Design Annual 2021
A digital publication showcasing highly effective user experiences delivered by the CIO Design team to make work better for all IBMers. The Design Annual provided the team with the opportunity to showcase the impact of the work to the global enterprise.
The challenge
The Design Annual, staffed by volunteers from the CIO Design team who lent their skills to this widely anticipated annual showcase, required an efficient process for writing, editing and designing stories.
Previous versions of the Design Annual were presented as a gallery of images, with only captions to identify the work, and some teams lacked representation because of an undefined submission process. To better showcase the impact of the work done by the CIO Design team to the broader enterprise a better process was needed for gathering stories and creating a storytelling format.
My role
Lead Content Designer, tasked with gathering the essential details for each story, then telling those stories in an engaging format, ensuring accuracy and consistency of tone and style, adhering to brand and copy standards.
Skills required
Content strategy: Created a format for storytelling that emphasized the design solution, the impact on of the work on IBMers, and the value of the work to IBM. Implemented an end-to-end process that included story selection, writing, editing, review, and production. Created a template that allowed easy collaboration and iteration with each of the designers whose projects were featured as stories.
Content design: Coached designers in writing, then edited content to ensure the essential elements of each story were included. Sheparded work through rigorous review process.
Employee engagement: Wrote communications for leadership for the purpose of engaging IBMers across the enterprise to interact with the Annual.
A template for storytelling
With a limited staff to write, edit and design, this template served a number of functions. It helped to standardize the format of the Design Annual, while serving as a way for non-writers to frame their stories. It reduced the amount of editing and design time needed when producing the Design Annual. And ultimately, it created an informative and engaging user experience.
The process
Tour the Design Annual
The Design Annual featured 16 stories, along with a gallery of additional design features. Stories from the Annual were highlighted in the CIO’s monthly newsletter to demonstrate ways in which the CIO Design team is part of the larger effort within the CIO organization to “lay the groundwork for IBMers to innovate and support clients by providing the tools and technologies they use every day.”
A call for submissions to the Design Annual resulted in 84 suggested stories. As the Lead Content Designer:
I participated in Design Thinking sessions to determine which stories would best reflect how the work done by the CIO Design team was making work better for IBMers.
I created a storytelling format that ensured each article would clearly show the problem the design team was solving for, the goal of the project, the design solution, the impact of the project on IBMers, and the impact for IBM.
I collaborated with the stakeholders of each story that was selected. Stakeholders were provided a template with prompts that led them through the story creation process. Worked with that content to craft a draft that went through a defined review process, ending with a final review that ensured content was accurate and reflected the style and tone of the CIO brand.
I documented the process in Jira, ensuring all work was tracked, design elements were assigned, and work was completed on time.