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S&P GLobal Platts
Platts.com. Re imagined
Platts.com
Platts has produced insights, news and pricing information for over a hundred years in one form or another. It's information is regarded as one of the most important to help analysis of the markets it services.
How to bring this information together on Platts.com - the organisations front door, in a coherant elegant fashio. To help clients understand what is actually happening in their areas of interest, and the impact it may have on a variety of trading and price assessments.
Discovery
Examples
Base Camp
I set up a 'War room' in one of the small side offices as a base of operations.This served well to show case what I was doing in a very visible way, to an organisation who had no concept of what UX was.
Real Users
I attended The London Oil Forum. Where I conducted surveys and spoke with real users about their needs, and how they felt about Platts.com. I learnt that this exercise had never really happened at a Platts event before, and attendee's were very pleased; and surprised, that Platts wanted to understand how to make things easier for them on the main site. Great experience.
Building a picture
Taking observations from surveys and contextual analysis, I used story boarding to try and identify issues, and rationalise the output from additional research already done by third parties.
Rationalising content
Looking at how information could be better organised and represented, by building taxonomies for Platts.com.Requirements
Examples
Initial Wires
Begining to frame the homepage by introducing a content hierarchy that was not only meaningful, but a good launchpad for further investigation.
Responsive sketching
Taking those initial thoughts, and applying a responsive framework.At this point I actually managed to hire three contractors and we all contributed to the responsive framework and document at the top of this page.
Design
Examples
Adding some flavour
Early example for a new home page I put together.
Responsive wire frame
Example of a broader view of how a responsive proposition might behave.This part was completed by the team.
Then as often happens in large organisations, things changed and Corporate wanted to centralise all of S&P's public facing sites and had hired a third party to deliver that. It was nice to get lots of positive feedback from them about how we'd made their life a lot easier by doing all the ground work.
What was said at Platts
Creative, passionate and an experienced leader with a great eye for detail, a coaching mindset for his team and a superb person to work with. Joel leverages his broad experience alongside strong technical skills to deliver creative solutions that bring real value for users.
Joel was a key member of the team engaged to bring substantial change to way Platts delivers to customers and as we continue to work through this project, I continue to be impressed by his enthusiasm, energy and passion to build great products and experiences.
I worked closely with Joel as he created and drove new UI/UX standards for our large and disparate organization. He is a very talented UI/UX practitioner and was able to promulgate his vision deftly. He has the skills to work with and steer large groups without drama or conflict and was an appreciated and well liked subject matter expert. Joel would server any organization well looking to add to it's UI/UX leadership capabilities.
Joel brought insight and creativity to the world of UX at Platts. He was always ready to provide feedback and work with our group in providing advice, recommendations and suggestions on best practices when we were building new tools.
Highly efficient, very creative, extremely capable. Joel is a recognized leader within the UX world and a truly talented team manager. Joel is a naturally gifted talent capable of delivering the added value that any business needs to have in order to compete globally.
Joel is a refreshingly unique Design Manager, in every meaning of the word.
First of all, he understands the power of a good and inspired team, and has an acute sensitivity in how to build one. Further to that, as a leader of the team he nourishes a culture of empowerment whilst at the same time injects critical and intelligent debate material to ensure waterproof UX considerations. On top of this culture of trust, Joel is immediate to take action himself and I’ve seen Joel move things very fast in order to facilitate and improve the process. This impressed me every time.
In the big horizon, he has a great ability to manoeuvre political landscapes with sharp communications and never fails to advocate good UX design practice. His genuine enthusiasm for the potential and ability of transformational UX shines through; it moves in parallel to his ability to tie it with very relevant metaphors from real life examples. From this we’ve all seen grand movements in an array of projects.
If this did not stand out on its own, he also loves to get hands on with advanced Interaction Design prototypes, always wanting to push them to their edge.
Altogether, I consider Joel a very empathic, fun and inspiring team leader.
I have been very fortunate to work with Joel at S&P Global, and prize him as a very good UX manager. He does not micro manage you! ...which was a relief when I took on this contract. He trusts you to get on with your work and to deliver with high quality and standards. Joel knows how to build UX teams and I am glad to be working alongside him.
Joel is one of those people you meet for the first time and know straight away he is different, I’ve never worked for a ‘boss’ quite like him. My interview with him is the most unconventional I have had (and as a contractor, I’ve had more than a few). He was keenly interested in who I was as a person and my aspirations as a creative rather than the usual run through the CV and portfolio in quick time.
The only thing that could top meeting Joel as a candidate is actually working for him (more like working with him) as he has a creative mind that is constantly buzzing with ideas. He leads firmly but allows you to have your stamp on your project. He cultivates a culture of thinking critically rather than accepting the status quo. Following true UX principles becomes the norm which he pushes for to the very top of Platts.
If you want a Lead UX/Creative who will toe the line and keep things dour look elsewhere, however, if you want someone to put the user at the centre of your experience and create a team bond that fosters creativity then look no further as Joel is your man.
Joel was a mentor to me, an engaging and insightful UX practitioner who was passionate about implementing user-centric processes into the corporate culture. He was willing to take risks to produce positive change. His creative energy, clear focus on relevant UX practices, and unwavering support to me and to his team are qualities that enable exceptional outcomes and for which I am grateful to have had the opportunity to experience.
„Art without Engineering is dreaming. Engineering without art is calculating“ This phrase comes to my mind when I think about Joel. While working with Joel for around 2 years at S&P Global within several projects he understood to prove his creative work with facts.
I appreciated working with Joel since he is authentic and approachable about any topic and he greatly values the people he works with, which he clearly underlines with his leadership style. Joel is a great teamplayer and I would go for a beer with him anytime!
