Project: Design & product strategy for a unique insights tool
Client: Hall & Partners
Category: Innovation & Technology, Business to Business
Responsibilities: Concept & Identity development, User Experience Design, Service Design, User Testing, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Workshop Facilitation.
The Challenge: Furthermore has been Hall & Partners’ strategic user experience partner for over 7 years, primarily focusing on their award-winning insight management platform, The Hub. We were originally brought in to envision the product and service pipeline, solidify its strategy and revolutionise its design. As part of the ongoing partnership we are continually iterating and improving on the platform, designing best-in-class new features to keep The Hub ahead of the game.
We work closely with senior stakeholders at Hall & Partners to develop the strategy and multi-year roadmap for The Hub. Using regular user research and discovery sprints we examine the needs of users and weigh them against the business needs to inform our priority epics. Feature ideas are then refined through rounds of user testing in order to validate assumptions and maximise impact.
Over years we have helped transform The Hub from a knowledge repository into a multi-functional platform that enables real-time storytelling, AI search, and customizable data analysis. By facilitating two-way conversations and delivering tailored and actionable insights in easily digestible and impactful ways the platform enables businesses to do smart things, faster.
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After setting the initial design direction for the platform, we have continued to improve it over time, building out an in-depth design system to allow easy collaboration between stakeholders, designers, and developers. It accommodates the challenges of allowing for client branding while still maintaining an identifiable look and feel. Our modular, dynamic and adaptable look and feel allows for a more streamlined environment that is both easier to use and more easily sellable, helping Hall & Partners reach their sales and growth targets.
In addition to the user experience strategy and design, we also lead on the front end development for the platform. One current focus is transitioning the entire platform from Angular to Vue, making usability improvements as we go. We take every opportunity to look at transitions and micro-interactions that add polish and finesse to the user experience. Having the front-end developers in house working closely with the design team ensures constant collaboration and seamless transition from design to build.
We have designed a wide range of powerful functionality within The Hub to help organisations centralise insights, visualise data, and increase business impact. Some of the recent highlights include:
Organisations use the Hub to store and manage large volumes of research and data. With new research being uploaded all the time, it is imperative that users are able to quickly and easily find the insights they need. We have designed an intuitive search experience that utilises powerful semantic search functionality, AI summaries, and relevant page previews.
A market-leading data visualisation suite that helps users create custom interactive charts based on metrics and data most important to them. Getting to the heart of a new downward trend or working out what is driving an unexpected uptick in sales can be tricky. With the Hub, users can quickly get a full overview of their brand, marketing and business performance in one place.
We’ve designed ways for users to uncover patterns, correlations and significant shifts in their data. Users can save and share views of their data analysis, saving them valuable time and effort upon their return.
The Hub is a powerful platform that allows businesses to centrally manage and analyse consumer insights and data across a range of markets. No two businesses are the same so we have designed a number of customisable features on the homepage dashboard to help personalise and meet the needs of the individual. Stories, reports and data are presented in clearly labelled rows, alongside recommended content. Social proofing features allow users to see the hottest insights with ease and short cuts are always on hand for quick access to key sections. With extensive user research, we optimised the homepage dashboard for fast ‘in-out’ user journeys for those who know exactly why they are visiting and how to get there, as well as for those with a more discovery mindset who may be grappling with a particular challenge but are unsure where to start.
At the very start of our engagement with Hall & Partners we introduced improvements to the story creation and viewing experiences. We made it easier to turn data from The Hub into digestible stories enriched with charts, infographics, videos, and quotes. More recently we have designed and launched the user’s ability to create “immersive scrollytelling” stories that bring their insights to life. Using an easy-to-use slide based interface, authors can create an engaging full screen experience with animated transitions without any technical know-how. This is one of several great examples showing our commitment to reducing barriers to adoption.
Since we've been working with Hall & Partners on The Hub there has been impressive growth in the platform including:
“Furthermore has taken everything to the next level—they’re a partner, not just a vendor. I rely on them very heavily, and they always come with great ideas.“ - Oli Hayward, Global Head of Product
Get in touch with the team to discuss your idea, project or business.
Furthermore
54-58 Tanner Place, Tanner Street,
London, SE1 3PH
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