Luminate Online: Enterprise Email
Updating an advanced email marketing solution for enterprise-level nonprofits
Enterprise-level email tools are complex systems that can handle high volumes of email, senders, and recipients, along with advanced features that can leverage CRM data.
However, Blackbaud’s main product for enterprise email, Luminate Online, was outdated and consistently underperforming on annual usability assessments.
As the lead designer on this project, my team and I delivered a comprehensive redesign of Luminate Online, leveraging a new design system and streamlined email creation workflows. This initiative transformed an outdated system into a modern, intuitive solution, directly addressing significant usability challenges and driving measurable business impact.
The Solution: A User-Centered Redesign for Enhanced Productivity
Our solution focused on delivering a contemporary, efficient, and user-friendly experience by:
- Modernizing the UI: Leveraging Blackbaud’s updated design system to align with contemporary UX principles.
- Streamlining Workflows: Simplifying complex email creation processes to reduce cognitive load.
- Reducing Learning Curve: Designing for intuitive use to minimize training and onboarding time.
As this project covers an entire product area spanning over a year of work, this case study provides a general overview of my process and timeline. For detailed design decisions on individual features, check out these featured deep dives!
Impact & Outcomes
+14%
Adoption rates
+33%
Ease of use score
Customer Impact
"I was surprised to see this just show up in Luminate Online when I logged in… I sent my first email 5 minutes later, no training required."
“As an organization that does not have someone on staff who can code and create emails using HTML, we can't use the classic email environment unless we pay someone to help us...[The new email experience] is quick, easy, and simple, just what we needed, since classic is cumbersome and hard to use.”