American Capital – Modernizing the Investor Experience

Challenge

American Capital’s suite of corporate websites had not been updated in over a decade.

Content was fragmented and poorly targeted, with only ten pages accounting for 5% of total traffic. User experience was undermined by dated design, jarring color schemes, pixelated graphics, and disorganized navigation. With web traffic on a five-year decline, the sites failed to effectively communicate the firm’s brand identity, business structure, or investment offerings to its diverse consumer segments.

Leadership

I spearheaded the initiative to completely overhaul AmericanCapital.com and its subsidiary sites, with a focus on streamlining content, modernizing design, and aligning user experience with the company’s strategic goals. Working closely with senior management and the CEO, I ensured the redesign reflected the firm’s values while making its complex business structure more accessible to investors and stakeholders.

• Discover: Conducted competitive analysis of private equity and asset management websites, developed user personas and completed user research to identify needs, audited content and traffic patterns, and created a product requirements document grounded in user flows and SWOT insights.

• Design: Focused on responsive design principles, incorporating material design theory for consistency across devices and brands. I led wireframing for the primary company site and six umbrella companies, reducing more than 300 pages and 1,000 links by 90%. I also introduced a new fund-matching tool to deliver tailored product recommendations.

• Build: Executed front-end development using Adobe Muse and partnered with internal IT to integrate interactive tools and host solutions on the CMS, ensuring scalability and maintainability.

Outcome

The redesigned web ecosystem delivered a modern, cohesive digital experience that significantly improved usability and brand presentation. By streamlining content, enhancing navigation, and aligning design with user expectations, the new sites reversed the long-term traffic decline and positioned American Capital as a more approachable and investor-friendly firm. The initiative demonstrated how digital transformation, grounded in user research and design thinking, could directly enhance investor engagement and corporate credibility.