Lodestar

In the ever-evolving landscape of web design for financial institutions, our team embarked on a mission to streamline and enhance the website development process. We introduced Lodestar, an internal base-level design system starter file, designed to empower financial institutions, particularly banks, to revamp their websites efficiently. Our approach included providing a range of customizable add-ons and plugins to cater to their specific needs. The Lodestar project aimed to improve user experiences while ensuring that clients could easily manage and update their content using the CMS Sitefinity.

The financial industry was witnessing a rapid transformation in user expectations and technological advancements. Many institutions struggled to keep their websites up-to-date and user-friendly, especially if they had undergone a brand refresh; the site no longer matched who they were. They faced challenges such as outdated design, inconsistent branding, and the need for expensive developer assistance for even minor changes. The goal was to bridge the gaps of expensive custom website design and development when most of these institutions used the same basic pieces. We could create a foundation multiple clients could use and tweak it to each of their standards, making it quicker and easier.

To address these challenges, our team envisioned a design system, Lodestar, that would serve as a foundational framework for financial institutions. We identified common elements that banks required, including generic content blocks, blogs, calculators, comparison tables, FAQs, branch and ATM maps, CTAs, logins and more. Lodestar aimed to streamline web development, making it cost-effective and efficient by offering pre-built functionalities while allowing room in timeline and budget for customization.

To validate the use of Lodestar before selling it to clients, we created a fake bank client named Fusion Financial and used Lodestar as the starting point. We filled Fusion Financial with filler content and essential features like calculators, alerts, and cookie banners, things our user personas told us they needed. This prototype demonstrated the possibilities of Lodestar to potential clients, showcasing how they could leverage it to transform their web presence to match who they were and how they wanted to be seen by their users, both current and potential clients. This represented a pivotal moment in our journey to introduce Lodestar to financial institutions.

Following the successful creation of Fusion Financial, our team focused on marketing and demoing the new site. We clarified that Fusion Financial's UI (their style and appearance) was not final for all sites using Lodestar; instead, they served as an example of what could be done. The next steps involved tailoring Lodestar to each client's branding, color schemes, and unique identity. The design team ensured that Lodestar's core structure, functionality, and essential components were intact, allowing room for individualized adjustments.

We then successfully implemented Lodestar for our first client, AFFCU. After changing the UI to match AFFCU,  Lodestar's fundamental structure remained consistent. We provided style tile options to interpret their branding, and any adjustments, both needed and wanted, didn't disrupt the overall project timeline significantly. AFFCU benefited from Lodestar's features, including the customizable map with bank and ATM locations, people widgets for leadership and teams, and FAQ sections. Additionally, during the design phase, clients could tailor navigation menus and footers according to their preferences, ensuring a unique web presence. AFFCU was able to get a new website to match their new branding, improve their user experience, and get a new site their content managers would be able to easily manage going forward much faster than a full custom site in a fraction of the cost. Lodestar emerged as a powerful tool to assist financial institutions in updating their websites efficiently and cost-effectively. By offering a comprehensive design system with customizable elements, we helped enable the move between outdated web presences and modern user expectations, ultimately enhancing user experiences in the financial sector.

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