Making retirement advice accessible and affordable to the masses by digitising the process.
The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825, headquartered in Edinburgh. They commissioned us to help them develop a digital offering that solved a very pertinent problem in the space of financial advice.
In the UK there is an impending pension crisis. Not enough people have savings, investments or pensions that will see them through their retirement. In addition to this, getting financial advice is too expensive for most. Even if enough people could afford it, there also aren’t enough advisors to cover everyone. Add to this the fact that advisors aren’t incentivised to help people with low net worth and you get a perfect storm on the horizon.
Now, more than ever, accessible and affordable financial advice for retirement is an invaluable service to provide. In 2017 we worked closely with Standard Life to solve this problem.
Additional team: Fiona McLaren, Mario Andrade, Anna Belz, Sofia Loreto, Rob Boyett, Ines Oliveira
10
Months from Discovery to Pilot
240+
Face-to-face user research sessions
We started by undertaking an extensive product discovery and research phase.
Our initial challenge was to work with subject matter experts at Standard Life to understand the subject of financial advice, and how the industry works. Additionally, we spoke to many prospective customers to understand the mindsets of people approaching retirement age – their goals, aspirations and needs. This work enabled us to plot both the landscape of the industry as well as to take a user centered approach to solving the challenge.
Proposition testing gave us an invaluable insight into how users perceived advice, and what they would expect from a digitised offering.
We designed many different propositions and ways of articulating features in order to explore with users the way they perceived various aspects of a potential service. Using this work, we were able to quickly validate product features, written language and visual tone of voice to determine an appropriate solution to each, further down the line.
As our understanding of both users' and client's needs grew, we began to articulate a service blueprint and product journey for digitising financial advice.
PUTTING OUR PILOT INTO THE WILD
The resulting pilot product digitised 75% of the advice process
Through iterative design sprints involving many weekly user research sessions, we designed a product and marketing site that were a sea change for Standard Life. Our process enabled us to explore new brand positioning for Standard Life within the digital space and to create a product that provided a world class user experience – revolutionising how financial advice can be provided for the many people who need it.
Giving retirement advice at Standard Life a new visual language and digital presence
The starting point for users is the Marketing site - which we designed using a fresher, more modern visual language than Standard Life's master brand. This was a great place for us to A/B test copy, imagery, layout and much more to quickly understand how we could improve the service and get people to where they (and we) wanted them to go.
STEP 1
The journey starts with a fact-finding mission
This is where we gather all the information necessary to start creating a plan for our user. It's 25% quicker than the traditional process, which involves lots of paperwork and takes over 2 hours face to face with an IFA (Independent Financial Advisor). We use this time to gather everything needed to understand their needs and aspirations for retirement, as well as their financial situation.
Our digital forms were designed to the highest standards of accessibility, taking users calmly and easily through some of the most important steps of the journey.
We used the right side of the screen to record and display answers, giving users an immediate view of their plan as it develops. Progress is clear and help is always at hand. We designed the UI to be minimal – ensuring a clean, legible experience. We worked extensively with a copywriter to craft the wording and ensure it remained engaging and understandable throughout – often explaining concepts in lay terms.
The journey is paced with summaries and intervals that give users a clear picture as their plan develops
People often forget to add extra details and want a bird's eye view of everything as it comes together. Our summary pages enable users to edit their details, and provide extra context for important things like tax and usage of funds. Our aim throughout was to be supportive and informative; empowering users to create their plan at a pace that suits them.
STEP 2
Budgeting for yearly spending across retirement
The way our product works is based on similar logic to an IFA. A good example of this is the 'Spending' section. This calculates how much money a user might be able to spend based on their current financial situation and stated goals for retirement. It takes care of essential living costs and suggests a minimum spending threshold based on where they live. Using an animated, interactive data visualisation, we map their finances to the lifespan of their retirement, and give them a picture of their retirement finances. This section is where the plan really starts to come to life - giving the user tangible answers to pertinent questions around how much money they will have to spend when they retire.
STEP 3
Understanding stresses, risks and scenarios
Once they have established an outline plan for spending and how their money might work, we then explain to users how their plan will flex and adjust to stresses, risks and scenarios. The product takes them through some common hypothetical scenarios around investments, ongoing work, health and spending in order to show how the plan will adjust and the things they may need to consider going forward. Here they can also choose to flag things of particular importance, so that Standard Life can tailor their service.
INVESTMENTS
ONGOING WORK
HEALTH & LIFESPAN
SPENDING
Once a user makes their plan, they are supported by a dedicated advisor who takes them through the last steps in the advice process
Our pilot product covered most of the advice process, and is supported by Standard Life advisors until additional features are added and everything can be digitised.
Previous Project:
Infogrid
IoT product changing the world through building intelligence
Next Project:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Digital and printed map for one of the world's most-visited museums
Ronan Kelly
Currently:
Product Designer at Sweep
I have spent 10 years helping companies of all sizes to design solutions for complex problems. To do this, I combine user centered product and graphic design practices that create engaging, successful digital products.
