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

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.
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

What are users’ needs, goals, and pain points?
Understand current solutions and competitors’ products
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:

19 people in the workforce
63% female, 37% male
9 different industries
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.

Even though many young people have not planned out their retirement, they feel excited about the idea of retirement.
Young people feel that retirement is too far to think about.
The volatility of the market is a big concern for young people to plan their retirement.
Many young people feel that the company already manages their retirement so there is not much for them to take care of.
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:

Connect your bank account to mint.com
Categorize accounts by types of accounts (All, Checking and Savings, Credit Cards, Loans, Cash…etc)

Cons:

Not being able to set a plan and goal for the retirement
It doesn’t show the estimated number of target retirement income

TSP.gov

Pros:

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
Being able to see statistics graphically.

Cons:

Not personalized (users can’t compare their plan and actual)
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…

Plan their 401k with suggestions and estimated potential benefits (Structured)
See their progress (Transparency)
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:

Being able to request 401k plan change to HR directly from the app is very useful.
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.
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

Transparency between companies and employees
Convenience when connecting with HR, and most importantly
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