AAT Website
The challenge.
To deliver a product that meets an unmet need, namely a lack of career guidance around a career in finance and ensure its business viability.
The background.
Initially AAT commissioned a digital research agency to evaluate the key search terms and associated demographics across the accounting and finance space. This was with objective of identifying how well AAT were matching these requirements with our content and online presence.
Discovery.
Market and competitor research.
Having been presented with the initial research it revealed a need for more in-depth careers advice around accounting and finance. The next step was to evaluate the level of information available online and decide if there was an opportunity for AAT.
I undertook a competitor analysis, firstly doing secondary desk research looking at the search results based on the key terms previously presented. I was then able to follow up with some of the companies that were providing information to ask what else they provided in terms of careers advice.
Overall there was limited advice available from one source and someone would need to visit several websites in order to get a full picture of what a career in finance could offer. This presented AAT with an opportunity to provide comprehensive guidance into a career in accounting and finance.
User interviews.
Further testing our hypothesis of a need for more comprehensive careers advice around accounting and finance I spoke with prospective accounting students, school leavers, people either looking to change career or those progressing in their finance career. 12 interviews were conducted, questions focused on their needs, how they approached their research, what information they were looking for and why and their view on the current information available. This bought out several pain points and frustrations.
Most people would use Google to search for the information, with job sites the most popular source of information
Job sites provided information on the types of roles and potential salary but had little information on the training and qualifications needed. Frustration that they need to find this elsewhere
Those in employment would often follow their colleague’s advice and take the route (training and qualifications) they suggest
Limited information about how long training takes and what they should choose. Would like to see more relatable stories to help make the right choice
The opportunity.
As a well-established, leading qualifications and professional body for accountants AAT was perfectly placed to provide the comprehensive information people were looking for in a way that wasn’t currently available at the moment.
Not only would this provide people with the information they were seeking, it also fitted perfectively with AAT’s business objectives as inevitably a person’s first steps would be to look at the qualifications and training required to become an accountant.
Website and content audit.
The first step was to audit the current AAT web pages. This process looked at the existing information architecture including user flows, navigation and content. This was matched with user and business needs. The gaps were then identified, and a proposed content structure outlined.
The proposed IA structure was then tested with users. The structure was created in OptimalSort where tree testing provided detailed path analysis and allowed us to identify what worked and what didn’t.
We also tested users’ mental models with card sorting exercises to ensure we had the navigation structure aligned to users’ expectations. After several iterations we finished on a navigation structure that was led by user insight and worked for the business.
Once this was in place, I was able to build an IA structure and then provide these details to the digital and development teams to implement the content changes.
The outcome.
The end result was a new section on the AAT website using a new design language and structured in a way that was built from a user-centred perspective. The career in finance section provides a comprehensive overview of the accounting and finance space, bringing together career pathways, job specs, salaries, training and qualification routes. This is all tied together with AAT stories, a series of real finance career journey’s told by people at different stages of their career.
The career in finance prospect section on the website replaced a campaign page that had an enquiry form as its CTA. Not only has AAT seen an increase in web traffic to the AAT website, as a result of including the sales team contract details on these pages there has been an increase in the conversion rate of prospects to students.
Lessons learnt.
Research.
Given the time constraints on the project and my initial relative inexperience in design research I only undertook a few user interviews. If I were to do this again I would certainly look to get a wider range of views, expanding my understanding an empathy and creating a clearer understanding of the problem I am trying to solve. Since starting this project my experience in user research has increased significantly with mentoring from user researchers and practical application in further design and product research.
Ideation.
I learnt a considerable amount throughout this project, specifically about design principles and using various design software (Sketch, Principle, InVision and InVision Studio). If I were to do this again I would have created a mood board and had a clearer understanding of the design language before starting any sketching. This would focus my designs early on and avoid the later changes I needed make to improve the UI and usability. I would also then spend more time paper sketching producing and dismissing ideas and then moving into more mid-fidelity wireframes for further ideation and testing.