Project Overview
In September 2020 our team kicked off the redesign of the Wizards of the Coast recruitment website. Our goals of the redesign was to highlight the fun personality of Wizards of the Coast, provide the heart and culture of the company, as well as from a technical standpoint moving the site to a new CMS system. Along with the redesign we highlighted the need for a new hub site that can showcase Wizards of the Coast’s AAA current and upcoming games as well as represent the company as a game developer.
The Team
For this project the team consisted of our Project Owner, Sara Nelson, as well as me as the Lead UX Designer & Project Lead. We worked with our vendor, Haven Agency, to assist with the Creative and Build of the project as well as the development of the site on the new CMS system.
My Role
Lead UX Designer & Project Lead
- Help define features and user flow requirements
- Define visual and interaction design
- Vendor management
- Business buy off presentations
- Maintain project schedule and timelines through project kick-off to product on sale now phase
- Define technical requirements and roadmaps for new web enhancements
- Pitch web marketing plan to Senior Marketing Manager, (new team name) Director, Brand Manager and UA Director
- Outline creative requests for internal Creative team and oversee development
- Vendor management for Creative and development
- Work with LiveOps through build process
- Communications with internal stakeholders
Stakeholders
- Director of Lifecycle Marketing
- Director Talent Aquisition and HR
- Senior Director of Communications and Publicity
- Final sign off from SVP Global Brand Strategy & Marketing and President and COO of Wizards of the Coast
Discovery
To start the project Sara and I went information gathering before we kicked off with our Stakeholders. First, we examined the current HR website to audit the information.
Original Recruitment Site
The original recruitment website was implemented in 2015 so, while updated periodically, was outdated and needed a refresh. The information architecture of the website was confused and full of repetitive information that was confusing for the users to navigate through. Also, the company has substantially grown since the original creation of the recruitment website with all brands growing rapidly and more added under the Wizards umbrella. Something Sara and I brainstormed around with the need for a Wizards hub website that could serve the umbrella purpose to link to all the brand websites (Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons to name a couple).
To help structure our research we defined our target users as such:
Hub Site Target Users:
- Primary: People new to the Wizards of the Coast brands
- Secondary: People familiar with the Wizards of the Coast brands.
Recruitment Site Target Users:
- Primary: Those interested in applying for jobs
- Secondary: Those interested in learning about the company.
Competitive Research
Our next step was to do competitive research to see how other companies structured not only their recruitment websites but company hub sites. I examined 6 websites for their hub sites and for their recruitment.
Findings:
• Most of the companies highlighted their community involvement as a way to highlight how they are making a difference
• 83% of the companies featured headers with their latest game or promotion
• 67% featured their catalogue of games on their hub homepage
• 34% featured recruitment call-outs
• 34% featured articles and news call-outs
• 34% of companies called out their commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and Equity.
Business Requirements
With our research gatherered I outlined the eco-system site map pitch, target users, site goals, and UI element proposals for pages in a pitch deck for our stakeholders. This served as a springboard for discussion with our partners along with a project timeline for buy off. We gathered feedback from our stakeholders, implemented changes based on the feedback then kicked off the project with our vendor.
Wireframes & Design
Once the requirements were signed off on by stakeholders we worked with our vendor to build our wireframes and designs of the sites. These went through rounds of feedback I compiled and worked with the vendor to communicate business needs with notations on UI/UX while keeping the business goals in mind. When big milestones were reached I would schedule meetings with stakeholders for check-ins to gather additional feedback or necessary tweaks to the direction of the site.