PlanTools

financial reporting product

The PlanTools product, designed in 2006, is an example of a highly interactive product developed under tight budgetary and technological constraints. Within these constraints, I designed a user experience that presents a large number of selection options in a way that supports plan managers’ varied research approaches—from specific, focused searches to freeform, non-linear browsing.

The Quarterly Monitoring Report (QMR) is the printed output of the PlanTools software. It presented a set of information design challenges: develop a style sheet appropriate for multiple tables with different row groupings and sub-groupings; make the problem funds easy for plan sponsors to identify without making the funds appear “alarming” or “worrisome”; and present data in a clear, legible fashion that unsophisticated readers can easily understand.

Disclosure: The product manager and product developer wrote the functional specifications and completed the user research for this product. In addition, I worked closely with them during the IA and interface design processes.