Empower Retirement is the nation’s second-largest retirement service provider, with 12 million participants and individual investors. With the success of their 401k platform and acquisition of Personal Capital, Empower Retirement made the decision to merge the experience of Personal Capital and Empower.
UX Design
UI updates
User testing
Catherine Nguyen - UI Designer
Jessica Morales - UX Designer
Jeff Keil - UX Designer
Sketch
Zeplin
Invision
UI Designer
UX Designer
Empower's 401k application has become outdated, leading to a decline in client retention as users turn to competitors. The complex financial language and unclear retirement planning tools leave customers struggling to understand their financial situation and how to meet their retirement goals. Our challenge is to modernize the application’s design and improve the user experience, making financial concepts more accessible.
To kick off the redesign, we revisited Empower's branding guidelines to inform the new platform’s look, including typography, color, and components. Since there was no existing Design Library, we dedicated several months to building one from scratch, meeting weekly to ensure its successful completion.
Merriweather became the Primary font for Headers due to its sturdy and pleasant format. Opens Sans is as secondary for lengthier portions due to the ease and simplicity of this font.
As a team, we decided to dress the 401k platform with the Primary Colors as seen at the top of the Brand Colors Slide
To better understand the current issues, the team conducted a session to review customer feedback and complaints about the 401k platform. Using affinity mapping, we organized these insights and began developing a "happy path"—an ideal user flow for completing tasks on the platform.
A common theme is seen during the affinity mapping session and we narrowed it down to 3 major pain points
Personas were created based on our user demographics. The three personas represent different generations, economic background, career backgrounds, financial literacy, and how often a user utilizes Empower's web services.
Age 30-39
John is a middle-income earner with basic financial knowledge and literacy. He's highly tech-savvy, frequently checking his finances online at least once a week. While he’s not yet on track for retirement, it's still about 30+ years away for him.
Age: 40-49
Jane is a middle-income earner with moderate financial literacy, checking her 401k online every couple of weeks while still receiving statements by mail. Retirement is still 10-20 years away for her.
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Age: 50-60
Charles is a high-income earner with multiple investments and a strong understanding of his retirement account. However, he rarely checks his account online, preferring to receive information by mail and occasionally calling 401k customer service to make adjustments. He’s expected to retire within the next 5 years
After identifying user pain points and types, we conducted user testing with mid and high-fidelity mockups to gauge their understanding of the platform. Our goal was to determine which features were most valuable, where users felt confused, their perception of the platform’s overall concept, and whether trust could be established. Key findings from the interviews are listed below.
The circle graphic relationship to the bar segments was clear. The sliders are understood by all participants. The Estimated healthcare cost in retirement needs to state monthly or annualParticipants wondered how the tool knew their health conditionsMost preferred that the 3 retirement income sliders be displayed by default
“I just went through an exercise trying to calculate my net worth. It would be relevant in future years. But do I want to know my net worth. Yeah, I would use it.”
“I guess I would want to know. I don’t know any other way that you could present it to give a positive impact. Tell the truth. That is what people need to see.”
After building a new design library, reviewing archived research, and conducting user interviews and testing, we confidently advanced with the designs. The new platform now allows users to view their net worth, calculated by linking their various financial accounts.
The new dashboard presents a whole picture of the user's retirement through a pie chart.
This tool allows users to simulate what their progress looks like compared to others at their age, salary, and gender.
The new and improved Empower 401k dashboard has been pushed to production as of April 2021.