Messaging Design System
Messaging Design System
Role: Experience Strategy, UX/UI Design, Visual Design, Qualitative Research
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Overview
Implemented a messaging channel design system utilizing the Atomic Design methodology. The objective was to align with industry standards and tools, simplifying the process for designers across the organization to consistently create customer messages. The system included a comprehensive set of design standards, documentation, and principles, aligning with industry best practices, the enterprise design system, accessibility considerations, and client/browser constraints.
Challenge
Our creative partners faced inefficiencies in email creation for customers due to the lack of efficient tools. The absence of robust resources led to frequent design changes during development, causing deployment delays and extended timelines. The team recognized a need for a comprehensive understanding of creative partners' design systems proficiency and knowledge.
Opportunity
Optimize current design resources through collaboration with creative partners to strengthen a unified systems strategy, fostering efficiency, and elevating the quality of user experiences. Understand industry standards and tools to simplify the message creation process, facilitating a seamless experience for designers across the company to consistently craft impactful messages for customers.
Strategy
To define the characteristics of "great" messages and foster the desired partnerships, it was crucial to gather insights from our creative partners. This input was essential for constructing a comprehensive design system tailored to meet their specific needs.
Phase 1 Objectives
Phase 1 Objectives
Dive deep into understanding design systems outside and within the company.
Connect with our enterprise design system partners to better understand interaction and contribution models.
Analyze the current design system for Messaging.
Update messaging documentation on the enterprise design system website.
Create a plan for surveying partners and align on the correct questions to ask.
Phase 2 Objectives
Phase 2 Objectives
A better understanding of our creative partners' workflow.
How and when creative partners interact with design systems.
The success level in finding what our partners need.
How to improve workflows by providing needed resources.
Create an initial design system based on learnings from Phase 1.
After a period of time, send a follow-up survey to gain sentiment insights.
Forming a Committee
Forming a Committee
I assembled a team of messaging subject matter experts in design, content, and research to work collaboratively on translating recommendations and insights into actionable steps. By establishing clear leads to drive our goals and outcomes and aligning with the Enterprise design system, I created space for innovation, ultimately leading to cost savings for Capital One.
Content Inventory Audit
The audit provided a visual content inventory categorized by line of business, product and components with the sole purpose of seeing what messaging exists and why it's there. This became a resource to help in maintaining messaging governance.
Purpose
Create a holistic view for our team and partners of all the messaging in production.
Note the opportunities for alignment with the Messaging Review Board, enterprise design system and Brand perspectives.
Deliver a findings report, along with solutions to address opportunities.
Have messaging be a part of a higher-level component audit conducted by the enterprise design system team.
Research Plan
We used the established relationships with our partners through the Messaging Review Board (MRB) to develop a list of internal and external agency interviewees. Along with synthesis from past research findings, we could uncover opportunities to improve our design resources, improve workflows for our partners and ensure consistency across all customer-facing messages.
Qualitative Interviews
I organized an exercise with the team to clarify our existing knowledge, assumptions, unknowns, and desired insights. This provided the foundation for conducting one-hour empathy interviews, aiming to deepen our understanding of our partners' end-to-end process. The objective was to establish relationships that would support the next phase of the research. Through these interviews, we not only addressed specific questions but, more importantly, actively listened as our creative partners described their approach to working within the messaging channel.
Schedule
20 minutes for direct questioning (telling)
10 minutes for designer/copywriter specific questioning
20 minutes for walking through their process (showing)
5 minutes for magic wand
5 minutes for set up/follow up
Materials
Moderator guide
Interview questions
Designer/Copywriter process map in Mural
Scope
20 interviewees; 11 Designers and 9 Copywriters
Interviews
Ideally two (design and copywriter representation)
One facilitator
Two notetakers/observers
Outcome
As a result of our efforts, we pinpointed opportunities to enhance design assets, addressing gaps identified by our design partners. This foundational work has positioned the team to iterate further on the design system, aiming to enhance workflows for our partners and maintain consistency across all customer-facing messages. The Messaging Design System, serving as the cornerstone for all Capital One messaging, encompasses core focus areas collaborating to create a unified look and feel across customer-facing emails. It has successfully established enterprise messaging standards, met browser/device/email client needs, adhered to industry best practices, and complied with legal requirements.
Testimonials
"Kristin asked me to join her in co-leading a team of designers and copywriters to develop our Messaging Design System. She brought the group together with a clear goal and a solid path to get to that goal. Within those guidelines, Kristin encouraged everyone on the team to share their ideas, participate in discussions, and actively contribute to the project. She set up a learning session around UX testing to help everyone understand what we're doing. When we got deeper into the project and questions came up, Kristin reached out to the enterprise design system team so we could learn from their experience in conducting empathy interviews and how to best use that information to guide our project. Kristin put her excellent idea into action and set up a new Mural board that we used to gather all of the information from the empathy interviews so it's easily accessible and manageable for our team. We're making good progress, and Kristin is keeping us all on track. The Messaging Design System will have a big impact on our team and our partners. I'm excited to see Kristin's vision coming together, and I'm happy to have the opportunity to work with her to make it happen."
"Whether it’s an internal client or external customer, Kristin focuses on what’s right for the customer. Her passion for listening to customers in feedback sessions or conducting empathy sessions for the Design System project influences the outcomes of her work."
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