Kimmy T Kaplan Design

About Ally Redesign

In 2014, our team was tasked with redesigning the entirety of about ally. From navigation, to investor relations, we tackled it all. This year long project went live in 2015 and was the first full section of ally.com to go responsive. Through our project, we set the standard breakpoints, responsive navigation, and expectation for resource delivery to development. The pages included in the redesign include Ally.com/about, Our Company, History, Headquarters and Offices, Suppliers, Investor Relations, and Press Room. All but Press Room have been launched on the public site.

From a concepting perspective, this section of ally.com was thrilling to work on as our team spent countless hours with stakeholders, users, and the design team sketching out possibilities. We needed a way to tell Ally’s story from the history of the GMAC legacy to the customer-focused allies we have become.

Team:

Kimmy Kaplan - UX Design

Jess Nance - Information Architecture

Kara Schwab - Content Strategy

Ally.com/About

Users who view the Ally About page, will see a tiled hub page that highlight the various areas of the site that showcase who Ally is and how the company better serves its customers.

Our Company

The Ally Our Company page sets the stage to users of how Ally Financials three branches of bank, auto and dealer support their needs. Three actionsheets explain in further detail the aspects of the business and the products available. The Our Difference section highlights the unique qualities and services that Ally is able to provide for users using a simple yet colorful flip tile pattern. The LEAD values at Ally are embodied in every employee and each year those who show an outstanding representation of these qualities are selected to be LEAD Award winners.

Ally History

Ally Financial has a unique past that begins in the 1920s as a financing company for a well known vehicle company. Because of this colorful past, the team chose to use past Ally advertisements to present the Ally History page. As the user scrolls through each time period, print advertisements show what was used market the business, key facts help them understand milestones, while a few historical photos help capture the most memorable events.

Ally Investor Relations

The Ally Investor Relations site need to first and foremost give investors and media representatives a quick snapshot of who Ally is and access to basic financial documents. After the IPO in 2014, Ally's stock price need to be presented in the forefront. The most challenging part of this project was restructuring the investor documents for easy access on both desktop and mobile. With this redesign, our team was able to bring the pages in investor relations down from 70+ to less than 40.

Ally Stock Information

As part of the IPO in 2014, our team was tasked to create the Ally Information page for users who wanted to see not only the price of the stock, but see how it was progressing over time. Through much discovery and collaboration with our development parts, our team was able to create a fully responsive stock page.

Ally Careers

As part of a corporate site redesign, our UX team was tasked to rethink the careers page on ally.com. Through competitive research, user testing and collaboration, we created a long page design with a sticky nav interaction that have served as a pattern for the rest of the site.

www.allycareers.com

Team:

Kimmy Kaplan - UX Design

Jess Nance - Information Architecture

Kara Schwab - Content Strategy

Professional page

As part of ally.com/about, this section of the site introduced patterns that are now being used across the site. The card flip of the "People" section inspired other pages including ally.com/communityrelations. This was also one of the first areas to use photography, which has now made its way into ally.com/about as well as ally.com/auto.

The most challenging part of this project was the "Paths" portion. The requirements asked us to create a way to show the relationship between the different branches of the company and how specific jobs help shape the LOBs. What we did not want to do is just throw an accordion up there and say we were done. From a behive looking module to icons about dealerships, this was a group effort from the start. While designing the bubble structure, we were in constant communication with our developers to make sure we were all able to make the project happen.

Unfortunately this area of the site was completed before ally.com started to become responsive.

Students & Grads page

Part of the challenge of this redesign was creating a space that was dedicated to younger future employees and potential interns. Our hr department was the main business resource for this page and theirrequirement included communicating upcoming events and the intern process timeline that they wanted on the site.

When upcoming events are present, a carousel populates the closest three and a view all button opens a full page model.

Ally Linkedin

The Ally Linkedin Careers banner was redesigned to match the new look of the allycareers site.

Ally Linkedin Careers

Ally Giving Back

In 2014, the community relations section of ally.com needed a redesign. Through competitive research, stakeholder interviews, and usability testing, we landed on a long-page design featuring stories of giving and a section to highlight allywalletwise.com.

https://www.ally.com/about/community-relations/

Team:

Kimmy Kaplan - UX Design

Kara Schwab - Content Strategist

Jess Nance - Information Architect

Giving Back long page design

The ally community relations team asked us to incorporate a way for the team to add in stories about employees doing acts of service. Our decision to use the colored cards for feature the stories was made for a couple reasons. Because the community relations page was located in the ally.com/about section, consistency among patterns was a big topic of mind. The allycareers.com pages were being redesigned at the same time as this project and we felt that these colored boxes gave the team a way to showcase the people who were making an impact. When the title of the cards are clicked, a full page model opens to reveal the giving back story behind it.

The chalkboard illustration was created as a way to feature the wallet wise educational classes that ally puts on both online and in person.

Illustration idea for Grants

The original design proposed for the Ally giving back page incorporated illustrations to guide the users' eye down to different sections.

Illustration and Grant area chart

Another suggestion was to use a chart to represent the different areas of service that Ally helps by giving grants.

