Eimear D'Arcy
Economic Eye 2021_Hero.png

Redesigning EY's Economic Eye

The EY Economic Eye Forecast provides economic analysis of the all-island economy across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

EY Economic Eye

PRINT TO PIXEL - REDESIGNING A PRINTED BROCHURE FOR DIGITAL CONSUMPTION

Introduction:

The EY Economic Eye Forecast provides economic analysis of the all-island economy across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Historically, the report contained detailed economic forecast and analysis, highlighting growth forecasts, the labour market, wages, trade, investment, government spending, business and sectoral issues and more. It’s currently the only all-island forecast of its kind, and I’ve had the privilege of working with EY’s economists to create several publications.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

In late 2020, at a time when the intended readership were predominately working from home, EY published a print-ready PDF as an email attachment. The result was a document that took too long to load and too much effort to zoom in to read. In response to this, I pitched a change in how EY could design and distribute the brochure. My role centred on extensive research and design, collaborating with a team of three designers and a design manager over a 5-week period to produce a digital-first approach to the brochure.

We identified 5 areas to research; Digital PDF best practices, Web design, Social Media, Data Visualisation design, and Photography/Illustration.

Research and Design:

I focused on Digital PDF Best Practices, Web Design, and Social Media:

I conducted an analytic review of EY’s competitors producing similar publications, to identify hosting methods, word count vs. graphics ratio, and interactivity levels for digital PDFs. From this research, I was able to gather common best practices and learn what pitfalls to avoid.

I also deep-dived into EY’s strict website guidelines, to learn what layout styles or templates were available, and what specifications or formats we might need for imagery and digital materials.

And finally, I explored potential post formats within EY’s Social Media Visual Guidelines, monitored competitor posting frequency, and identified the style of content that gained the most follower interaction over the previous few months.

Pitch and Presentation:

I organised two pitch meetings to present our project – a succinct 15-minute version tailored for key stakeholders and a more detailed 45-minute session designed for close collaboration with the Marketing and Economics teams. These presentations were also recorded with voice-overs, so that participants could revisit the content and share our suggestions with any additional stakeholders for leadership buy-in.

Project Execution:

The redesign of Economic Eye took place over 4-5 days; with a project team of two designers, content writers, marketing specialists and a Creative Manager. I primarily focused on developing a template or container for the content; using best practice findings from my earlier research. I worked in parallel with the other designer, who designed all the data visualisation content.

The project concluded with the report itself, launch social media posts, website imagery and email newsletter banners.

Outcome:

  • Successfully redesigned the Economic Eye, incorporating static and motion elements for a more engaging format.

  • Received positive feedback from clients regarding improved readability.

  • Brochure adopted as a template for other internal EY teams.

  • Acknowledged that not all recommendations for the website and social media plan were implemented due to a predominant focus on the report, so during the project debrief, we it was planned to highlight these recommendations for future releases.