Blog
Need
Create a new blog for members and other customers to connect with the association, further solidifying the company as an essential information resource for tax preparers. The blog needed to work well in desktop and mobile applications as well as to be easy for internal writers to maintain and upload content.
Collaboration
& Feasibility
Initially, marketing worked with IT and gave them generic template examples from popular blog sites, but the outside development partner did not understand the vision. At that time, I was brought in and interviewed the marketing team to better understand how they would use the blog and what their ultimate goals were. I also researched other popular blog development sites to learn about the most current design and functionality trends.
Design
& Prototypes
Since a development partner had already been engaged in the project and a rough outline was available, I started designing a hi-fidelity mock-up in Adobe XD. I knew the brand had to be well represented in the blog so those fonts, colors and other styles were the first to be implemented. Once the overall feel was agreed upon, I began making suggestions on functionality and integrating items like tags and navigation into the prototype. This created discussion between the marketing and IT teams before the developers were given final specifications. Questions and concerns were addressed, further refinements were made and the prototype was sent to the developer with assets and style specifications.
Struggles
Since UX was brought in after the development had already been initiated, the marketing team and I found more functionality needs than what was in scope for the timeline. However, the items we outlined, like commenting and single sign-on, were deemed highly desirable and important to the overall success of the blog, so they are included in this year's budget and plan.
Result
The blog is in testing with users now. The marketing team is excited and prepared to launch the blog, fully understanding the functionality and what’s to come in the future. We learned that early wireframes and discovery saves time, frustration and money for projects as a whole.