Launching our Investments and Pensions platform

How do you spark interest in a new generation of investors? An easy-to-use, plain English, good looking way to set up and manage investments and pensions would be a start, right?

Yep, that’s what we thought. Here’s how we did it.

Pitch up

Our new Investments and Pensions (I&P) platform is based on our design system, Pitch.

Pitch allows us to build new digital experiences using reusable and always on-brand components. It’s basically a designer’s toolkit of colours, buttons, boxes, typefaces, templates and so on.

The fact that Pitch is all about standard design elements means the Virgin Money look and feel is a doddle to apply, everywhere. For example, we spun out the instantly recognisable Virgin Money branding to a third-party system provided by FNZ. Why? Because it helped create that all-important seamless journey when customers move from our platform to theirs.

The Stocks and Shares ISA account screen on a desktop, tablet, and mobile illustrating the responsive nature of the design.

At the same time our spanking new I&P platform dropped, we launched a dedicated Investments app too. Incorporating super-secure two-factor authentication, customers can have faith we’re protecting their life savings with the security they deserve and expect.

Although the app was developed by FNZ, it was put together with Pitch. That means it feels part of the Virgin Money family of apps from day one.

Three example screens from our Investments app. The account screen, 2FA screen and a screen of the view of the performance graph with a remaining ISA allowance bar.

Virgin from start to finish

A seamless experience is, of course, essential to gaining customers’ trust. And without trust, we can’t reasonably expect anyone to hand over their hard-earned money and hope we’ll invest it wisely.

In a digital environment, consistent, familiar customer touchpoints are the building blocks of that trust.

The beauty of Pitch is that we can flatten the road bumps sometimes caused by moving between processes and systems, built by different teams . Customers shouldn’t feel the join between our digital estate and a third party’s. On any device.

So, from the first ‘Kiss my ISA’ hit right through to the secure account dashboard, the journey feels like a Virgin journey. The visual and UX elements from Pitch work in tandem with our distinctive Virgin Money tone of voice to reassure customers they’re in the right place and in safe hands.

A series of screens from brochureware through to the secure dashboard illustrating a seamless user experience across platforms.

Applying a brand to a system

As you might expect, applying a proudly disruptive brand such as Virgin Money to an existing system has its challenges. It takes a clear vision, lots of collaboration and something more than just sticking on a logo.

We aligned the design with our brand 50/50 layout approach, personalising the experience by welcoming customers with their first name. Cue a great example of how the devil’s always in the detail: how do we handle long first names on all devices?

In fact, catering for edge cases like that have a proportionally higher impact on how the overall system feels and works. But it matters.

For example, how do we make sure content can scale up to 200% magnification for accessibility? How do we display balances larger than those customers might see in retail products, without the system feeling like an impersonal admin tool?

Our User Researchers teamed up with our Financial Inclusion Panel colleagues to usability test the journeys and iron out accessibility pain points. Problems to solve included making investment performance charts work for screen readers and using correctly sized white text on that famous Virgin red background so it’s still accessible. The team worked through the list of various unique needs, while our Content Designers created and refined the language using specific in-house guidelines and universal standards. A true joint effort.

A moving experience

As part of the programme, we migrated over 160,000 customers from our old system to our new platform. In theory, a huge improvement bringing big benefits to customers. In practice, a minefield of potential problems and iffy experiences.

Considering we were moving something like £3bn of customers’ money, here more than ever we needed to be sure our customers’ experience was as frictionless and reassuring as possible.

We used Pitch to design the onboarding journeys for migrating customers – but not in isolation. Because of how critical it was to get right, the entire journey, starting from initial letter through to online registration, was tested and iterated with customers by our User Researchers and Content Designers.

An example letter and screens from the migration journey illustrating how we make sure customers switching channel still feels coherent.

A bright future

As with any large programme, the launch is just the start. As well as continually developing the platform, I&P customers are getting our all-new Retirement Solutions in 2024. Our app will evolve too, aligning payment journeys with our other apps - eventually being integrated into a single retail banking app.

Ultimately, Pitch helps us harmonise user experiences by providing familiar and effective Virgin-like journeys to those who trust us with their money. And really, what’s more important than that?

Who's who

Virgin Money’s online Investments and Pensions were brought to you by:

Nick Green: Senior Content Designer

Sarah Espino-Byrne: Senior Digital Designer

Sarah Williams: Digital Designer

Sorina Opera: Senior User Researcher

Stuart Pill Stuart is the Principal Designer here in the Human-Centred Design Team at Virgin Money