The Principal Financial Group High-level Site Audit.

The Principal Financial Groupwww.principal.com

High-level Site Audit

2 The Principal Financial Group Site Audit

Agenda

Introduction General Observations on User Experience Site Examples General Observations on Strategy Site Examples Opportunities


Introduction

A high-level review has been performed on Principal.com. The purpose was to create a list of site recommendations.

Improvement opportunities were summarized and broken down into the following 4 user experience and strategy criteria:

– Architecture & Navigation– Usability– Marketing & Sales– Customer Acquisition & Retention


General Observations – User Experience

Architecture & Navigation

– The architecture of Principal.com is comprehensive in displaying all the business lines, however it does not utilize user-centered design

– Current site architecture does not encourage an existing user to sign up for additional products or services because the site does not do a good job at showcasing useful related content

– Global and local navigation elements change unpredictably making it hard to navigate the site

– Groupings of content and navigation links are labeled in a confusing and unintuitive manner thereby reducing usability


User Experience


While navigating through products offered to an individual investor, the user loses the sub-navigation from one page to another. This results in frustration.

– The content should be re-architected such that only section-related links are located in the primary left-hand navigation.

– Creating breadcrumbs would additionally benefit the user

There is a lot of information presented on internal pages, such as For Individuals.

– A stronger visual hierarchy with graphical representations would help users better sort through the information

There are too many links on the page.– Content areas should be regrouped to facilitate

page scanning

For Individuals


General Observations – User Experience (continued)

Usability

– Overall content strategy is unclear; content is unfocused and does not do a good job at driving users to intended areas of the site

– Site forms are hard to complete; it takes the user several pages to complete what should be done in one or two steps

– Example: the enrollment process

– Online forms are not pre-populated with user profile data and previously entered information forcing the user to reenter the same information over and over

– There are system messages displaying incorrect information– For example, after the user creates an online account, the system displays the

message that it has been more then 90 days since the user verified his/her email address.


User Experience

Usability

User’s intentions to create an account are painstakingly tested during the 11 step process

– The opportunity here is to streamline the registration process into fewer steps

Online form completion process should be made more efficient

– Forms longer than two steps should include a process bar

– Whenever possible only offer options which lead to a successful form completion

– Otherwise, warn the user when a selection has been made which will not allow the user to proceed with completion of an online form

– The PDF files should be repopulated with known user information

Create an Online Account Form


Information Architecture

Usability

Login page creates a lot of frustration for users. Improving this page will have a great effect on the overall user experience.

– The list of login types should be moved into a dropdown list and placed below the Username and Password fields

– Change Username and Password functions should be performed after the login in a new My Profile section.

Creating an online account access should be made more apparent to a first time user

– There should be two columns on this page: First time user and Existing user

Login Form


General Observations - Strategy

Marketing & Sales

– Key Challenges– The Principal currently fails to engage and promote existing website marketing

touch-points (e.g. newsletter, product offers).– Content copy and content organization do not actively encourage user to learn

about principal products and subsequently fail to drive cross-sell opportunities.

– Opportunities: – Increase number of users (email subscriber list) who are exposed to timely

principal services and products.– Increase ROI of marketing campaigns featuring special offers and promotions.– Increase customer buy-in of principal services products through better delivery of

relevant marketing materials.


Strategy - Marketing & SalesNewsletters & Product Offers Marketing

Opportunity– Opportunity to engage user in the value in

subscribing to specific content sections.


General Observations – Strategy (continued)

Customer Acquisition & Retention

– Key Challenges– The Principal currently fails to leverage opportunities to remind users of what

differentiates Principal products vs. those of its key competitors. – Potential risk of losing existing users who may not be aware of products or the

benefits of enrolling in other Principal product lines.

– Opportunities: – Increase exposure and awareness of Principal product and positioning (incl.

insurance, health products) lines to existing users at all web-touch points. – Increase customer buy-in of principal services products through better delivery of

relevant marketing materials.


Customer Acquisition and RetentionMessage Center

Opportunities– The message center is an important

location for users to receive targeted Principal material and information regarding product lines they are not currently enrolled in.

– Add product links/product info within email message center navigation to deliver immediate view of product touch-points (including insurance, health product lines, PAGA, enewsletter opportunities).

– Encourage site interest and re-entry after completing actions in message center.


Customer Acquisition and RetentionPlanning Center

Challenges– Limited exposure or positioning

statements identifying what makes Principal’s IRAs different from other companies.

Opportunities– Present opportunity to expose user

to advantages in Principal IRA opportunities.


Opportunities


– Site architecture should be redesigned to improve findability of content– Global navigation should be segmented by user type, such that once the

user selects his or her type, only relevant content and navigation are displayed for that user

– Intuitive navigation should be developed to provide an experience consistent with user and business needs

– Navigation labels should be clear, meaningful and follow industry standards to improve user experience

Usability

– Give the user a reason to continue interaction with the site and provide convincing “calls to action” to covert the user to the next lifecycle phase

– Hierarchically group relevant information to the intended audience– Streamline online forms– Restructure content copy and implement graphical representation of

subcategories to facilitate site scanning


Opportunities (continued)

Marketing and Sales

– Create features & functionality for cross- and up-sell.– Provide cross linking to useful information when possible

Customer Acquisition & Retention

The Principal Financial Group High-level Site Audit.

Documents

user type

type of user

time user

specific user

site site forms

overall user experience

known user information

user profile data