing with the current solution.

Execution phase

Solution Mapping and Delivery

After reviewing each wireframe with the Product Manager and developers, I designed the screens for the "to-be" user journey. My colleague from the Visual Design team handled the final look and feel of the portal. We followed a responsive design approach, ensuring each page was available in three sizes—large, medium, and small—so the new portal would be accessible on mobile devices. The final step involved creating detailed design specifications, which were used as handoff documents for the developers.

Example of design specification for each breakpoint.

The execution phase was iterative, involving multiple proposals and revisions until key stakeholders agreed on the design. It was my responsibility to justify design decisions based on user research findings or established usability principles considered best practices in the industry.

Client Portal website before and after the redesign.

Outcomes

At the beginning of the project, the Product Manager and I defined the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to guide our efforts and ensure we had measurable goals. This approach allowed us to look back at the metrics once the project was completed and verify whether the new portal design met its objectives.

Example of OKRs.

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) template.

Defining clear objectives also helped align and inspire the team by communicating what we aimed to achieve with the redesign.

Six months after I began working on the project, the first set of implementations was delivered to customers. Meanwhile, other screens were part of our iterative process and underwent a similar redesign, as described in this case study.

As mentioned earlier, users had been abandoning the portal and resorting to email to contact support. The redesign addressed these two problems, among others. A substantial reduction in the portal's bounce rate and an increase in support cases created through the portal, compared to email, were key indicators that the design was successfully meeting its goals.