I began the project with a series of workshops to identify project goals, explore ways of potentially achieving those goals, and defining the tonal and perceptual shift we were looking to make.

There were many inputs into this process, from existing user testing from the existing user experience, through to the outputs of the series of stakeholder interviews I undertook in the opening weeks of the project.

During the initial brand workshop we identified the need for a shift from formality and passivity, towards an upbeat, proactive, unabashedly expert tone.

The aesthetic we created reflecting this shift, with the introduction of a signature gradient (taken from existing brand colours), a bold new typeface, distinctive use of depth and pattern, and the liberal use of warm, relatable illustration and photography.

In order to create a proactive, engagingly useful user experience we identified and categorised the types of advice we would be able to give the user, and devised a tiered system of modules that would either prompt the user to ‘take action’, help them ‘understand’ why changes to their credit score have occurred, or aid them in ‘optimising’ their score.

These modules were then used to create a bare bones prototype, based on key user journeys outlined following earlier user testing and interviews.

Once consensus was achieved with the initial prototype we rolled out a fully-realised, high definition prototype of the new Experian Credit Expert user experience, along with a design system that the internal design teams could use to design product UIs going forward.

The new direction was shared widely within Experian at all levels, including at company conferences and all-hands meetings.