2017
Honest Dollar
Bridging Fitness Goals with Real-World Action
Overview
Honest Dollar, a Goldman Sachs product, aims to make retirement savings accessible by enabling consumers to enroll and save using their smartphones. In 2017, as the Design Lead at Accomplice, I managed a team of designers and collaborated directly with Honest Dollar's product manager to align business objectives with design deliverables. Our primary focus was to enhance customer acquisition by redesigning the onboarding process, establishing a cohesive voice and style guide, and integrating illustrative elements to simplify complex financial concepts.
MY ROLE
Design lead
MY SKILLS
UX / UX Design
Wireframing
Prototyping
User Research
Web & Native Design
The Challenge
Honest Dollar faced challenges in attracting new customers, partly due to a complex onboarding process and the intimidating nature of financial jargon. The task was to create a user-friendly experience that demystified retirement savings and built trust with users.
The Approach
We defined key performance indicators to measure product and business success, allowing for iterative improvements. The onboarding process was redesigned from scratch, and multiple iterations, user testing, legal reviews, and leadership discussions were undertaken to optimize the user flow. To establish trust, we developed a clean, modern design that prioritized accessibility and used straightforward language, incorporating financial education into the workflow.
A new style guide was created to ensure consistency across all Honest Dollar products. Additionally, we introduced a distinctive illustration style featuring characters and visual elements that guided users through the onboarding process, making the experience more engaging and less daunting.
Voice & Style Guide
A consistent and approachable voice and style guide were critical in establishing trust and making Honest Dollar’s platform more accessible. We replaced traditional financial jargon with clear, conversational language to ensure that even first-time users could navigate the platform with ease. The tone of voice was warm and supportive, aligning with the company’s mission to make retirement savings accessible to everyone.
To maintain consistency across all Honest Dollar touchpoints, we developed detailed guidelines for both visual and linguistic communication. This ensured the product presented a unified, trustworthy, and familiar experience at every step, fostering user confidence.
Illustrations
Illustrations were a cornerstone of our design strategy, helping to transform an intimidating subject into a more engaging and relatable experience. We created a unique illustration style featuring friendly characters that guided users through the onboarding process, making each step feel supportive and approachable.
These characters were complemented by custom icons and graphics, which visually explained abstract financial concepts. By breaking down complex ideas into digestible visuals, we reduced cognitive load and empowered users to make informed decisions. This combination of playful and educational elements added personality to the product, helping to humanize the financial planning process.
The Result
Our redesign of Honest Dollar’s onboarding process uncovered and addressed key psychological barriers to retirement planning. The new onboarding flow was intuitive, reducing user frustration and improving engagement. The cohesive voice and style guide built trust by presenting financial information in a friendly and accessible manner, while the introduction of illustrations made the process more enjoyable and approachable.
Together, these efforts aligned with Honest Dollar’s mission to simplify retirement savings and successfully expanded the product’s appeal to a broader audience. The final solution demonstrated how thoughtful, user-centered design could drive meaningful business results while fostering trust and satisfaction among users.
