Clarity Credit Union 

Clarity Credit Union began in the 1940’s as Idadiv Railway Credit Union and went through various other rebranding and name changes since then, till they became Clarity Credit Union in 1948. They serve everyone who lives, works, worships and those who are family members of current members in Ada and Canyon County communities in Idaho. They are known for their financial education and their ability to help their members. 

The Challenge

Clarity Credit Union really wanted to get across that “homegrown feeling” where everybody is welcome. They wanted to keep their current members who were mainly families but, also bring in a younger generation who may not know much about finances. They really wanted to help new members understand the, “credit union difference”. There were other important factors to take into consideration as well such as:

• They wanted to continue with a funnel design on the homepage

  • It is very complementary to their logo

  • People know them for that, and they wanted to keep the shape as an aspect in their site

• Because a lot of other financial institutions in that area use so much nature photography, I needed to come up with a way to show the energy of the credit union without inundating it with nature photography

  • I really needed to draw on other demographic information about that area and their customers

• The site also needed to represent Clarity Credit Unions core values:

  •  Inclusive

  • Passion for helping people 

  • Fair

  • Empathetic

The Solution

As the lead designer, I wanted to focus on the messaging as a whole, and that included not only the demographics, but copy, characteristics of the area and the credit union, and how to tell that story. I took into account our customer interview notes, the site maps our copywriters put together for the customer and the research I did of that area. Some of the important aspects I took into account were:

• What is their niche – why do the other banks recommend them 

• What are the characteristics of the areas near where their credit unions are located

• Making sure that their branding is represented 

• Bringing tech into their new site but in a warm and very welcoming way  

The New Design

I feel it’s very important to take into account UX best practices when designing a site. You want the site to not be confusing and have the navigation be easy to understand and be useable. The design can flow from that and be a complementary asset to the function and therefore, all the components work together to make a functional user experience.

As I began the new design, I took every piece of research into account as I started to draw out low-fi sketches and wireframes and mapping out different aspects of the site.  I usually try to sketch out at least 5 wireframe ideas and pushed it further to really take into consideration what was needed for this modern site redesign. But most importantly being able to back up the reasoning when explaining the design to the customer. It is so much more than, “I thought it looked pretty” — everything needs to have a valid reason and that reason needs to be explained. Some of the aspects I designed were: 

• Because showing tech was very important to them as well as their demographic ­­— I started out with a hero image that encompasses the warm friendly environment and also, bringing in their branding right off the bat

• The funnel feel of the logo was brought into the homepage as represented by the shapes of the images and blocks of color, but still taking care to show enough white space so that it does not feel crowded

• The imagery represents generations of families, younger members and the characteristics of that area 

• Icons and copy placement were used as another means to get the message across as well in an airier way 

Conclusion

Bringing in the shapes to help form the “funnel” look, really required a lot detail and extra sets of eyes at times to make sure everything aligned correctly before handing over the file to the Front-end Developers. The website was highly received by the client with just minor changes, mainly in the prefooter. I had a great working relationship on this project with the copywriters, who were able to play with the wording based on the story I built with the images and the content that needed to be there. We worked as a team on this to tell that story.  

I feel it’s very important to have great communication skills with all members of the team. Because, even though I designed the look – we all designed different parts of the site. 

Copy on website: Harrison Domgoole and Nick Marcotte     

Front End Developer: Michelle Wadsworth