More Than Meets The Eye
curian.com post-login rewrite
About the Project
Overhauling the logged-in pages of curian.com was an enormous project spanning 20+ months of development. Replacing a 10-year-old infrastructure, the platform was rewritten on a modern technology stack that offers new financial tools and a more intuitive user interface.
Contributions
- Worked closely with 7+ developers, UX specialists and designers throughout the project
- Collaborated directly with 25+ backend developers
- Worked heavily with Primefaces, a Java Server Faces framework
- Drafted and refined 30+ wireframes for pages with multiples roles, states, and flows
- Controled the look and feel of over 40+ pages, spanning 6+ major areas
Highlights
Extensive Sketching & Wireframing
Typically starting out with pen and paper, ideas were quickly iterated. Using Fireworks, we were able to create low fidelity "flows" which were regularly reviewed and approved by the client. Wireframes were instrumental to collaboration, frequently referenced during development and documentation by many teams.
Primefaces Theming
Carrying over looks from the redesigned public pages required significant modifications to Primefaces compontent styles.
JSF Composite Components
These reusable blocks of code were created to speed up development time. Examples used are:
- maintenance/system messages
- animated carousels
- navigation mechanisms
Shiny New Tools & Features
User feedback prompted additional features and tool implementation, making Curian stand apart from competitors. During the rewrite, we worked on:
- improvements to the proposal system
- projected investment forecast/historical performance visualization
- new system linking clients to proposed investments
- features to mitigate risk of private personal information (PPI) exposure
Low Risk Maintenance
Implemented a CMS-like system for content changes and overall maintenance.
Results
Curian rewrite successfully launched in July 2014. The collaboration between front end deveopment, back end development, testing teams, and business units brought this project to fruition, positioning Curian to deliver efficient development and fresh innovation in future projects.
Feedback
"...as a result of the initiative, we have a captive audience so that we can instill in our advisors the breadth and depth of the platform."
"Wow, this site really is sexier."
Copyright © Ian Gallardo. All rights reserved.