Hightower
Role: Experience Designer (Sole Contributor) | Timeline: May 2022 – Aug 2022 | Tools: Figma, Miro, Adobe Creative Suite
Hightower was looking to evolve their internal advisor platform with new enhancements that aligned to both user needs and business strategy. They needed support identifying current pain points, surfacing feature opportunities, and prioritizing what to build first across a set of high-level concepts.
Role contributions
Working as part of a small, cross-functional team, I led widget design exploration, conducted research to inform wireframes, and owned key deliverables including a visual style guide and low- to high-fidelity mockups. I partnered closely with stakeholders, developers, and fellow designers to shape solutions that were both user-centered and feasible.
Process highlights
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Facilitated a prioritization workshop using Miro, enabling users to rank and invest in proposed features across four key epic concepts.
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Synthesized workshop input into slides that captured user ratings, investment trends, and qualitative feedback – helping guide executive buy-in.
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Audited the existing knowledge sharing library to map content, identify organizational gaps, and propose categorization structures.
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Researched widget patterns, completed competitive analysis, and gathered reference materials to inform future homepage enhancements.
Solution highlights
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Designed modular, persona-based homepage widgets to surface relevant data, improve user workflows, and increase personalization.
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Created low- and high-fidelity wireframes for both homepage and content library features, evolving designs through client feedback.
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Delivered a polished, reusable UI style guide to ensure visual consistency and support future scalability.
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Partnered with the Salesforce development team to assess technical feasibility of each feature within the proposed timeline.
Impact
The Hightower executive team approved the final designs for development, and shortly after, extended the engagement to include new project work — a direct result of the team’s thoughtful approach and high-quality deliverables.
TESTIMONIALS
“Ellen’s hard work impacted the decision of the client to move forward with Slalom by giving us more features to work on!”
– Senior Experience Design Consultant