Elliott Sweet

Architecture — Scotsman Guide

overview

Scotsman Guide provides listing services, leads, and industry information for the wholesale and commercial mortgage industries. Originally an exclusively print publication, for the last 25 years they have been an industry leader and one of the best known resources for mortgage brokers, bankers, and lenders and their web presence needed a full redesign to bring their company up to speed with their digital users.


my role

I was the primary designer for this project handling research, IA, wireframes, page templates, and building a design system with regular design reviews and support from the in-house dev team, my design manager, and our team’s HTML prototyper.

 

challenges

  • SEO-focused leadership trying to combat industry disruptors 

  • Legacy code being transitioned to modern development frameworks, building architecture and interface in tandem

  • Responsiveness across multiple complex interfaces

Design & Implementation


Tools

Pen & paper, Sketch, Invision, HTML/CSS

Research

Prior to my joining the team a large scale survey of users was conducted and after onboarding to the project I organized and analyzed that data to create a clear list of design priorities. I conducted user interviews as well as a number of internal staff interviews to understand both the internal and external user needs. I did a thorough competitive analysis with heuristic evaluations which helped make as case to stakeholders for backlogged feature improvements and developing an efficient but robust MVP scope.

Process

After mapping the current product’s IA, I worked with stakeholders to understand the business strategy in order to evaluate how the site’s architecture could help users convert more effectively into high-value offerings for the business. 

Deliverables for this work included a full site map, personas, funnel diagrams and the collaborative roadmap for redesigning the major product experiences.