AIG Retirement Services
Transforming the digital experience for +2M clients by enhancing self-service capabilities.
Overview
AIG Retirement Services (now called Corebridge Financials) provides financial planning and retirement services for over two million people across public K-12, higher education, healthcare, government, and other nonprofit institutions. The website serves as a crucial self-service tool, allowing clients to track future income, performance, and portfolio metrics.
The Challenge
The user experience of AIG Retirement Services legacy website, last updated over a decade ago, presented several challenges:
Poor navigation with deeply layered links
Limited accessibility for mobile users
Lack of self-service capabilities, forcing users to rely on call-center help for basic tasks like viewing account balances
A 2017 competitive analysis ranked AIG 7th among 11 retirement plan providers, with a score of 2.79 out of 4.0. This fell below the industry benchmark of 3.0 (Good).
TL;DR
I worked with the team on the redesign of AIG Retirement Services website focused on improving navigation, enhancing self-service capabilities, optimizing for mobile, and implementing personalized features. Below are data on the post-launched website:
NPS improved +16 points
Website rating increased +4%
Task completion rate rose by +3%
Unique active users grew by +30%
My role
UX Designer, User Researcher, Prototyper
Collaborators
Senior UX Designer, Design Director, Project Manager, Developers, Scrum Leader, Marketing Team
Timeline
February 2019 – May 2020
Financial security is a fundamental need for most individuals. A well-managed retirement account ensures individuals can maintain their desired lifestyle after leaving the workforce. This security becomes increasingly important as people live longer, potentially facing extended retirement periods and rising healthcare costs.
54% of Americans own a retirement account.
Understanding the current pain points
To gain insight into our current users, I reviewed the research data from unmoderated usability testing sessions of the legacy website and survey results. Below is an overview of the research findings:
The current state of the website.
Poor navigation with deeply layered links
Limited accessibility for mobile users
Lack of self-service capabilities, forcing users to rely on call-center help for basic tasks like viewing account balances
What the users were saying
🙁
"Could not view loan balance on the smartphone." - User 1
🙁
"Please make your website an easier site to navigate. Everything seems so complicated to find and understand." - User 2
🙁
"Your system is very user-unfriendly." - User 3
80%
73%
Check transaction activity
67%
Manage contribution amount
Main target personas.
The team had collected a lot of data about our clients over the years prior to me joining. However, there were no clear personas. I took the initiative to synthesize the data and summarized for the team and found that there were two main user groups.
Amy - Passenger
Amy is in her early 30's. She enjoys her career, but find money an intimidating subject. Someone else does her taxes. For Amy, retirement is far away, and not at the top of her list of priorities.
Ray - Passenger
Ray is 53 and wants to retire in the next 20 years. His account has been managed by a financial advisor for the last 10 years. He's thinking about how to invest his money but needs help to be retirement ready.
Patrik - Driver
Patric is 28 years old. He finished graduate school just 2 years ago and is enjoying the growth of his career. He also enjoys budgeting and being on top of his money, but retirement is far from the top of his priorities right now.
Anya - Driver
Anya is 56 and thinking about retiring in the next 5 years. She manages her family's money, and keep a spreadsheet for everything. She works with a financial advisor but is on top of her and her husband's retirement accounts.
Passenger versus Driver:
Passenger:
Less engaged with financial management
Find money matters intimidating or overwhelming
Rely more heavily on others for financial decisions and tasks
Less confident in their financial literacy
May prioritize other aspects of life over financial planning
Driver:
Proactive financial management
Enjoy budgeting and tracking finances
More financially literate and confident
Take personal responsibility for their financial decisions
Highlighting the navigation nightmare helped the team prioritize efforts
In order to help the team understand the current navigation landscape of the website, I led two working sessions with the design team to map the existing user journeys and identify major pain points through a site analysis
This analysis highlighted redundant paths and emphasized the severity and urgency of the existing problems impacting our users' self-service experience. On average there were more than 3 ways to get to one page. As a result, improving navigation became our top priority for the project.
[Legacy site analysis]
Focusing on what matters most
While improving overall website navigation was crucial, our team also worked to understand the primary objectives of this project:
Empowering clients with self-service capabilities
Improving intuitive navigation throughout the site
Enhancing overall customer experience
Reducing the burden on call centers
Realigning with these objectives helped us define two additional focus areas. In summary, our main focus areas became:
Improving navigation - Making it easier for users to locate information and features needed to complete tasks efficiently.
Designing for diverse financial literacy levels - Ensuring the design accommodates users with varying degrees of financial knowledge and understanding based on the identified personas.
Supporting users with varying confidence levels - Developing intuitive interfaces to help users manage contribution amounts more easily and understand account activity to satisfy both the driver and passenger needs.
Card Sorting Study
To better understand users mental models, I collaborated with the team to conduct a moderated closed card sorting session. Due to limited access to our actual clients, we recruited colleagues who own retirement accounts to participate in the study to sort the cards into groups based on what makes sense to them. This approach allowed us to gather valuable insights from individuals familiar with retirement account management.
Crafting an intuitive navigation
I developed multiple iterations of the main navigation, focusing on key aspects to enhance the user experience. The shipped designs contained these key improvements:
Financial Terminology - Incorporating easily understood terms from user research reduced cognitive load and anxiety, boosting user confidence when dealing with complex financial concepts. Terminologies were suggested by the card study participants.
Information Architecture - Organizing links logically aligned with users' mental models, reducing frustration and increasing satisfaction by enabling easier navigation.
