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QS Investors is a financial management firm that develops quantitative investing strategies for their clients. QS Investors was looking for a partner that could help them represent their business expertise and strategy innovations in their digital presence. We knew right away that it would be an exciting challenge to convey the full power of their investing approach to their audience in the financial community, but we've worked with many financial institutions in our history and are now excited to add QS Investors to our portfolio.
During our user experience phase, we were presented with the task of presenting the work of a quantitative investment firm in an understandable fashion. The content and the approach as well as the resulting strategy is complex and innovative, but also can't be explicitly shared without revealing their industry advantage We worked diligently to make complex messages easy to grasp, without simplifying the power of their approach. We knew it would be important to present their strategies in an easily consumed fashion for potential investors. To do this we offered multiple paths and mechanisms to arrive at the strategy explanations, including a Strategy Explorer to show which approaches would map to a client's strategy QS has also amassed a significant content library of industry insights, media appearances and press releases over the years and the solution was just that - present the content in an easy to access library.
During our visual design work we took on the challenge of enhancing their brand in the context of the web and translating that into an updated look and feel, The client felt their existing site was very subdued and the color palette did not reflect their brand personality. We had to develop and engineer this new creative on an enhanced, digital platform in order for QS Investors to effectively share and market their unique asset management strategies and insights. The new platform would also need to be able to scale with the firm and be sophisticated enough to allow for easy updates by the in-house marketing team. QS Investors, like most financial services firms also required secure integration with third party data to integrate their CRM and email marketing tools.
In collaboration with their in-house marketing team and outside marketing consultant, our user experience team portrayed a quantitative as immediately smart, clear and accessible. We designed an experience that showcases the firm as cutting-edge, evoking trust, experience and respect while showcasing the work of the brilliant minds at the firm. We collaborated with the video production talent that created an outstanding video that strongly reinforces the QS brand and brings the company to animated life in a striking homepage experience. User experience successfully took their library of content and devised a searchable, easily navigable architecture of content. Browsing and keyword search are merged into a consistent, filterable results list that places topics in front of visitors in the simplest fashion. Users can view strategy information in the context of investment outcomes as well as an easy point-and-click Strategy Selector tool. Visitors can filter offerings on a number of key characteristics in a single, interactive screen.
Visual design focused on making their brand more consistent and recognizable by reducing the number of color choices. The color palette was rethought by adding bold, contrast yet sophisticated, complex colors. We brought more "focus" onto the QS messaging by using clean, bold typographical treatment, spacious layout and additional brand elements such as bold borders. The logo was modernized by adding contrast and using different color treatments while bringing more emphasis to the QS part of the logo. In collaboration with visual design, development added custom CSS animation that literally elevates some layout elements and messages.
Engineering chose to build the website on an Orchard Content Management System which allows for a user-friendly, sophisticated and secure environment to host a financial service application. Our solution also leverages the power of a Windows Azure cloud hosting platform, where the SQL Azure database allows for rapid scaling and secure content protection while Windows Azure App Services allows for an easy deployable hosting environment. Orchard allows for easy third-party integration via its custom module framework, making their Subscribe to Insights feature implementation very straight forward.
This effort is the culmination of several months of very hard work on all sides, and we can't thank QS Investors enough for trusting in us and also working with us so closely and effectively. We're incredibly happy to call this launch one of our personal highlights of 2017.
