Vanguard Guide My Retirement
Deloitte Studios
Vanguard
2021
Design System, User Interface Design, User Experience Design, Prototype Vanguard partnered with Deloitte Digital Studios to create a new feature called Guide My Retirement, aimed at helping users take control of their financial future. Retirement planning can feel overwhelming and abstract—our challenge was to design a simple, approachable, and continuous experience that empowered users to track their progress and plan with confidence.
The solution included a retirement checkup, a personalized checklist, and interactive visualizations to keep users engaged and motivated throughout their journey.
ChallengeMake a traditionally complex and intimidating process feel accessible and encouraging.
Design a cohesive digital product that could scale across Vanguard’s platforms while aligning with their existing design language.
Key featuresRetirement Checkup: A light-touch assessment that gauges how users are doing and provides real-time feedback. Custom Retirement Checklist: Breaks down retirement planning into actionable tasks, prioritized by urgency. Interactive Infographic: Visualizes projected income, savings, and lifestyle scenarios so users can clearly see trade-offs and progress. Guided Updates: Allows users to refine their plan by updating goals, lifestyle expectations, and income contributions as their circumstances change.
ApproachI contributed across UX, UI, prototyping, and design systems.
User Experience Design: Simplified the retirement journey into a progressive flow with clear milestones (e.g., checkups, projected savings vs. goals, lifestyle choices).
Interface Design: Created modular layouts for desktop and mobile, ensuring clarity, accessibility, and consistency with Vanguard’s brand.
Design System: Extended Vanguard’s design language with reusable patterns (status indicators, checklist modules, interactive infographics) to support future scalability. Prototyping: Built high-fidelity interactive prototypes to validate the experience with stakeholders and users before development.
OutcomeThe Guide My Retirement tool transformed Vanguard’s retirement planning experience into something approachable, supportive, and continuous. By grounding the design in modular systems and accessible UI, we gave Vanguard a product that could evolve alongside its members’ needs.
Early stakeholder feedback highlighted the tool’s clarity, simplicity, and scalability—paving the way for future enhancements in financial wellness.