Standard Life sought to elevate financial wellness and guidance from a disconnected, static experience to one that is human-centered and personalised. I led the design process to enable that vision.

Impact

• 61% Increase in Engagement: Monthly page views rose from 25k to 47k after launch.
• Exceeding Business Goals: The redesigned section exceeded the 12-month target of 200k page views, achieving 570k projected views.

This project not only improved user engagement but also aligned closely with Standard Life’s business objectives of promoting financial wellness.

My role

As a Senior UX Designer, I collaborated closely with a product squad throughout the project lifecycle. Over three months, I worked with the Product Owner during the discovery, ideation, and design phases. I partnered with the development team to review the UAT environment and review the UI components.

Existing guidance were generic and irrelevant

For example, younger people were presented with topics not aligned with their life stage or goals.

Challenges

• Static guidance not tailored to individual users.
• Limited engagement with financial wellness content.
• A business vision to improve financial wellness.

Discovery research

Worked with a research agency to plan and observe a number of customer interviews. We then defined the main customer segments:

• Starting Out (18–35): Early in their savings journey.
• Growth (35–50): Building savings for the future.
• Preparing for Retirement (50–67): Actively planning for retirement.
• Accessing Pension Funds (55+): Using pension savings.

Customer segments

Were based on life stages, not just age, allowing us to address peoples’ financial goals.

• I facilitated a stakeholder workshop to map relevant guides and tools to each customer segment. Using evidence from qualitative research, we aligned tools and content with user goals, life stages, and age brackets.
• Reviewed analytics to identify top tasks and navigation patterns.
• Uncovered key gaps where guidance didn’t align with user needs.

Understanding user behaviour

Conducted two rounds of usability testing with customers to identify any usability issues.

Test objectives:

• Identify online information-seeking behaviours related to pension & retirement
• Evaluate MVP prototype with personalised guidance and tools

Key insights:

• Displaying the pension pot projection outperformed other concepts, such as comparing other peoples’ pension pots. This insight became the foundation for the final design.
• A few participants think savings as a short term goal.
• Most participants mentioned that they would like to see their total contributions and the total investment growth separately.

Final design iteration

• ‘Your Story’ Insight: Moved to the main page to increase visibility.
• Enhanced personalisation with tailored guides and tools for each segment.
• Collaborated with content writers to create clear, user-friendly copy.
• Partnered with the mobile design team to adapt the final concept for iOS, ensuring consistency across platforms.