The Danish National Bank

As lead and senior designer on this project, I gave the Danish Nationalbank a major design overhaul and a new look and feel, based on their corporate visual identity. 

The teams and I had a close and good collaboration with the Head of Design of the Danish Nationalbank, where we worked close together during the complete design phase of 6 - 7 months. The design results has been very well received, and the Nationalbank now has a comtemporary and simple design.

Project info

Role
Senior Digital Designer

Platform
Web

Agency
Novicell

Year
2022 + 2023

The assignment

With a small but strong team, I had the pleasure of working with the Danish Nationalbank, where we gave them a complete UX and design overhaul of their old site. We worked closely together with the client team, consisting of Head of Design, Product Owner and Communication specialist, where we achieved to create a library of global modules which can be used on the entire site. And we also created a new and optimized reading experience to their long read format.

One of their key pages is their long reads where the we ensured a good reading experience, to ensure that this format is as good (if not better) online as it is offline. Besides we designed a set of global modules where they can build short article pages and build universes for their themes, and more.

The design idea

The idea was to create a design that is contemporary, modern and trustworthy, where the client have the opprtunity to build different pages with ease and speed. A big part of the design requirements is WCAG standards, where the users have no trouble reading eg. articles or navigate the site. 

I wanted to give the users a good reading experience, especially for the long reads where they have the opportunity to create bookmarks, see the chapters, listen to the podcast, and more. In the "Themes" articles the editors have the oppertunity to create article pages that are flexible, and a bit more image driven than eg. an article.

The design is now up to date and contemporary, but still ensuring that the design is trustworthy. The site is of course responsive, so it creates a cohesive design experience no matter the device the user is using. 

A design system

I created a design system for the bank, so they have the opportunity to quickly build new pages from a global set of modules that are customizable to fit their needs and make the pages look good. In the design system I also built modules specifically to their long read format, which only can be used for those pages.

There are a good amount of variations to most of the modules, especially the modules to articles, long reads and themes, where the editors can create a layout that makes the design interesting and gives the user a good experience. 

The design system gives the client a complete overview of their oppertunities, which helps the designers and editors in their daily work when they have to be somewhat fast to create eg. an article page. Or create a long read document, or any other type of page.

The process

The first half of the project, the long read format got a lot of attention due to the importance of those pages. The long reads had a good amount of iterations internally in my team, and with the client team. We tested out two main concepts, with different ideas to each and landed on a more traditional design which gives the user a good overview and reading experience. The main users of the Nationalbank site are press, economists and civil people who are interested in Denmarks economic situation.

Another important part of the first half of the design process was the global navigation, where UX also had a important role in order to layout a new structure that made sense. In that process the structure had a good "spring" cleaning, where we simplfied the how the user navigates the site.

The second half of the project was mainly about creating the rest of the pages, where I created a large amount of globale modules with variations. With a solid foundation of the main concept for the design from the long read format, frontpage and section page, the amount of iterations got smaller and the approvals got in fast.

The design and UX team had a close and good collaboration with the Head of Design at the Danish Nationalbank, and internally with the development department. We had weekly check ins with front end, keeping them aligned with the UX and design. 

Conclusion

In the course of 6 - 7 months, a lot of iterations and a close collaboration with the Nationalbank team, I gave the website a complete design overhaul which brought them into a contemporary look and feel, with a good amount of modules (with variations) that are responsive and works on large-, medium and small screens.

I managed to create a comprehensive design system that fits the clients needs, and having a strong a really good collaboration with the client, where we formed a good relationship.

The Danish Nationalbank now have a contemporary - but solid - design that can last for many years to come. The banks CVI and design now goes hand in hand, and it feels like a cohesive experience across media and platform.