Mobile Responsiveness - Ensuring mobile-friendly designs created a consistent cross-device experience, building trust and encouraging engagement by accommodating users' preferences for mobile access.
Reduced Click Depth - By presenting more options simultaneously, the mega menu streamlined navigation, often allowing users to reach their destination in fewer clicks.
[Desktop - Legacy design of main navigation]
[Desktop - New mega menu]
[Mobile responsive - New side menu]
Enhancing the Account Details Page
After successfully launching the new main navigation, our team's next priority is to enhance the Account Details page experience. This crucial page allows users to view their retirement balance and manage contribution amounts. Given that accessing account information is a primary user need, we recognize the importance of making this page easily comprehensible for our users.
Through synthesizing the findings from previously conducted unmoderated usability testing sessions, users found these main pain points in the legacy Account Details Page.
[Old design of Account Details page]
Pain points of the current experience:
The name of the account plan is too small making it hard for users to locate.
Transactions was buried too deep within the link.
Users couldn't locate "Change my contribution" link.
It was difficult for users to complete and find the information they needed.
Design Iterations
Iteration #1
The biggest challenge that I had to keep in mind was that each user will see the screen different based on their retirement plan type. There were in total 5 different combinations of how users may see their screen. Therefore, I had to consider a visual design that was scalable and adaptable to all 5 different scenarios.
Pros:
Easy to implement
Organized cards
No empty space when both funds are displayed
Cons:
Two CTA for "Change Contribution"
Pros:
Easy to implement
Important content is surfaced
Cons:
An odd empty space when only one fund is displayed.
Two CTA for "Change Contribution"
Iteration #2
The biggest challenge was from the first iteration was accounting for the odd white space on the screen. I continued working on more versions keeping in mind the possible variations with different layouts of cards that could flex.
Concept 1: Vertical Cards Layout
Concept 2: Horizontal Cards Layout
Shipped Designs
Why the horizontal layout?
I conducted A/B testing with colleagues on the vertical VS horizontal layout of the design. In the horizontal cards, users mentioned it was easier for them to see the relationship of the money sources when it's displayed in parallel. In addition when the designs were translated onto mobile, the hierarchy of information remain consistent.
Also, this design layout is the most flexible with many of the scenarios users will see. Based on research, I prioritized the important information at the top of the page, such as the account name, the balance, and the rate of return. With this new version, users can easily manage their contributions and view their current allocations and transaction history; all three significant actions users want to take when accessing their account.
[Shipped - New Account Details page]
Key Improvements:
Account details are consolidated at the top and are easier to find.
Tooltip allows users to view more details from each source.
A tertiary button for contribution changes so users can easily locate and take action.
A primary way to access transaction history from the account details page that aligns with the users mental model.
Before & After
Helping users understand their financial activity
The last redesign that the team prioritized during my time there was the Transaction History page. The Transaction History page contains the account's transaction activities within certain timeframes. From research, 76% of users say they previously checked the Account History of their retirement account from past login.
Shipped Designs
[Shipped - New Transaction Details page]
Key Improvements:
The default filter is set to be the most recent time period.
Dropdown selectors allow users to filter different timeframes so that users can view varying transaction periods.
Informs the user that the data shows exactly 10 transactions in descending order so users know how much data they're seeing.
If there are more transactions for the period, users can load more data without overcrowding the screen.
Expanded details on funds allow users to learn more about the transaction.
Complying with AA accessibility standard
AIG's digital standards aim to meet the WCAG Level AA minimum requirements. In my designs, I ensured compliance by utilizing tools such as color contrast checkers and adhering to our design system's font sizes. Additionally, I implemented content structures that align with the AA guidelines.
This requirement provided valuable practice in becoming more detail-oriented. It also heightened my awareness of designing interfaces that are accessible to a wide range of user groups.
What are people saying now?
Our team adopted an incremental approach to launching the redesigned pages. This strategy allows our clients to adapt gradually to the new look of our website without feeling overwhelmed. It also gives them time to learn and familiarize themselves with the new functionalities. So far, we have received positive feedback from our clients regarding the newly implemented elements.
Some of our clients' comments post-launch:
"The Home page is much easier and clearer than the previous site, especially with the Statements box right there. That's what I got called on the most when clients couldn’t find it. The account Headings are highlighted, big and clear to understand." - AIG Call Center Representative
"Site works well for me. Please do not change it." - Client 2
"I couldn't be in better hands." - Client 3
Looking forward and learnings
Looking forward
Our team ranked the priorities of the client's importance to help drive our focus on the website's redesign. There were still a few pages left on our website that our team wanted to work on. However, due to time and budget constraints we were unable to do so. I would love to continue working on this project to learn more about how clients' feedback impacts future designs.
Learnings
I enjoyed working on this project as this was my first time working in a full-fledged team with a Product Owner, Developers, Marketing Team, and Designers.
Time management
With two-week sprints, I learned how to balance my workload and reached out to other team members to assist them in their work.
Iterate and test
I learned to create pixel-perfect comps, adhere to our brand guidelines, develop and test multiple versions, and effectively present my work through prototypes.
Kind words from my team
What my teammates said about me while working on this project together.
Kelly has fit into the team seamlessly! Her positive energy has been very inspiring during this period of change. She also did a wonderful job creating the digital version of client journey service blueprint!
I was very impressed by Kelly's ability to gather and process information concisely to proto-personas. She has a natural gift for visual design and UX and has great potential. I'm looking forward to growing this more with her.
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