Case study
Group Retirement Services Homepage
Redesigning the GRS Sponsor Site homepage to replace outdated branding and limited functionality with a modern, self-serve hub, laying the foundation for increased client satisfaction and competitive advantage.
- Role
- UX/UI Design · UX Research · Design Strategy · Accessibility Consulting
- Timeline
- 4 months
- Tools
- Figma · Miro · UserZoom
- Outcome
- Self-serve hub foundation
- Enterprise SaaS
- B2B
- FinTech
Overview
The GRS Sponsor Site homepage hadn't been updated since Sun Life refreshed its design system. The branding was out of date, the personalisation options were limited, and performance and security issues were affecting plan sponsor trust. The design system update created the opening to fix all of it.
The redesigned homepage wasn't just a visual refresh. It was meant to become the starting point for a fully integrated self-serve hub within 18 months, where plan sponsors could handle most things without ever calling support.
Problem & UX Research
Three things were breaking the experience, and all of them pointed in the same direction: the platform was holding the business back rather than enabling it.
Key Pain Points
- Outdated design language. The homepage was visually out of step with where Sun Life's brand had gone, and plan sponsors noticed.
- Limited personalisation and flexibility. The page couldn't adapt to different sponsor contexts or surface the quick actions that mattered most.
- Performance and security issues that were affecting trust in a context where trust is everything.
UX Research Approach
A Product Vision Canvas guided the research phase, aligning the team on problem definition before any design work began. Key questions structured the investigation: What business value are we targeting? What metrics define success? How does real-time data, drop-off rates, usage patterns, inform design decisions? Where in the flow are users getting stuck, and what does that cost the business?
Strategy & Discovery
The goal wasn't to make it prettier. It was to make it the starting point for a self-serve experience where sponsors could handle most things without needing training or a phone call.
Strategic Objectives
- Serve as the foundation for a fully self-serve hub within 18 months.
- Make it clear enough that sponsors don't need training or documentation to use it.
That framing kept every decision honest: does this reduce the need for support, or are we just making it look nicer?
Design Process
User Testing
To validate the new design direction, the team conducted user testing with eight Sun Life employees who directly work with GRS plan sponsors. Testing focused on three goals: gathering qualitative feedback on usability, intuitiveness, and relevance; ensuring the new design reduced the learning curve for sponsors; and identifying areas requiring further iteration before launch.
Design Iterations
Using insights from user testing, the design was refined to deliver a modernised visual language aligned with Sun Life's design system, improved personalisation and security features, enhanced performance and load times, and an intuitive experience that minimises training needs.
One key feature was the Quick Links editing function, allowing sponsors to alternate between 4, 5, or 6 quick links to suit their individual needs and preferences, a high-value personalisation that sponsors cited as immediately useful.
Results
The new homepage set the stage for a measurable competitive advantage by elevating the sponsor experience, reducing support and training needs, and creating the architectural foundation for a seamless integrated self-serve hub.
- 18mo
- Roadmap target to full self-serve hub built on this foundation
- ↓
- Sponsor support and training requirements post-launch
- ↑
- Client satisfaction and engagement scores post-redesign
Learnings
- Legacy redesigns need a bigger goal than visual refresh. Without the self-serve hub framing, individual design decisions would have had nothing to evaluate against.
- Personalisation features like Quick Links have outsized impact on satisfaction when they address a real, frequently cited pain point. Configuration for its own sake doesn't move the needle.
Conclusion
A homepage redesign that's only about visuals misses the point. This one built the architectural foundation for everything the self-serve roadmap depends on. The Quick Links system, the component structure, the token alignment with the design system: those aren't polish. They're infrastructure. Design for what the platform needs to become, not just what it is today.
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