RUX - 72H Antares 401K Enrollment Application UI Design Challenge

Welcome to the "RUX - 72H Antares 401K Enrollment Application UI Design Challenge". In this RUX challenge, we are quickly exploring the user experience for a 401k Plan enrollment. In this application, we would like to reimagine this part of the employee benefits journey. We are looking for your quick research and design skills to think about modern approaches in designing a desktop experience for a new employee induction, enrollment, and rollover of an existing 401(k) plan.
 

What is a RUX Challenge?

The RUX (Rapid User Experience) challenge uses the same format as our famous LUX Challenge except it is not "Live" at an event. The RUX Challenge Series provides you with an opportunity to show digital leaders from some of the largest companies in the world just how good your concept and user experience (UI/UX) design skills are.

RUX (Rapid User Experience) challenges are fast, fun, and have more chances for you to capture prize money!

Note: You do not need to have RUX challenge experience to join this challenge - Just jump in and give it a try! Make sure to follow the challenge details, the challenge forum and ask questions.
 

Challenge Objectives

• Responsive Web Application (this challenge focuses on desktop screens)
• 5 unique Desktop screen views
• Functional concepts design

CHALLENGE OVERVIEW

“Antares” is the codename for a large US financial company providing life insurance, retirement-related services, and investment management. This challenge centers around retirement benefits. Antares is already a major player in this space so the key thing in this challenge is exploring the future UX for employees managing their 401(k) plans and the site/portal providing an intuitive experience.

 A 401(k) plan is a company-sponsored retirement account that employees contribute to. Employers may also make matching contributions.

Antares provides employee retirement benefits and 401(k) plans for hundreds of businesses. Employees are able to log into their site and manage their 401(k) plan and associated investments. This challenge is the start of rethinking, and reimaging this experience by incorporating modern UX concepts and technologies. Overall, the employee users must have a simple, clean user experience that engages and informs them of their 401(k) status, options and actions.
 

WHAT IS A 401(k) PLAN?

A 401(k) plan is a tax-advantaged, defined-contribution retirement account offered by many employers to their employees. It is named after a section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Workers can make contributions to their 401(k) accounts through automatic payroll withholding, and their employers can match some or all of those contributions. The investment earnings in a traditional 401(k) plan are not taxed until the employee withdraws that money, typically after retirement. In a Roth 401(k) plan, withdrawals can be tax-free.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/1/401kplan.asp
 

RUX CHALLENGE AND TIMELINE

- Submission Start: 22/09/2020 at 22:00 EDT
- Rolling Checkpoint Start: 24/09/2020 at 10:00 EDT
- Submission End: 25/09/2020 at 22:00 EDT
 

PRIZE PLACEMENTS

1) $2000
2) $1500
3) $1000
4) $750
5) $500
- Plus 8 placements for Rolling Checkpoint prizes @ $50 each!
 
Note: Important Rolling Checkpoint Details
- We will answer questions and provide Rolling Feedback as fast as possible.
- You must watch the Forum for your feedback!
*All initial qualifying checkpoint submissions will win $50 (Only first 8 potential submissions)
 

DESIGN GOALS & PRINCIPLES

Below are some of the goals:

• Elegant, clean, simple, user-centered look and feel with a modern aesthetics
• Think of a corporate end-use
• Engaging and easy-to-navigate UI
• How well does your design align with the objectives of the challenge
• Minimize the total number of screens while keeping the experience intact
• Do not design a logo for this application. You can use a dummy logo or a placeholder. Focus on what is really important due to the short timeline.

 

EXPLORATION SCORE

In terms of expectations, we would like to measure the concept against the following in the one to ten scales (ask the client to rate each of the parameters)

Creativity: 8
1: barely new ideas
10: a utopic product with features not proven to be able to be fully implemented

Aesthetics: 10
1: low-fidelity design, wireframe or plain sketch
10: top-notch finished looking visual design

Exploration: 8
1: strictly follow an existing reference or production guideline
10: open to alternative workflows/features not listed here that would help the overall application

Branding: 5
1: don’t care at all about the branding just functionality
10: without a properly branded product there is no success
 

TARGET AUDIENCE

We are looking to design screens for 1 type of user:
- Sponsored employee
 

USE CASE SCENARIO

John is a Business Analyst joining “ABC Company”. As part of his offer, ABC has offered him its unique 401(k) plan to help John meet his retirement saving goals. ABC Company has partnered with “Antares” for its employees’ Retirement Benefits and administration.

John is introduced to his overall benefits including a 401(k) plan. He logs into the ABC Company portal, where he can see 401(k) benefits as per his offer, select plans, performance of funds, roll-over accounts, contact support, and more.

John’s Goals:

• Set up his new 401(k) Plan for ABC Company and manage its performance
• Roll-over his old 401(k) Plan from his former employer

 

REQUIRED FEATURES

The following are the few key features:
 

1) Landing / Onboarding (Desktop)

Every new employee that joins “ABC Company” will be invited to Login into this application. Here they will see the initial induction about 401(k) benefits as per their offer. The key actions in this screen are:

• Invitation to login with a clear call to action
• Overall benefits of 401(k) plans
• Educational video with easy steps to setup the account
• Roll-over account information: If the user is coming from another company, they should be able to roll-over (migrate/transfer) their account into ABC Company. The user might see the amount they have invested in their other plan, and a path to find more information about their options.

