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In 2022, the stock market experienced significant downturns. Given Vanguard’s reliance on stock performance, the company began 2023 with a renewed focus on cost-cutting measures and efficiency improvements. As the main strategist for my team, I was tasked with identifying potential savings within the applications we manage.
Our team, responsible for communications, identified a significant opportunity to reduce costs associated with paper mail. I proposed to leadership the modernization of our e-delivery app, enabling clients to receive financial documents online instead of via traditional mail.
Through the e-delivery modernization project, our goal was to achieve cost savings of $5 million for the financial year 2023-2024 by converting 75% of Vanguard’s users to e-delivery, ensuring they receive their financial documents online instead of via paper mail.
Business Problem: Vanguard incurs significant expenses in providing paper financial documents to its nearly 7 million clients. These costs are amplified as the company sends out multiple communications each year.
Proposed Solution: Overhaul the current e-delivery system, given that only 30% of Vanguard’s clients currently use it. By enhancing the app and boosting enrollment to 75%, we can achieve significant cost savings. This strategy is more economical and offers clients a safer, faster way to receive their documents electronically.
To kickstart the design thinking process, I conducted a thorough business process map and audit of the current UI. The existing UI, untouched for years and lacking documentation, posed several challenges upon closer inspection. The current e-delivery interface proved cumbersome, difficult to navigate, and cluttered with numerous screens. Moreover, its lack of responsiveness hindered client access via mobile devices. In response, our redesign aims to deliver a user-friendly interface that streamlines e-delivery enrollment and reduces client dropout rates significantly.
Legacy Application Image
My process began with a focus on understanding our users and the challenges they face when updating their delivery settings. I conducted numerous 1:1 interviews with actual Vanguard users and performed research studies to comprehensively capture their pain points. Presenting the current UI to clients and observing their interactions allowed me to identify recurring themes among their challenges.
Lack of Clear Messaging
Many users were confused about the benefits of signing up for e-delivery and how they would receive their documents. Surprisingly, they often assumed they would receive important documents as email attachments, rather than accessing them through our website, which posed issues. We also discovered that users who enroll in full e-delivery have their account service fee waived—this was a significant motivator for them. However, our current e-delivery UI lacks information about this benefit. It’s crucial to educate users that they will incur a service fee if they opt for paper mail.
Clunky Interface
During user interviews, we discovered that users found our current delivery settings UI clunky and inconsistent. Many users, especially older ones, struggled to locate a small checkbox required for consent to enable the e-delivery sign-up button. This often led to confusion, as they couldn’t proceed without checking the box, resulting in a high dropout rate. Simplifying this step is crucial to improve user experience and ensure more users can easily enroll in e-delivery without frustration. By addressing these issues, we aim to create a more intuitive and accessible interface for all users.
High Cognitive Load
The third pain point related to our multi-page layout, which resulted in a high cognitive load for users. Our current e-delivery UI includes separate pages for accessibility settings and FAQs, filled with complex jargon. To address this, we aimed to create a streamlined flow that reduces cognitive overload, using clear, accessible language that everyone can understand. This modernization ensures a more user-friendly experience, allowing clients to navigate the system effortlessly.
After gathering user requirements, I examined Vanguard's competitors to analyze how they assist their users. I identified top direct and indirect competitors, including Fidelity, Robinhood, Charles Schwab, and E*TRADE. This research provided valuable insights into the strengths we could leverage and the weaknesses to avoid, all while keeping user goals in focus.
Findings:
1. Despite differing aesthetics, there was consistency in the layout for signing up for e-delivery or paper mail.
2. Only one company required users to actively sign a consent agreement, which was a point of concern for clients.
3. Most companies featured a single page for delivery settings with options clearly presented upfront.
These findings offered valuable ideas to incorporate into our solution, such as implementing implicit consent instead of requiring users to click a checkbox. We also consulted our legal team to ensure all ideas were compliant with regulations.
During the ideation phase, we brainstormed solutions based on user feedback and competitive analysis. We developed low-fidelity prototypes to visualize potential designs and streamline the user experience. These prototypes enabled us to quickly iterate and refine our concepts.
I then conducted usability testing with real users to gather insights on the prototypes. This testing helped identify areas of confusion and opportunities for improvement, ensuring our final design would effectively meet user needs. Incorporating user feedback early in the process allowed us to enhance the overall experience and usability of the e-delivery interface.
Additionally, we collaborated with our technical team to ensure the feasibility of the prototypes. One issue we encountered was the inability to implement horizontal scrolling with a sticky component in the table structure. This led to a revision of the high-fidelity mobile design, eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling and the accompanying sticky component.
Once we narrowed down our solutions, I validated them with real Vanguard users. We simulated common scenarios, such as signing up for e-delivery or paper mail. After each test, I asked users questions to assess their understanding, including whether they qualified for a fee waiver based on their selections. In addition to client validation, we collaborated with SMEs, legal, compliance, and other stakeholders to ensure the accuracy of content and language in the prototype.
Changes to the Prototype Based on Usability Testing:
1. Users wanted to see which accounts were affected, so we added a dedicated section for clarity.
2. Users missed that paper mail incurs a fee, so we included a prominent chip to highlight this information.
3. Users requested descriptions of each document, so we added tooltips for better understanding.
For the high-fidelity prototype, I focused on three main design principles: quick, simple, and clear. To achieve this, I introduced an innovative one-click enrollment experience for e-delivery, allowing clients to sign up without navigating multiple radio buttons. Additionally, incorporating implicit consent, instead of the checkbox used in the legacy UI, simplified the process further. FAQs were added at the end to address any client questions regarding enrollment, ensuring a smooth and user-friendly experience.
In the summer of 2023, we launched our e-delivery app and implemented a comprehensive marketing strategy to encourage Vanguard clients to switch from paper mail. This included a "Log On Challenge," redirecting clients to the e-delivery sign-up page upon login, strategically placed nudges throughout the website, and an email campaign highlighting the benefits of e-delivery. These efforts led to a significant increase in e-delivery sign-ups.
Marketing Campaign Visuals
$7.2 Million Annual Savings
As of February 2024, Vanguard's e-delivery app has generated $7.2 million in savings. Furthermore, the app has significantly reduced the number of mail delivery-related customer service calls, leading to additional cost savings.
87% Enrollment in 3 months
In 2022, our goal was to convert 75% clients to e-delivery through the app. Just a few months post-launch, the team achieved an impressive 87% client conversions, exceeding the target by 12%. Today, over 97% of Vanguard users have transitioned to e-delivery.
Client Voices
“As with everything with Vanguard, it is clear, concise & easy to use simplicity. Vanguard is the Apple of the Finance Sector - refined simplicity!"
“Very easy to update settings”
