As Creative Lead, I managed a team of designers, animators and copywriters. My role involved planning, cross-functional collaboration, and aligning with senior leadership.
Verizon Media
In 2018, Verizon decided to shake things up. They took big names like Yahoo and AOL and joined them together. Our job? Create a digital home that worked for everyone - from business clients to job seekers to the media. It was like designing a house that needed to feel just right for a really BIG family.
From the ground up
The project involved designing and developing a global website spanning 27 locales and available in 12 languages. This required meticulous planning and collaboration with local stakeholders to ensure the site was relevant and effective in each market.
My Role
Timeline
Q1 2019 - Q1 2020
Team
Project Manager
User Interface Designer
Copywriter
Development Team
User Research Strategist
User Research Strategist
Goal: Hit the ground running
We were tasked with building Verizon Media's new online home. It had to work for everyone - from big business clients to folks looking for jobs, even reporters. The trick was figuring out what each group needed and showing how Verizon Media could deliver. We teamed up with marketers all over the world to make sure it hit the mark, everywhere.
Launch the brand
Launch a new site that lets the customer know that Verizon Media is open for business.
Drive with data
Dive deep into user data to pinpoint customer needs. Tailor website content and features to match these insights.
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Made for you
Meet users at every stage of their journey, providing tailored content and experiences that nurture leads.
Here's what we got
01
Research
The discovery phase, detailing our identification and analysis of user personas, journeys, and requirements to design a tailored web solution.
02
Homepage
The homepage design evolution, from concept sketches to final layout, balancing editorial appeal with informative content to captivate users.
03
Advertising
Creation of ad templates and sitemap architecture to enhance user navigation and overall site efficiency.
04
Brands
Tactics to increase user retention, enrich journeys, and amplify brand representation, converting bounce rates into meaningful engagements.
Our research sprint included interviews with existing and potential customers, as well as key stakeholders. The critical insight: we needed to create targeted content for diverse customer segments, each facing unique challenges that Verizon Media could solve. This approach would enable us to effectively communicate our value across different market segments.
01 Research
User flow
We designed the user flow to prioritize self-identification, allowing visitors to quickly access content tailored to their specific needs. By gathering key metrics and user preferences early in the journey, we could dynamically adjust our messaging and offerings. This personalized approach ensured that each user received the most relevant experience.
User needs
By understanding our customers' goals, challenges, and inhibitions, we crafted a user-centric digital experience that addressed their needs, showcased solutions to their pain points, and guided them towards making informed decisions about Verizon Media's advertising products and services.
Goals
- Maximize ROI on ad spend
- Increase brand visibility
- Stay ahead of competitors
Challenges
- Navigating complex ad tech landscape
- Measuring campaign effectiveness accurately
- Adapting to rapidly changing digital trends
Inhibitions
- Skepticism about new, unproven ad technologies
- Hesitation to abandon familiar, albeit outdated, methods
- Anxiety about the learning curve for new platforms
02 Homepage
Driving for action
We began with homepage sketches, exploring layouts and content hierarchies. These evolved into paper prototypes for early user testing. This hands-on approach allowed rapid iteration and valuable feedback on navigation and user experience. Starting with low-fidelity models helped us refine ideas efficiently before moving to digital wireframes, ensuring a user-centric site structure.
Site structure wireframes
Navigational
Designed for users to quickly navigate to the pages relevant to them
Minimal
Allows users to explore all of our solutions in a clean and minimal layout
Exploratory
Surface case studies and insights relevant to each of our four audiences
Final Page
03 Advertising
The advertising section showcased Verizon Media's offerings, tailored to our core customers. We developed a flexible content system to address diverse needs across locales, each with unique products. This allowed customization by region while maintaining brand consistency, ensuring visitors quickly accessed relevant information, case studies, and pricing for their specific market.
04 Brands
Initially, our brands page served as a basic overview of our portfolio. However, by analyzing metrics, we identified a significant opportunity. Collaborating with the brand and marketing team, we secured buy-in to develop and launch a new set of pages keeping users within the site longer and providing valuble insights around our brands.
During a metrics review, we noticed high exit rates on the brand page. Users were leaving for individual brand sites.
Using this insight we were able to build a template that not only provided a compelling overview of the brand but also tailored an offering to the customers needs.
This template allowed us to quickly roll out brand pages and showcase brand-specific offerings, case studies, and performance metrics.
Key metrics
$100's M
Revenue Influenced
Tripled
SEO Referrals
1000's
Marketing Qualified Leads
