Client
Nest Pensions
Role
UX/UI Designer
Duration
12 months
Overview
Reimagining the member portal for the UK's largest workplace pension scheme, to provide a simpler to understand…
Nest was established by the UK government to handle automatic enrolment, so the platform focused entirely on legal compliance and basic administration rather than user experience. It had evolved across multiple journeys, leaving inconsistencies in how information was presented, how users navigated the platform and how confidently they could manage their pension.
We focused on improving key member journeys, making complex pension information easier to understand, and creating a more consistent and accessible experience across the platform.
The Problem
A fragmented experience and lack of information across journeys made it difficult for members to confidently manage their pension.
Different journeys used inconsistent design, components and interaction patterns. Complex terminology made it harder for members to understand their pension and make informed decisions. Fund, contribution and beneficiary information was confusing, and financial jargon was heavily used throughout journeys.
Important decisions weren't conveyed clearly:
The dashboard did not clearly surface the information members needed most, while useful details and actions were often hidden or difficult to discover.
Complex language and unclear guidance across multiple journeys
The dashboard did not clearly surface the information members needed most, while useful details and actions were often hidden or difficult to discover.
The dashboard, contributions, pension transfers and account management journeys all looked and felt like different websites, creating an inconsistent experience on a platform where trust is essential.
Essential information felt inaccessible to members with varying levels of financial knowledge
Pension terminology and explanations were not always easy to understand.
Show the dashboard, contributions and beneficiaries as three distinct examples of your design thinking
The Discovery
Conducting a heuristic review, mapping pain points and drop-offs highlighted key issues
Heuristic review
We investigated inconsistent patterns, navigation and information hierarchy
How it informed design: established UX and consistency priorities
Existing UI patterns required improvements to meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards as a public sector service.
Data analytics
We investigated drop-offs and recurring member difficulties
How it informed design: prioritised areas for design changes
Call-centre staff interviews
We investigated member queries, recurring pain points and areas where members needed additional support.
How it informed design: Identified gaps in the member experience and opportunities to improve information clarity, guidance and self-service.
[image of interviews and data]?
The Solution
Surfacing important information and actions on the dashboard
Surfacing key information - The dashboard provided an opportunity to make important pension information more visible and reduce the effort required to navigate to key areas of the platform.
Introduced dedicated fund and beneficiary cards to surface relevant information on the dashboard, improving visibility and creating clearer pathways to further details and actions.
Considered information hierarchy and navigation.
[Add fund / beneficiary dashboard cards / AND ACCOUNT ACTIVITY
Supporting informed decisions
Beneficiary arrangements and retirement options involve important decisions, making it essential for members to understand the differences between available choices.
Comparison tables to clearly explain information
[Add beneficiary and retirement option ones]
Breakdown of complex information with clear language
[Contribution histories and showing ben vs. eow]
Explaining fund choices clearly
A new design system
The Scale
The implementation examples above are only a small percentage of what we delivered
Each journey had multiple sub flows, edge cases and error scenarios. Below is a preview of the scale of what we achieved.
The Impact
A more consistent member experience
Key journeys were brought together through a shared design system and more consistent interface patterns.