Retirement Account

The client, Providence Health and Services, System Retirement Office, (PH&S, SRO) manages a self-service website that allows PH&S employees to learn about and manage their retirement accounts.

The Road2Retirement (R2R) website had undergone a usability study the year before by Blink Interactive, but few of the recommendations had made their way into design changes. Easily the most significant area in need of improvement was the post-login account area. Here users can see their balances for each account and see other valuable information that helps them manage the growth of their retirement accounts over time.

Based on recommendations provided by Blink, user-centered design best practices, and inspiration from Mint.com, and other financially oriented sites, we reorganized the account information on the overview page, and on each of the specific account pages. We did not significantly alter user flow, but simply repositioned and recontextualized a lot of the content.

Specifically, I proposed eliminating the data table presentation on the account overview page, and created “balance bars” that isolate each account and focus on the three main pieces of information our persona, “Jamie Fitton,” cared about.  The desire to move away from the table grid even though so much of the information is similar, had to do with the extensibility of the design across account pages. Each account type, it turns out is more dissimilar than similar when trying to provide account details, so accounts end up not having enough similar headers or relying on obtuse constructions, blank fields, or less-than-communicative titles. Removing that false formal constraint allows each unique account type to be dealt with on it’s own terms.

In addition, each of the account pages now had an ever present “Notices” area right at the top to alert them of anything special that could affect their account, or to keep them aware of the progress of  complex transactions; many of which can take weeks or months.

Although the overall site navigation remains largely untouched, intra-area navigation was unified, and moved up the page. We also took the opportunity to change the default page size from 800×600px area to a 1024×768 page size. Our metrics suggested that it was more common across PH&S user base.

This project was the first time Seven Simple Machines and Providence Health & Services has worked through a user-centered process, with a dedicated user-experience designer. I partnered very closely with the client, often having multiple daily conversations to keep them in touch with the process. I also worked side-by-side with the product owner, developers, and a contracted graphic designer located in Argentina.

As the Interaction Architect, I was responsible for helping create new requirements, new mental models, authoring and updating every wireframe, leading collaborative whiteboarding sessions with the team, and suggesting a look and feel that was based on intranet designs that had been shared with us by the Communication department.  The client was very helpful in providing extensive feedback, providing access to the usability study results, and providing access to a few internal users that we were able to interview to help us create our persona. I sheparded the redesign from the initial scope negotiations through to vetting visual designs through release. I presented all wireframes and mockups to the client, and worked closely with them to help them understand the changes we were proposing, the new methodology, and the rationale for the redesign.

Release is scheduled for Jan 2010, but initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.