Ally Grants

The business goal of the grants redesign project for Ally was to ensure applicants to the program were able to easily complete the form and check on their status. The UX goal for the grants project was to create the first responsive page on ally.com. Our team worked with the development partners to set the standard for which breakpoints were necessary.

https://www.ally.com/about/community-relations/grants/

Team:

Kimmy Kaplan - UX Design

Elizabeth Beasley - Content Strategist

Jess Nance - Information Architect

Ally Lease-End Process

After the redesign of Ally Auto in 2015, the Lease-End Process needed to be reworked. Though lease-end can be a complicated and dreary process, our goal was to make it as simple as possible. By using a landing page, we were able to help guide our users to the three possible options they could take. Once they navigated to the Return It page, the page was organized to guide users through what it takes to make sure the vehicle is eligible and in the correct condition.

https://www.ally.com/auto/lease-end/return-your-leased-vehicle.html

Team:

Kimmy Kaplan - UX Design

Josh Abe - Information Architecture

Traci Loudin - Content Strategy

Ally Apple Watch ATM App

After a team of developers at Ally decided to take a night to hack an Ally apple watch app together, I was brought in as the UX designer to help bring the project to life. Though Ally was not ready to create a mobile banking app yet, the atm locator proved to be the perfect pilot for our wearable apps.

This project was my favorite of 2015, as it pushed me to learn about a device I was completely unfamiliar with. It was also one of those rare occasions when designers and developers are able to put their heads together and create some quick, simple, and beautiful.

After this project was released, Ally was able to get funding for an android watch atm locator app.

View app on itunes

Role: UX Design

Ally Responsive Navigation

As part of the transition to responsive on ally.com, our team was tasked to work through the site’s navigation strategy. Ultimately landing with a hamburger menu for mobile breakpoints, our recommendation was heavily reliant on usability testing.

https://www.ally.com/

Team:

Kimmy Kaplan - UX Design

Jess Nance - Information Architecture

Mobile Home

Mobile Navigation

Mobile Search

Mobile Login

Tablet Home

Table Search

Table Search Results

Table Login

Ally Pattern Library

In 2014, Jessica Nance (my IA) and I realized that not having a pattern library was creating a problem of consistency above the UX team. In our spare time, we interviewed designers, developers, content strategist and information architects to see what they needed from a library.

This link shows the solution we created in prototype form. The Ally UX Styleguide Taskforce is now using this as a model for their internal UX library.

Team:

Kimmy Kaplan - Visual Design

Jess Nance - Information Architecture

Ally Auto Marketing

A sample of marketing campaigns for Ally Auto.

Role: Visual Design

VehicleOne

VehicleOne is a protection product provided by Ally Auto to users wanting GAP coverage. My role in this project was to provide all design and IA recommendations, including the illustration showing users how GAP coverage works.

Team:

Kimmy Kaplan - UX Design

Nancy Jones - Content Strategy

How GAP Coverage Works

The illustration was created for the GAP How It Works page is to help users understand what GAP coverage provides on top of a vehicle warranty. The original intent was to develop an interactive illustration, due to time and budget this was descoped, but the idea can be seen here.

2016 Beer & Branding

Charlotte AIGA partnered with the local brewers in 2016 and the experience was just plain fun. The brewer I was partnered with was inspired by the secret ingredient of lemongrass and together came up with a maori face. The colors were taken from the plant of the lemongrass, including the magenta. With only one and a half months to complete the design, Chris and I were pretty pleased with how it came out. Every designer should take time to do projects like this. They refresh you in a way that paid freelance can never do.

The Bottle

The magenta and green of the lemongrass, made for a unique maori statue with a large juicy tongue to emphasize the tartness of this New Zealand Sour.

The Cap

While the magenta was our main color, we wanted to embrace the flavors in the beer, which to us meant a big sour green tongue.

The Label

After a trip to New Zealand at the beginning of 2015, the incorporation of the maori tattoos was a must. The label shows a maori face in the center with the words KIRITHURI Lemongrass Sour in the center. The description of the sour beer is to the left and the ingredients are to the right.

Rousak Beer

After working with the 2016 Beer & Branding, brewer Becca asked me to create a label for her. Her Russian grandmother had just passed away and in her honor, she created a Russian Imperial Stout called Rousak after her grandmother's maiden name.

Final label

Rousak Beer bottle label

Poster

First round of labels

Zoom Out

Branding and materials created for an ally digital team event called called Zoom Out.

Final Event logo

Final Event Poster

Event Poster Alternative

Though the blue poster and logo were chosen, this was another version created for the event.

Love 42:16

Love 42:16 is a nonprofit organization helping women out of trafficking and other difficult situations. I was blessed to be able to work with them in 2015 to create their branding.

Blue Logo Variation

Pink Logo Variation

Yellow Logo Variation

Button

Business Card - front

Business Card - back

Facebook Banner

Quest Nursing

Quest is a company offering continuing education nursing courses. This branding project included a style guide with logo, fonts and color palette, along with a business card.

Chick-fil-a Proposal

A Balfour Beatty Construction client alignment brochure for Chick-fil-a.