Showing the impact of wealth on the world beyond financial gain
- Client
- Globalance Bank
- Awards
- Dutch Design Award
- European Design Award – Gold
- European Design Award – Silver
- Innovation by Design Award
- Red Dot Design Award
- The Webby Award – Nominee
- Deliverables
- Investment platform
The challenge
Where people invest financially has a significant impact on how the world evolves. So far, profit alone has been the key incentive for the majority of investors. However, with the increasing urgency of global, societal and environmental issues, long-term investments require a completely new perspective: one that helps maintain the world through forward-looking investments. Globalance Bank — a Swiss private bank that operates globally — responds to this need. They want to increase transparency for investments, and help their clients and potential new investors understand the extensive effect of their wealth on the world. Globalance Bank approached CLEVER°FRANKE to create a solution that could help them communicate this ambition distinctively.
Value delivered
Turning abstract global data into a tangible and relatable experience while creating the most accessible and comprehensive investment platform to shape a sustainable future. Our solution positions Globalance Bank as the leader of positive change in the investment banking industry.
Globalance World builds on the bank’s previously developed proprietary footprint methodology that visualizes the influence of portfolio investments on the economy, society and environment. Up until the launch of this platform, the footprint visualizations served merely as input for financial reports for their clients. Because of its analytical form, it remained inaccessible to a wider audience.
Together with key stakeholders, we dove into Globalance’s methodology and existing user journey. A phase of interviews and research followed, where we defined and mapped the service blueprint, the diverse target audiences, their pain points, and moments of opportunity.
Phases and toolkit items used
After formulating Globalance Bank’s business goals and challenges, we defined a strategic roadmap in which we set forth key design principles, opportunities and a long-term vision.
The new platform should include cutting-edge data visualizations, the creation of interactive and distinct portfolio reports, and provide a guided experience for potential new customers.
Globalance Bank has numerous parameters and data points to create detailed reports for their investors. To leverage these parameters, our biggest challenge was to create a logical structure for Globalance World, yet still introduce a complete new way of looking at the investment world.
We wanted to make it possible for users to discover the climate path their investments follow, the megatrends their assets are invested in, and where in the world and specifically in which countries their investments have a positive or negative footprint.
The globe concept was inspired by the Blue Marble, the picture of Earth taken in 1972 by the Apollo crew, which is part of our collective memory. It shows the beauty as well as the vulnerability of our planet. We have introduced the globe as the second key signature shape of Globalance World. It is aimed at creating a unique and focal point for the interface. Representing portfolio data on the globe makes investments palpable and displays impact in a relatable way.
We started off by designing a visual language that will be the signature for the platform. Considering how Globalance Bank strives for sustainable investment, we decided to use an organic shape that finds its inspiration in nature. What we named as ‘Pebble shape’ is a data-driven figure based on nine criteria that Globalance Bank uses to calculate the footprint impact. The Pebble introduces a new visual language to communicate portfolios and individual assets with a unique and recognizable look and feel across the platform.
To harness many data points, metrics and features that Globalance Bank wants to provide for its customers and visitors of the platform, we devised a hierarchical structure. Within a portfolio, the user can dive into the globe view (to explore the impact of a portfolio on the world) and the asset view (to learn about individual companies and assets that make up a portfolio). Each portfolio or asset can be looked at through four perspectives: Climate, Megatrends, Footprint, and Financial Returns.
Each metric is introduced by a rotating 3D Globe. It visualizes portfolio scores and how they are distributed across different countries, which gives wealth impact a tangible image. While the globe provides a geographical view, the gauges show a summary and distribution of the data. The 3D globe is fully interactive: users can zoom in, hover over, and click on countries to learn about the underlying data.
Investors can also choose to explore individual assets one by one. We created two viewing options for this: a 3D city visualization, and a map that provides a quick overview of how a portfolio’s assets are scored. Both are supported by a tabular view that allows users to dive into a portfolio asset by asset. Each asset is represented as a separate pebble, where its color depends on the selected theme’s score and its size based on its influence on the entire portfolio.
Besides exploring portfolios and assets in depth, investors can compare different portfolios either with other Globalance portfolios or with well-known market indices. This way, clients can choose a reference point to understand the performance of their portfolio and its impact.
Globalance Bank is on top of new market trends. Through ‘Insights’, users can read a curated news feed in different fields and dive deeper into topics that they are interested in. Each story creates relevance for investors by explaining the global goals and challenges, and how their investments can make a difference. This way, Globalance World offers a comprehensive experience by keeping the users engaged and fully informing them through stories that matter.
Globalance World is more than a traditional investment tool: it has become an audience engagement platform that combines inspiring news-insights and perspectives on investment, companies, and stock indices. Behind the scenes we created an elaborate content strategy with editorial guidelines to maintain a unified look-and-feel and tone-of-voice across the platform.
With an extra search feature, users get detailed information about a company that is not necessarily part of the available portfolios. This helps Globalance World become the leading reference point for finding information about the role of investments in a variety of fields.
The 3D turning globe was the primary technical challenge for the project: it is the first interface of its kind to combine a 3D interactive globe with 2D elements and a scrollable interface. After several iterations, we achieved high visual quality and a good level of performance, with several pieces of custom-developed logic.
One of the hardest challenges in creating the globe was finding three-dimensional geographical data for building a well-performing user experience. We built a custom algorithm that converts a data file with map data into a triangulated three-dimensional globe with the right resolution for our purposes.
The data used in the Globalance World platform is highly complex and very detailed. To manage it in a scalable way, we built a GraphQL middleware layer between our front-end and the API provided by Globalance Bank. This transfer layer allows us to structure and restructure data to a shape that suits the way that we visualize data.
We were looking for a partner for the implementation of our visionary idea who could help us to realize this challenging task both professionally and culturally. The result of our intensive cooperation with C°F is fantastic and a major milestone in the financial market. I am impressed by the professionalism, the spirit and the visual competence of the team.
Reto Ringger
Founder & CEO Globalance
Globalance Bank’s ambitious goal is now realized in the Globalance World platform that will make a major step forward in the banking world. The platform makes it possible to transfer complex investment data into a compelling and relatable experience. By opening up unique perspectives, Globalance World will attract new visitors to this new way of investing and keep Globalance clients up-to-date with valuable insights. We proudly deliver Globalance World to support Globalance Bank in their mission of creating an optimistic future through conscious investments.
Bertrand Piccard, the first person to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe in 1999, opens his investment portfolio on Globalance World:
Get in touch
If you’d like to learn more about how we can add value to your business, contact Thomas Clever.
thomas@cleverfranke.com