Client
Nest
Role
UX/UI Design
Duration
3 months
The Problem
Beneficiary nominations were an overlooked part of the pension experience, with very low percentages of members having a beneficiary listed
Description
The Discovery
Through analysing data, a heuristic review and call-centre interviews, we identified various friction points in relation to member beneficiaries
Description
Too much jargon is used
Description
Members were unaware that it doesn't have to be a family member
Description
Usability Testing
Members were unable to make a distinction between a beneficiary and expression of wish
Usability
It was difficult to set multiple and understand how much of your pot each beneficiary would receive
Data
Data showed low completion rates when in the flow due to usability issues
Integrating progressive disclosure and steppers to help reduce cognitive load
Impact
If a member passes away without nominating it can have a negative effect on the desired recipient in an already sensitive and stressful time, improving this flow will help with this
Impact
Since members had not updated their beneficiary, their money could be left to old partners
Solution
Added a beneficiary card on the dashboard as the information was hidden, members are more likely to see this and realise they haven't set one
Description
The Challenge
Sona's core problem was a gap between product capability and product usability. The platform could handle sophisticated automation chains, but building one felt like writing code. Their target users — operations managers and team leads — don't think in code. They think in workflows.
Three specific problems needed solving:
• Onboarding completion rate was sitting at 23% — most users never built their first automation
• The automation builder used a code-first interface that intimidated non-technical users
• No template library existed, forcing every user to start from zero
The Approach
I started with 12 user interviews to understand where people got stuck. The pattern was clear: users understood what they wanted to automate but couldn't translate that into Sona's interface. The tool was speaking engineer, the users were speaking business.
The redesign focused on three pillars:
Visual automation builder
Replaced the code-style interface with a drag-and-drop visual builder. Each step in an automation became a card with clear inputs and outputs. Users could see the entire flow at a glance instead of reading through nested logic.
Template-first onboarding
Instead of asking users to build from scratch, the new onboarding started with pre-built templates for common workflows — 'Weekly sales report', 'Lead follow-up sequence', 'Inventory alerts.' Users picked a template,
Design system for scale
Built a component library with 80+ elements that Sona's engineering team could use to ship new features consistently. Every new feature now launches with a cohesive look without needing design review on every screen.
The Results
Within 8 weeks of launch, Sona's onboarding completion rate nearly tripled. Users were creating significantly more automations per month. The template library became the most-used feature — the majority of all new automations started from a template.