Fearless
My roles
Content Strategist, Content Designer, Information Architect
Exelon’s New Business Portal is the supplier onboarding and registration system for all Exelon utility clients. These users are primarily interested in installing new gas or electric services either on their behalf or that of a client’s.
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This project highlights my ability to:
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Audit and evaluate complex content systems at scale
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Translate compliance-heavy technical content into plain language
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Create taxonomies and naming conventions that unify internal and external communication
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Partner with leadership to drive adoption of content standards
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Balance tactical execution with long-term governance frameworks
Collaborated with
Product Managers, Product Designers, Content Designers, Exelon SMEs and Business Owners
Duration
Aug 2024–Dec 2025 (4 months)
Impact
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Identified 43% of non-user friendly content to be retired or consolidated.
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Reduced user task time spent trying to locate the New Business portal by 18%
Challenges
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Inconsistent voice, tone, and language across forms
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Heavy reliance on technical jargon inaccessible to non-specialists
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Poorly labeled CTAs and links creating navigation friction
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Overuse of tooltips to deliver dense technical instructions
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Accessibility gaps (inaccessible PDFs, missing alt text, lack of plain language)
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Existing content style guide not implemented in New Business areas
Solutions and process
Application content heuristic evaluation
As part of my content audit, I performed a heuristic evaluation on our most popular application for New Business services, simply called the "Commercial & Industrial Application."
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Each page of the application was evaluated based on the following 7 content heuristics:
This application has 39 pages in total, all of which were analyzed and evaluated on a scale from 0-10 for a total of 390 possible points.
Ultimately, this application scored a 53% (209/390 points), meaning it “meets expectations” but just barely. Obviously there were lots of opportunities for improvement!
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I presented the following issues and action items to Exelon Business Owners, making clear there was a need to improve the language and information architecture of the current online application process.
Here's an example of a single application page from my evaluation, including notes on each heuristic and a final grade.
Ultimately, through this audit, I identified 43% of non-user friendly content to be retired or consolidated.
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The full application heuristic evaluation can be viewed here.
Language-guided paths to the portal
Continuing my content audit of New Business content, I performed a language-guided evaluation of various paths to the portal, all of which start on each Exelon subsidiary homepage.
Thankfully, all subsidiary homepages had essentially the same information architecture.
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Ultimately, I uncovered 3 paths to the portal, none of which were particularly intuitive from a language perspective.
Using the following decision tree, I proposed a new path to the portal that cut down on user actions and provided more explicit, direct language relating to the task at hand.
For this new path, I also crafted lofi designs which proposed we add a new "Construction & Remodeling" (referred to internally as "New Business") tile to homepage of each Exelon subsidiary.
Before
After
All Exelon utility sites had a page for customers wanting to start, stop, or move an existing electric/gas service (relatably titled “Start Stop Move”). I also proposed adding a “Construction & Remodeling” tile to this page, since the services offered were quite similar.
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Earlier research had even indicated many Exelon users didn’t see a difference between installation of new services vs making alterations to existing ones.
Before
After
This new IA reduced user task time spent trying to locate the New Business portal by 18%
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Exelon New Business taxonomy
We had a lot of forms, technical jargon, and taxonomy that was specific to Exelon and its subsidiaries. However, internal team discussions were frequently filled with confusion, since not all of the subsidiaries used the same naming convention standards.
As seen above, ComEd’s “Modification & Relocation” application is the same as BGE’s “Residential (Increase/Relocation)” application, but they go by different names. To further complicate matters, lots of us who had just come on the project weren’t familiar with any of these terms to begin with!
To help teams become better acquainted with Exelon nomenclature, minimize frustration, and keep stakeholder discussions from veering off track, I created and socialized a taxonomy that:
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Categorized New Business Terms by their use across all related contexts (Applications, Portal, Construction & Installation Site Page, Service Type [gas, electric, solar power])
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Defined all terms succinctly
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Identified any terms by which naming conventions differed across subsidiaries
