Reducing user onboarding time by digitizing investor and advisor portals

Reducing user onboarding time by digitizing investor and advisor portals

Real company, fake name

Introduction

Introduction

An annuity / finance institution reached out to our team to digitize their customer experience. Prior to this, their entire purchase journey was completed using offline forms and on calls. This caused long waiting times and lot of manual labor.

An annuity / finance institution reached out to our team to digitize their customer experience. Prior to this, their entire purchase journey was completed using offline forms and on calls. This caused long waiting times and lot of manual labor.

My role

UX Researcher + Lead Designer

UX Researcher + Lead Designer

Due to a NDA, this project has a lot of information omitted. The research and insights generated can not be shared.

Team

This was an intensive small team effort over 3 months with the following team:

This was an intensive small team effort over 3 months with the following team:

1 design

manager

1 design

manager

2 senior

designers

2 senior

designers

2 junior

designers

2 junior

designers

Impact

Impact

Faster onboarding

Average user onboarding time reduced from 1 week to under 3 days

Average user onboarding time reduced from 1 week to under 3 days

18 forms

digitized, optimized for investor and advisor collaboration

digitized, optimized for investor and advisor collaboration

16 processes

converted from manual to automated across both users

converted from manual to automated across both users

The goal was to create a digital experience that provided seamless customer experience.

The goal was to create a digital experience that provided seamless customer experience.

Design Process

Design Process

This was a 0-1 design project that required validation and go ahead from branding, users, legal and marketing teams and C-suite, so we followed a multi step approach to our design.

This was a 0-1 design project that required validation and go ahead from branding, users, legal and marketing teams and C-suite, so we followed a multi step approach to our design.

Discovery workshops

Discovery workshops

To understand the domain and the company’s requirements, offerings, constraints and background we ran workshops.


Here we understood

  • our user personas: investors, advisers, office users

  • task prioritization for our personas

  • company specific terminology

  • technological and legal constraints since this was in the finance domain

  • company’s goals and preferences for the design

To understand the domain and the company’s requirements, offerings, constraints and background we ran workshops.


Here we understood

  • our user personas: investors, advisers, office users

  • task prioritization for our personas

  • company specific terminology

  • technological and legal constraints since this was in the finance domain

  • company’s goals and preferences for the design

Mapping out investor and adviser user journeys

Mapping out investor and adviser user journeys

Understanding annuities and investments is a complex process. We wanted users to be comfortable and have access to the right information through fiduciaries so we mapped our investor and advisor journeys to ensure they worked seamlessly together.

Understanding annuities and investments is a complex process. We wanted users to be comfortable and have access to the right information through fiduciaries so we mapped our investor and advisor journeys to ensure they worked seamlessly together.

Creating system diagrams for cross team understanding

Creating system diagrams for cross team understanding

Since we were collaborating with multiple companies for data processing across the portals, we workshopped system diagrams for clear understanding of how the data was moving through the front end and back end. (blurred for NDA)

Since we were collaborating with multiple companies for data processing across the portals, we workshopped system diagrams for clear understanding of how the data was moving through the front end and back end. (blurred for NDA)

Design System

Design System

We created a robust design system consisting of reusable components, guidelines for brand voice, visual design specs and interaction design to ensure consistency and cohesiveness in the visual and interactive aspects of the brand.

We also focused on being Australian Disability Discrimination Act compliant and focused on accessibility.

What we delivered

A modern and personalized experience

A modern and personalized experience

We created a consistent, action oriented dashboard for investors and advisers which allows them to purchase policies, find the right info easily and track their investment portfolios.

The biggest challenge was building trust by making it easy for users to understand (especially since the primary users of annuities are retirees) complex forms and provide them all the information they needed and making the core processes accessible on mobile devices

We created a consistent, action oriented dashboard for investors and advisers which allows them to purchase policies, find the right info easily and track their investment portfolios.

The biggest challenge was building trust by making it easy for users to understand (especially since the primary users of annuities are retirees) complex forms and provide them all the information they needed and making the core processes accessible on mobile devices

Advisor & Investor Dashboards

Annuity purchase journeys (Investor and Adviser led)

The interviews, insights and other confidential information related to this project cannot be shared.

My learnings

My learnings

  1. This was my first time working in the finance domain and I had to deal with a lot of back and forth with legal teams to ensure compliance with Australian laws.

  2. Working with other teams contracted by the client to understand the complex data management and processing for security and compliance.

  3. I also had to push back against stakeholders and define project process for the first time because conflicting feedback from different departments from the client side was causing delays in deliverables and repetitive work.

  4. Team management and timeline defining with this project being the first time I led a team of junior designers.

  1. This was my first time working in the finance domain and I had to deal with a lot of back and forth with legal teams to ensure compliance with Australian laws.

  2. Working with other teams contracted by the client to understand the complex data management and processing for security and compliance.

  3. I also had to push back against stakeholders and define project process for the first time because conflicting feedback from different departments from the client side was causing delays in deliverables and repetitive work.

  4. Team management and timeline defining with this project being the first time I led a team of junior designers.

©2025 Tanay Arora.

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