INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

• service design
• user interviews
• stakeholder interviews
• heuristic evaluation
• contextual inquiry
• comparative analysis
• wireframing/sketching
• high fidelity prototyping with Sketch

MISSION

My team was asked to redesign the digital signage at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The goal was to use the signage as a means of sharing event information and increasing the sense of community at the IMF. We were asked to evaluate the current screens, their content and formatting, interactivity and engagement, and placement.

Problem

IMF staff are overwhelmed by event information. In contrast, they are unaware of what is happening throughout the IMF because they are siloed in their departments. They need an improved means of information dissemination to more deeply engage with the IMF community.

PROPOSED SOLUTION

Digital screens can be used to spread awareness of news and events within the IMF and increase a sense of community.

We made recommendations for screen content in different locations throughout the IMF and designed screen templates tailored to each location to meet the goals on engagement and awareness within the IMF.

the process

user interviews

We interviewed 6 staff members at the IMF, asking them questions about digital signage, how they find out about and distribute information about events and their use of the IMF intranet. After our interviews we completed affinity mapping to synthesize our insights. Our key takeaways were:

• Most people were rarely or never looking at the current digital signage.

• People report being in too much of a hurry when passing screens to take in any information.

• Font sizes and contrast levels are insufficient to enable viewing at a glance.

stakeholder interviews

We also completed stakeholder interviews to learn about the business needs of our clients. Our key takeaways were that staff would like to increase engagement with digital signage, decrease reliance on email and paper posters for event information, increase awareness of internal news and increase engagement with social media.

contextual inquiry

We conducted contextual inquiries of the digital signage in two locations at the IMF, a lobby and a cafe. We learned:

• Only 12–15% of people were looking at the digital signage for even a brief period.

• The placement of screens currently does not offer a wide viewing area. 

Evaluation of current screens

Finally, we evaluated the current screen layouts. We found that there was too much information being displayed at one time. Contrast was too low in sections, font size was too small, and the video was too small, especially for reading the closed captioning. Additionally, placement of screens was not ideal with many screens located well above eye level.

Secondary research

We conducted a comparative analysis of digital screens being used at a nearby university, at the World Bank, at Cisco and Transit Screens being used throughout the city. We found that screens tended to be either highly complex with lower legibility or more static, single content screens with increased legibility but low cycling and low interest.

We also researched best practices for digital screens to inform our design. We determined that a medium-level of complexity with cycling content and different types of content depending on location was ideal for drawing viewers. Motion would be used selectively for transitions to draw the eye but not decrease readability.

Design Studio

We started with a design studio on the whiteboards to begin sketching out what our screens should look like. While we started with a variety of screens, we decided that a combination of two content types with primary (2/3 screen) and secondary (1/3 screen) content areas was our desired layout. This allows for different content types to attract people with a variety of interests and more rotation of content to draw the eyes of passers-by. We would also include a call to action at the bottom of each content area to let people know where they could find more information and to encourage engagement.

Following our design studio, we began wireframing single content areas in Sketch.

Content Strategy

We determined that the following content types should be included to address user and stakeholder needs:

• To increase a sense of community and engagement:

  • Internal photo sharing app — Foko

  • Event posters to announce upcoming events, including a QR code that can be scanned to take users to an intranet event page

  • Daily events listing

• To increase awareness of what is happening in other departments and what IMF is doing in the world:

  • External social media — Twitter and Instagram

  • Articles produced by IMF for an internal and external audience

  • Videos produced by IMF for an internal and external audience

Additionally, we determined which content types to make available as primary and secondary content, and in which areas.

Location Zoning

We broke the spaces down into 4 targeted zones. For each zone, we made recommendations on content, cycling, and screen locations.

• Transitional areas—High-traffic areas where people are passing by quickly such as lobbies. Opportunity for capturing a large audience. Content must be highly relevant and readable at a glance. Focus on news and events.

• Bistros—Screens are at eye level and most visible, but current placement allows only a limited viewing area in the space. People have a little more time in this space for viewing content. Move screens for larger viewing area. Focus content on social media, internal news and events.

• Visitor/waiting areas—There is a captive audience in these areas, but screen placement is not currently oriented toward viewers. Move screens to eye level. Add screens to department waiting areas to capitalize on another captive audience. Content should be filtered for external or internal consumption and include articles, videos and social media.

• Social/gathering areas—Places such as cafeterias where people are spending a longer time in view of a screen and have more attention to pay to content on screens. There are essentially no screens in this type of area. This is is a big missed opportunity. Add digital signage to dining areas in both buildings, to seating areas outside of bistros and any other areas that allow more leisurely consumption of content. Focus content on social media, internal news and videos.

Once we had made decisions about which content to include where, we created digital signage templates with a variety of primary and secondary content types.

Next we created recommended screen flows for each of the areas.

design iterations

We started with our design studio whiteboard sketches, then moved on to single-content block wireframes in Sketch. Once decisions had been made about combining content types into templates, we built high fidelity prototypes of each digital signage template in Sketch.

Throughout the process we conducted user testing and iterated our designs. Changes made included changing the background from a dark grey to the blue seen below. Additionally, content was made into cards to tie headers, content items and call to actions together for quicker comprehension. This also allows for easier rotation of primary and secondary content on the screens.

Final Prototype

While we worked together throughout the process to design screens, I was responsible for creating the cards for content, for the final design decisions and ensuring consistency and branding across all screen templates. Below are some of our final screens:

The animation below gives a sense of the screen transitions that would occur. Content cards slide up and off the screen, drawing the eye and letting users know that new information will be appearing regularly.

At our presentation, the IMF team expressed their gratitude for our research and design work and immediately began discussing implementation. 

I was responsible for compiling a style guide for hand-off of the designs. It included all fonts and text styles, colors and backgrounds, screen templates, specifications for layouts components, and content blocks, as well as recommended content and screen flows for each area.

challenges and what I learned

• The IMF is very bureaucratic and moves slowly. It was a challenge to get them to work with us at a pace that allowed us to complete a project in 2 weeks. We succeeded by communicating frequently and by working on a lot of things in parallel. For example, we conducted user interviews and contextual inquiries and began our initial designs and comparative analysis while we waited for delivery of IMF assets and for a stakeholder focus group to be set up.

• Different stakeholders had competing interests and some unrealistic expectations. We managed this by prioritizing needs and coming up with an MVP. It was also critical for us to communicate clearly and manage expectations. In the end, everyone was very happy with the product we delivered.

want to know more?

Let’s talk.

You can read my full case study on Medium by clicking here.

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