CLIENT:
Great Gray Trust | greatgray.com
ROLE:
UX Strategy, Web Design + Development
OBJECTIVE:
Create a unique web experience for Great Gray Trust Company to drive their updated branding. The website should convey Great Gray’s position as a leader in the Collective Investment Trust (CIT) space, as well as provide thorough user education on CITs.
Additionally, repositories are needed for both Great Gray’s Perspectives library and their Fund Information resources. These repositories should be easily navigable by users and straightforward to maintain for Great Gray staff.
The UX should be high-end and engaging, reflecting Great Gray’s unique, best-in-class role as a CIT leader.
SOLUTION:
A custom-designed & developed website, multiple Resource Repositories, & CMS system that showcases Great Gray Trust’s status as a CIT powerhouse, highlighting its diverse capabilities and providing top-class user education. The main features include:
• Bespoke Design, Strategic UX/UI
• Engaging Animations & User-Controlled Interactions
• Dynamic Feeds for Great Gray’s Perspectives Library
• API Integration for Fund Information Repository
• Custom Region-Based Find-A-Specialist Functionality
Discovery highlighted a need to level-up Great Gray Trust’s web presence to reflect their position as a leader & ally in the Collective Investment Trust (CIT) space. Special care needed to be taken to translate their branding into an impactful web experience.
Great Gray’s target audience — financial advisors and asset managers — highly value control over the investment options they offer their clients. Therefore, our UX strategy gives website users “control,” by having animations and transitions controlled through scrolling.
Visually, we leaned into Great Gray’s branding by utilizing their motifs in conjunction with gorgeous, modern animations. Following the Peak-End Rule of user experience design, we created beautiful standout experiences on each page along with concise, engaging calls-to-action.
Functionally, the site needed to house multiple resource repositories: Great Gray’s Perspectives library as well as their Fund Information resources. We created distinct and highly-legible experiences for each, with multiple taxonomies to aid the user in finding exactly what they’re looking for – or, finding something new.
Users are engaged with experiential pages throughout the site.
Easy access to diverse resources for users. Easy management for admins.
Map tool lets Great Gray manage specialists by location, and helps users find them.
A Story in a Scroll: Beautiful animations and interactions keep users engaged throughout the page.
We built multiple resource systems; the first of which is Great Gray’s Perspectives library. This includes multiple taxonomies, targeting different user groups as well as resource types to get audiences the content they’re looking for quickly & easily.
Great Gray also needed a system for organizing their Fund Information content, placing a substantial volume of Fact Sheets and Annual Reports at user’s fingertips. We integrated smart search functionality for ease of access, and used API integrations to ensure content is consistently up-to-date.
Intuitive Taxonomies: Users can easily find relevant content with the help of detailed taxonomies.
To supplement Great Gray’s team page, we needed to add functionality to let users get in contact with a specialist that serves their region. We created an intuitive system that offers multiple ways to drive audiences to find a specialist they can work with.
Users are able to click individual team members directly, interact with the map graphic, or use region toggles. We ensured multiple avenues to get allow users to easily reach the content they’re hoping to find, in accordance with the Paradox of the Active User.
Find Who You’re Looking For: Audiences can use multiple methods to get connected to a specialist.
Great Gray’s second repository is centered on fund information. Due to the extensive quantity of information on offer, we knew smart search functionality would be necessary to get users the content they’re looking for – faster.
Users can easily use the search box to locate funds by name, CUSIP code, or Ticker code. They’re then linked to detailed reports for their precise fund.
What You Need, Faster: Users can utilize smart search to get to their desired content quickly.
Our team worked thoroughly to ensure the website and its functionality were compliant with ADA guidelines (WCAG). This included a visual and adherence tool audit of the Design, and the addition of special HTML tags throughout the navigation menu, search fields, and taxonomy settings to ensure that users with screen readers can easily access and use every part.