 

2) Dashboard (Desktop / Phone)

Once John logs into the application, he will be taken to a dashboard page. On this dashboard he sees 2 options to set up his funds immediately:
a) Auto-enrollment, to join the ABC curated plan
b) Personalize Funds, to choose specific funds on his own

On the dashboard, John has a view of stats showing him the amount and date (frequency) of his company's matching contribution, recommended fund options, and reviews of those funds. Some of the key information to show is:

• Assets (Total amount of money invested. For example: John as a new employee would be starting with $0 invested. As time passes, this amount would increase based upon contributions and gains.)
• Guidance / Article links ie: “Concerns about market volatility” (Especially in these times, more people are concerned about the quick rise and fall of their investment accounts. These are educational articles.)
• Estimated amounts needed for retirement (This would be a guide. The amounts depending on income and expectations of funds for retirement.)
• Details of the funds you are invested in (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc)
• Performance of the funds - gone up or down over a certain timeline-like year to date

Consider in your design the location for useful features like:

• Notifications or alerts
• Messages
• Goal forecast calculator
• A support communication system (live chat, chatbot)
• HRSS customer service desk
• What other useful features do you consider necessary based on this story? We are looking for your ideas.

 

3) Plan Enrollment Flow (Desktop)

From the dashboard, John can choose to opt for auto-enrollment or can personalize his plan from the offered funds.

John opts for the 'Personalize' option. On clicking on it, he sees a "DIY interactive calculator" for selecting and setting funds.

John is asked to add details like:

• Household status (married/single/kids, etc.)
• Residence
• Age of desired retirement (when John is planning to retire example: 65)
• Desired annual expenditure after retirement and his current income.

Based on these details, the system calculates an appropriate risk level and suggests portfolio strategies. The more personalized data John provides, the more accurate and rich recommendations he can get.

With this tool, John might select available funds and choose the percentage of his total contribution to allocate to each.

Based on John’s fund selections, the application projects his future savings and how much money he will have available to spend per month during retirement. The system also shows him what most people with similar income and age are contributing to motivate him to increase his contribution.

John has an option to opt for Antares Advisory help for more detailed guidance on the plans.

A 24x7 chat support is available for John to reach out to the administrator or the advisor.
 

4) Roll-Over Account Flow (Desktop)

A roll-over is the action of transferring the 401(k) plan from a previous account to the new one.

John has a 401(k) plan from a previous company and wishes to transfer that amount to the new plan. The system gives him a "Guided roll over enrollment option." Before opting for rollover, John can view  "Rollover projections" with the new plan.

John is happy with the projections and opts for Rollover. On selecting the option he is required to enter his previous plan details. Based on the eligible transfer amount the money transfer process is initiated.

John is able to track his "Rollover Status":

• Check received from the trust at ABC
• Evaluation is in process
• Rollover successful

Once the rollover is successful, the amount enters auto-enrollment mode.

4b) Rollover Notification (Phone View only)
During this process, John receives an alert on his phone as a text message. The text message reminds John of certain pending activities on his rollover, and provides a link which opens on his phone allowing him to complete that task.
 

5) Presentation Screen - 1920x1080 (16:9 Ratio)

In a RUX challenge, this screen is the way to showcase your concept so keep it simple and make it look good!
If you were walking into a meeting and needed to sell your idea - use this screen to showcase your concept.
 

Branding & Font

- You need to work with the following color palette: https://projects.invisionapp.com/boards/SW40P4E4BYD/
- Use a color palette that feels clean, professional and elegant.
- Provide a font that is easy to read for all ages
- Avoid contrasts that are too hard and too light
 

Screen Sizes (Important)

- Desktop: 1280px width or 2560px if you work on a retina display
- Mobile: Target device iPhone X - 1125px width and height increased if necessary
- Think Mobile First! While designing.
 

Marvel Prototype

- We need you to upload your screens to Marvel App.
- Please request for your MarvelApp prototype in the respective thread in the forum.
- You MUST include your Marvelapp URL (in your marvelapp prototype, click on share and then copy the link & share it with your notes/comment this link while you upload).
 

Submission & Source Files

Preview Image

Please create your preview image as one (1) 1024x1024px JPG or PNG file in RGB color mode at 72dpi and place a screenshot of your submission within it.
 

Submission File

- Submit JPG/PNG image files based on Challenge submission requirements stated above
- MarvelApp link for review and to provide feedback
 

Source Files

All source files of all graphics created in either Sketch, Adobe XD, or Figma.
 

Final Fixes

As part of the final fixes phase, you may be asked to modify your graphics (sizes or colors) or modify overall colors.
 

Stock Photography

Stock photography is allowed in this challenge. See this page for more details.