My 401k: Retirement Planning App
Project Context
Role: UX Designer
Timeline: August 2022 (10hr challenge)
Responsibilities: Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing
What is this app for?
This project is one of my design sprints where I only spent 10 hours from the beginning to the end of the user experience design process to tackle real-life issues that people face.
My 401K is an app that helps employees to make retirement plans and encourages them to stick to their financial goals. This app is simple, easy to use, and gives users feelings of excitement for their retirement.
The Challenge
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Your client, a financial institution, has hired you because it recognizes that young workers aren't engaging in their retirement planning early enough in their career and believe that there is an opportunity to help them.
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As the UX Designer, you are tasked to think through a digital platform that could be used to help young people increase their savings for retirement.
The Design Thinking Process
Problem:
Discover
User Research Goal:
Learn as much as possible about potential users
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What are users’ needs, goals, and pain points?
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Understand current solutions and competitors’ products
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What type of platform is desired? Mobile App, Web Software, Website
User Research Method:
A few in-person interviews and Google Forms
I conducted a few in-person interviews, but most of my data comes from a survey via Google Forms. I tried to keep my questions open-ended except for demographic information.
Screenshots from the questionnaire
User Research Result:
Response Breakdown:
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19 people in the workforce
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63% female, 37% male
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9 different industries
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89% agency/professional services
Key Qualitative Insights:
I noticed some common themes and patterns in user responses. This was a relatively small sample size, but I was able to extract some insights that later influenced my design decisions.
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Even though many young people have not planned out their retirement, they feel excited about the idea of retirement.
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Young people feel that retirement is too far to think about.
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The volatility of the market is a big concern for young people to plan their retirement.
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Many young people feel that the company already manages their retirement so there is not much for them to take care of.
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Information about retirement is overwhelming to young people.
Competitive Analysis
After the User Research, I did a competitive analysis. This helped me understand our competitor's strengths and weaknesses which helped us not only to come up with solutions but also differentiate them from others.
Mint.com
Pros:
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Connect your bank account to mint.com
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Categorize accounts by types of accounts (All, Checking and Savings, Credit Cards, Loans, Cash…etc)
Cons:
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Not being able to set a plan and goal for the retirement
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It doesn’t show the estimated number of target retirement income
TSP.gov
Pros:
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Being able to calculate the estimated amount of retirement fund based on a user’s monthly contribution, interest rate, and length of time in years
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Being able to see statistics graphically.
Cons:
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Not personalized (users can’t compare their plan and actual)
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It is not connected to employees’ company HR
Problem:
Define
Persona
I created the persona “Abby Unsure” as a representation of potential
users. Considering the limited time, I focused this project on a simple persona that reflected research results.
Storyboard
I drew a short cartoon showing how Abby Unsure (persona) would be exposed to the product and use it. This storyboard helped me to understand better the environmental influences the potential users would have and the use-flow of the product.
Design Requirements
Prior to starting the development phase of the design process, I made 3 important design requirements that kept me on track with why and how I would design this product.
Solution:
Develop
Ideation
From reviewing research outcomes, the persona and brainstorm sessions, I was able to come up with a hypothesis.
Hypothesis:
If a mobile app allows young employees to…
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Plan their 401k with suggestions and estimated potential benefits (Structured)
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See their progress (Transparency)
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Request their plan to HR in a simple process (Simplicity)
they would be motivated to increase their savings for retirement.
User Flow
After the Ideation phase, I created User Flow with FigJam to organize the task flow of the product to start designing for screens.
Low-fi prototypes
After creating the user flow, I moved on to the prototyping phase. I first sketched a low-fidelity prototype to visualize the basic layout of screens, CTA buttons, and the functionality of this product.
Key Findings:
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Being able to request 401k plan change to HR directly from the app is very useful.
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The process of the estimated benefit calculation was simple and easy. However, he wished there was a way to calculate his target retirement income as well.
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The estimated interest rate and interest rate variance range are difficult to understand, but the risk tolerance slider seemed to make more sense.
Solution:
Deliver
Usability Testing
Due to time constraints, I conducted a user test with one person. I had him use the paper prototype and walk through how he accomplished a task.
The Outcome
Taking the feedback from the usability, I created high-fidelity screens which are displayed according to the user flow.
The Final Thoughts & The Future Possibilities
Overall, I am proud of myself that I accomplished this project in such a short time!
I see a lot of business potential with this product for the benefit of
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Transparency between companies and employees
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Convenience when connecting with HR, and most importantly
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Encourage people to feel excited about their retirement and increase their savings
1. Welcome screen
2. Sign up
3. Connect with company account
4. Personalized dashboard
5. Choose a planning method
6. Calculation from
monthly contribution
7. Target Income Result
6. Calculation from
target Income
7. Monthly contribution results
8. Submit a new 401k plan to HR
9. Confirmation of a submission
In the future, I would love to explore further in
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Providing educational resources about retirement
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Being able to save more than one plan
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More charts and graphs to show user progress and data