OVERVIEW
Project Background
Our client, Charles Schwab, wanted to expand their offerings to the UK market as it continues to grow as a business development hub. The Schwab International team offers Advice Solutions services for their clients to access: proprietary tools, professional consultation, and personal customer service. Before coming to us, Charles Schwab International created another service, Managed Account Select (MAS), that will serve their lower-level UK investors. Until now, Schwab’s UK Advice Solutions only offered the Schwab Wealth Advisory (SWA) service, which grants access to higher-level clients with $1M+ in household assets. Now, with the launch of the Managed Account Select service in the UK, investors will have more Advice Solutions offerings.
The Team
Client Charles Schwab
Design Team Mariana Wild (Design Lead), Myself (Interactive Designer)
Project Management Jill Bailey
Copy Team Bud Hennekes, Chris Sandoval
Defining the Problem
The project team and I were originally tasked by the Charles Schwab International team to build out a UK Advice Solutions Hub in support of the Managed Account Select (MAS) launch. Normally when we work with the Schwab International team we update all regions but, in this instance, we are only working with the UK region. With these factors in mind, the question we needed to answer was:
“How can We best support the launch of Charles Schwab’s Managed Account Select service in the UK region?”
We were able to achieve our goal through the creation of the following deliverables:
A net new Advice Solutions Hub Overview page
A net new Managed Account Select page
An update to the existing Schwab Wealth Advisory page
A new ‘Flex Space’, or promotional component, to live on the Schwab U.K. homepage
THE PROCESS
Our Design Process
To ensure cohesiveness throughout the Charles Schwab website, we follow a design system provided by the client. The design system has multiple web component options, which give us the flexibility to work with different content.
When we need something that a current component does not offer, we are a part of that process with the client in enhancing their Drupal design system; we scope, spec, and deliver an enhanced variant of a component or a net new component to their internal dev team.
My Role and Challenges
1. How can we visually draw equal attention to both of the provided services?
2. How do we drive UK clients and prospects to visit the Advice Solutions Hub?
Design Challenge 1: Create an Advice Solutions Overview Page
This question struck us at the beginning of the project. The problem was first addressed during the content strategy stage of the project. As a team we decided there would need to be a router page for both services, this would become the Advice Solutions Overview page.
From there my role was to equally represent both, Managed Account Select and Schwab Wealth Advisory programs in the design. I delivered two wireframe options, one of them being the answer to the problem. 
From here, my role was to find imagery that would attract a specific audience for each of the provided services. The final outcome was option B.
Design Challenge 2: Design a promotional spot for UK clients to reach the Advice Solution Hub
At one point in the project, we added a deliverable to the project scope, a ‘Flex-space’. The ‘Flex-space’ is a promotional call-to-action component that lives on the Charles Schwab UK Homepage.
Adding the component would help to drive clients and prospects to the new Advice Solutions Overview page and in turn to the new Schwab Wealth Advisory page.
My role was to design the 50/50 (image/CTA component) and source imagery that would apply to the U.K. audience.
