Optimising information architecture for Smart Retire

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Challenge

A product tour was proposed to explain key features to users. 

I was tasked with assessing whether this would address root issues and how it might be integrated into our design backlog.

CLIENT

Smart Retire

INDUSTRY

Financial services

MY SERVICES

Content Design, Information Architecture, Stakeholder Management, Prototyping,  UX Writing

Outcomes

✅  Reduced development and delivery risk through IA definition

✅  Improved comprehension of complex retirement features

✅ Reduced support queries and dependency on customer service

✅  Extended the life of the current UI without major investment

Approach

I led a discovery project with UX Designers to uncover the root causes and explore alternatives to the proposed tour.

Together, we:

  • Defined business and user needs across Product, UX, and Legal
  • Audited feature performance and technical constraints
  • Built a modular content model tied to user goals and platform logic
  • Created shared IA and taxonomy models to support future journeys
  • Collaborated with Legal and Compliance to align content with FCA and accessibility guidelines
  • Mapped KYC workflows and eligibility edge cases to reduce future debt

Constraints

This was a high-priority request with limited engineering capacity.

The solution needed to:

  • Reuse components from the existing design system

  • Comply with accessibility and financial regulation (FCA)

  • Define clear, prioritised requirements without expanding the scope

Why it matters

This work turned a high-risk feature into a structural opportunity to pivot and improve user comprehension.

By applying product thinking and IA strategy, I helped the team reduce de-risk delivery and improve user confidence, all without increasing development time or overhead.

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