My Role:
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UX Designer (Product Lead)
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End-To-End Product Strategist
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UI & Design System Designer
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Subject matter expert for Service Design
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UX Researcher
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UX Writer
Overview
As a UX Designer at Fidelity Charitable, I led the end-to-end design process for the Grant submission process, from the discovery phase, product strategy, to the final handoff. I drove the design decisions by leveraging a design system, conducting user research, and building product roadmaps. My role involved close collaboration with stakeholders and the engineering team to deliver a seamless final product.
The Problem
The 25-year-old asset management application has an outdated interface, security risks, and lacks integration. This leads to slow workflows, with on-call transactions taking 4-5 minutes, which limits transaction volume and business efficiency, especially before market close. A modern, secure, and user-friendly application is crucial to streamline workflows and boost productivity.
How might we strategically leverage a design system to modernize our product, ensuring consistency and increasing efficiency across all user touchpoints to achieve higher business impact?
What is a Grant?
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Grant: A cash donation to a federally approved NPO.
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Tax deductions: Donors can receive tax deductions for these grants.
User pain points
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Accessibility/Readability issues.
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Missing validation messages.
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Too many extra pages/clicks.
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Requires multiple browsers.
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Data loss during transaction process.
Business insights
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Inefficient Call Handling is a Bottleneck.
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Manual Workflow Limits Transaction Volume.
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Automation is the Path to Higher Revenue.
Key design goals
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Automate data pre-population to remove manual entry.
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Integrate the NPO search directly into the grant creation flow.
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Provide real-time validation and clear instructions to prevent errors.
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Automate post-call tasks to free up associate time.
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Reduce pages/clicks by simplifying the transaction process.
Key design goals
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Automate data pre-population to remove manual entry.
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Integrate the NPO search directly into the grant creation flow.
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Provide real-time validation and clear instructions to prevent errors.
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Automate post-call tasks to free up associate time.
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Reduce pages/clicks by simplifying the transaction process.
The Gap: Legacy system vs. Modern interaction
Legacy interaction
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Outdated table design
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Clunky Pagination
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Tax ID data missing (61%)
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Search by Organization name
(Secondary name missing 53%) -
Inconsistent typography and
low readability
Modern interaction
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Custom UI component
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Best practice Pagination for ease
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Search by Tax ID (61%)
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Search by Organization name (Secondary name 53%)
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Accessibility compliance utilizing the design system
New feature
Based on user interviews, to avoid data loss on exiting the flow, users need to log in from a different browser to check transaction history details.
Legacy interaction (The Gap)
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Past grant amount, investment allocation, pool selections, and acknowledgement details are not integrated within the flow.
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The associate has to open the donor’s account details in a different browser to check the history.
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Increases transaction time due to back-and-forth interactions.
Modern interaction
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No need for multiple screens, 3 different login actions, gives quick recap with one click.
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Reducing transaction time from 5 min to 2 min 30 sec on avg, increasing overall business impact.
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Increasing transactions per day from 32 to 51 (↑59%).
The Impact:
Boosted efficiency by 50%: reducing average transaction time to 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Productivity boost: 59% increase in transactions per representative, from 32 to 51.
Successful complex transactions: 56,000+ Paper and Phone transactions completed.