Optimising the digital experience for employers and financial advisors with Hostplus

I worked with leading australian Superannuation provider Hostplus for one year, during which time I implimented numerous product enhancements to improve the digital experience for employers. I also played a role in educating and upskilling the Hostplus team in experience design best practices.  

What is 'Super Annuation'?

Australian superannuation, like UK pensions, is a retirement savings system, but it differs by allowing more flexible contributions from both employers and employees.

My responsibilities

I worked across the full spectrum of UX/UI capabilities, including discovery research, user testing, creative expression, new component and page designs, as well as UI design and design system improvement and maintenance.

Employers Evolve

A 3 month project focused on enhancing the website experience for employers.  

The redesigned Employers home page

Mapping audiences

We spoke to employers involved in managing super annuation for their staff aswell as Hostplus SMEs. This allowed us to build an understanding of the key audience groups and what their respective needs, pain points and general approaches to using the site were.

An overview of employer audience groups

High level employer journey

The employer journey

We were hoping to enhance the experience across all stages of the users life cycle.

We proposed that all employers move through four stages as their knowlegde and confidence increases:

Joining > Learning > Transacting > Sharing

Updated Information Architecture

Building on the knowledge gained about our audience groups we re-designed the IA proposing over 20 potential new pages to enhance all employers ability to self serve at all stages of their journey.

Proposed site structure

Screenshot from an online user testing session 

Testing interactive wireframes

We implementing the updated IA, new components and page layouts in interactive wireframes which we tested with audience members. 

We engaged with 6 participants over 3 days using a mixture of interviews and moderated scenario based testing. We recruited participants who had a range of experience, confidence levels, preferred funds and were from a range of sectors.

Findings

We collated our findings using Miro and landed on 4 key recommendations and 5 practical actions.

A section of research synthesis 

Key recommendations

• Improve the cross linking from the members site - as some people missed the employers section 
• Offer broad, high level education on the H+ site leveraging external sources (e.g. the ATO) for deeper longer form content
• Consider building out a non-serviced employers educational mailing list in order to build trust and generate leads.
• Integrate search into key Help and Support pages

Practical actions

• Moved a page for supporting employees to sit under a different section, Improving discoverability.
• Included marketing pages specifically focused on various scales to service the various size of organisation.
• Linked to trusted external comparisons and reviews on the site to increase trust.
• Prioritised sticky contents, horizontal timeline and live chat
• Explored a step by step component,  and pushed the interactivity of the triage form.

Hi-fidelity design

I mocked up 4 Hi-fidelity pages and 10 new components prioritised based on prospective impact.

These designs allowed us experiment with some of the more complex components, stress test these on mobile devices and create an exciting and well rounded idea of what the new Employers section will look like.

Component strategy

Early concepts for new or revised components originated from a number of places; the project brief, market opportunities, best practice and user input. 

Components were then stress tested as designs evolved, prioritising those that showed the highest value outcomes.

Finally, using Productboard - a strategic layer was placed over this, ranking the backlog of components against project goals and user impact to decide on what to build first.

Components prioritised using Productboard

Components broken down into a roadmap 

A roadmap for new components

I collaborated closely with the development team to create a high-level, easy-to-understand overview of the the components to be built and implemented in the delivery stage of the project. 

Adding new components to the Design System

Components prioritised during the roadmap planning are brought into the agile sprint and estimated for build. I then spend time documenting the functionality and design specification of the components - adding them into the existing design system.

Finished components documented ready for developers to reference 

In conclusion

This project was a success and the client reported high levels of satisfaction with the final outcome. We followed rigourous and thoughtful design process and deepened our relationship with Hostplus.

There was, as always, a few challenges - which we learned from along the way.

Challenges

• Recruiting senior employers who choose default funds was difficult, as they were less accessible through typical recruitment panels.
• There was some misalignment on deliverables - particularly around user journeys. This was due to more detailed journey's being delivered in a past project.
  
• As is normal for any organisation changing priorities during the project caused delays, our team needed time to adjust, cutting into the project timeline.
• One of the more complex components we designed required more budget and involvement than was possible to build, resulting in design that work that may never implemented.
  

Learnings

• Start recruiting extra early when targeting senior or specialized audiences.
  
• Clarify scope early on and regularly revisit it to manage expectations and avoid scope creep.
  
• Schedule frequent check-ins to stay aligned with the client’s evolving priorities.
  
• Understand the client's budget and organizational constraints to ensure the feasibility of future work.
   

Thanks for stopping by, please get in touch if you’d like to know more about me or my work.

If you'd like to chat or see my most recent work connect with me on LinkedIn or email me at jamesbarclayuk@gmail.com