Role: UX/UI Design
Project Type: Website Design, Brand Refresh
Medley Global Advisors (MGA), a financial research firm serving some of the world's top hedge funds, wanted an updated brand aesthetic and a new website that would help them attract new clients. Their goal was to showcase the firm's areas of expertise—financial policy, geopolitics, and global energy—and prompt visitors to request a sample report, initiating a sales conversation. Targeting an audience of high-net worth individuals and C-suite executives, MGA's new site had to be sophisticated, cosmopolitan, and easy to use.
homepage and mobile navigation
homepage
MGA's values
Inspired by the redesign, MGA saw an opportunity to update their brand aesthetic. They did not want to completely rebuild their identity but rather looked to reinvent themselves for the modern era. They wanted to keep their aesthetic simple and elegant, allowing their approach and their research to speak for itself.
MGA's original logo, set with Garamond, did not carry the right meaning with it and felt somewhat pedestrian. Moreover, it did not sit with the appropriate stature that their new website would bring. Garamond is quite a sophisticated and scholarly typeface in its own right, pairing beautifully with the typeface that I was using for their redesign (Montserrat). It was an easy decision to use Garamond to reset their logo as a one-line mark. In order to give the company name more presence, I increased the weight of the font, separated the monogram from the name, and colored both in a classic deep blue.
Visual Design
Knowing that MGA needed to make a strong first impression with prospective clients, I presented two design directions that employed a modern, minimal aesthetic. The goal was to capture a user's attention with stunning photography and graphics that would allude to MGA's global operations and the power of their data-driven insights.
initial design directions
By using a geometric sans-serif typeface and a highly saturated yet simple color palette, I created an aesthetic that aligned MGA with the kind of institutions that their prospective clients valued (high net-worth private banks, private equity firms, hedge funds, etc.).
User Experience
MGA's target audience of C-suite executives and high-net worth individuals, more concerned with results and ROI than process and values, needed to clearly understand what they were getting and why they should pay for it. My UX design focused on establishing MGA's credibility while also providing users with examples of the reports and events that MGA offers. I created 4 sections on the new site—Services, Approach, Team, and Events—each of which would allow users to find more specifics about what makes MGA unique.
wireframes for homepage, services page, and events page
After the wireframes were completed and tested, I discovered that most users were unlikely to make it past the homepage before deciding to download a sample report. It was these samples that would most influenced a user's decision to engage with MGA. Taking this insight into the visual design, I adjusted the user experience of the site to better highlight the reports that were available for public download. I also leveraged a user's interest in the reports to capture a their email address. This allows MGA to build out their rolodex and start a sales conversation.
homepage wireframe and final design