Principal Asset Management
A website redesign that clarified Principal Asset Management’s investment expertise, strengthened its brand identity, and helped investors and financial advisors find products and insights more efficiently.
Principal Asset Management website redesign shown on a laptop
01 Context and challenge
Principal Asset Management needed to modernize an outdated website that no longer reflected its expertise or clearly communicated its investment philosophy. The challenge was to create a more credible, navigable experience for investors and financial advisors while keeping the design consistent with the larger Principal brand.
Key objectives
Make investment information easier to find and navigate.
Strengthen Principal Asset Management’s digital brand presence.
Present investment products, insights, and market commentary more clearly.
02 Research and insights
We conducted user research to understand how investors, financial advisors, and intermediaries searched for and shared investment information.
Key insights
Financial advisors typically arrived with a specific product or question in mind.
They wanted direct access to relevant product categories and detailed information.
Speed and clarity were more important than exploratory browsing.
Their next step often involved sharing a PDF or product link with colleagues or clients.
These findings showed that the experience needed to prioritize clear categorization, direct pathways, and easy access to shareable resources.
Information architecture
We reorganized the site around the information users were actively seeking. The revised structure created clearer paths to investment products, market insights, and supporting resources while reducing unnecessary navigation.
03 Design decisions
The visual system modernized Principal Asset Management’s digital presence while remaining consistent with the larger Principal brand. A restrained color palette, clearer typography, and more purposeful imagery helped establish hierarchy and improve readability.
Prototyping and testing
We developed and tested multiple prototypes to evaluate navigation, content organization, and key user flows. Feedback from testing informed refinements to the page hierarchy and the paths users followed to reach product information.
Brand collaboration
To maintain alignment with the parent brand, we brought Principal’s creative team into weekly working sessions. These conversations helped us determine where the experience could evolve while remaining recognizable as part of the larger Principal organization.
04 Outcome
The final direction transformed a dated website into a clearer, more contemporary experience built around the needs of investors and financial advisors. The new information architecture gave users more direct access to products and insights, while the updated visual system strengthened Principal Asset Management’s connection to the parent brand.
The project also established a more consistent foundation for organizing future investment content and supporting users across desktop and mobile experiences.
