SARAH MORAN DESIGN
Vanguard Financial Wellness 
Deloitte Studios 
Vanguard 
2022

Design System, User Interface Design, User Experience Design, Prototype Vanguard partnered with Deloitte Studios to create Financial Wellness, a new digital product offering for retirement account holders. The goal was to empower users to take control of their finances through personalized assessments, actionable recommendations, and a central “hub” experience that brings together debt management, student loans, retirement readiness, and overall financial health.

Over a six-month engagement, our team worked in three MVP phases, testing and validating different versions of the hub and assessments. The final deliverable included a future state vision for ongoing engagement, with features such as a badging system and expanded assessment modules to provide even more personalized guidance.
Challenge     Financial wellness is complex, and Vanguard users often struggle with: Understanding competing financial priorities (e.g., debt payoff vs. saving for retirement), Feeling overwhelmed by financial jargon, Needing clear next steps tailored to their unique circumstances.

The challenge was to create a guidance-driven product that felt approachable and actionable while fitting seamlessly into Vanguard’s trusted brand ecosystem.
Contributions     Led overall design production, ensuring consistency across hub layouts, assessments, and future-state prototypes.
Defined design system and template guidelines, documenting reusable components for efficiency and scalability.
Partnered with UX designers to establish clear hierarchy and interaction patterns, making complex financial content approachable.
Guided offshore designers, ensuring alignment with both Deloitte and Vanguard brand standards.
OutcomeDelivered a scalable template system that could support multiple phases of MVP and future features.
Created an approachable hub experience that made financial priorities easier to understand and act on.
Produced a future-state prototype envisioning gamified engagement (badging, milestones) to keep users motivated.
Helped Vanguard move beyond investment management to a holistic financial wellness offering, strengthening trust and long-term user engagement.

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