Improving Ad Templates

In 2017 while working for 'Ve Interactive' I led a design project with the goal of improving their re-targeting advert templates. During the project I carried out desk research, interface design, prototyping, A/B testing and facilitated a Design Studio. A large part of the project involved collaboration with many departments within the company.

Objectives

In the first stage of the project I conducted a series of stakeholder interviews to gather business requirements and goals. From the interviews it became clear that the vision for the templates was a standardised set that reduced operational costs per customer. In addition the new templates would need to meet customer needs in terms of performance and aesthetics. Following the interviews, competitive and comparative analysis revealed room for UI and UX improvements. As the project lead, my personal objective was to test and iterate the designs at least once before committing to full development. Not only would this produce a better end result, but it would also provide evidence of our success to internal and external stakeholders.

Strategy

When the project began, my knowledge of the digital advertising domain was limited. To counteract this I researched the best practices for digital advertising and eCommerce design. Following my research, key stakeholders and internal experts were invited to join me in a Design Studio. In the workshop we collaboratively designed wireframes for the new set of templates. The designs were refined and readied for testing. I worked with tech support, account management and commercial operations to run an A/B test with 5 clients. Using the insights gathered we made the final decisions on features and design. The designs were then passed to the development team.

Outcomes

The main challenge in this project was getting the A/B test setup and live. This process required cooperation and output from 3 different departments. This proved to be very time consuming and resulted in extended timelines. This delay could have perhaps been reduced, if earlier consultation with the department heads had taken place. Aside from that setback, the overall project was a success. The response from customers was very positive. The A/B test revealed that the new templates at least matched existing performance. In addition the flexibility and improved design of the new templates led to less customisation and reduced operational costs during campaign setup.