Modernizing Mission-Critical Investment Apps for CPP Investments

CPP Investments, one of the world’s largest retirement funds, relied on a suite of internal applications for managing high-volume, mission-critical workflows. These applications were essential but had grown fragmented, with inconsistent user interfaces and inefficiencies impacting productivity.

The goal was to:

• Unify and modernize the UI/UX of key internal applications.
• Develop a consistent design system to streamline usability and improve efficiency.
• Enhance collaboration between the design and IT teams to ensure seamless implementation.

User Research and Analysis‍
My first step was to dive deep into the existing workflows. I conducted stakeholder interviews and usability reviews to pinpoint specific pain points and mapped user journeys to better understand how different teams interacted with the applications.

‍UI/UX Redesign & Prototyping
With a clear understanding of the problems, I designed a consistent and modernized interface across applications, focusing on improving navigation and presenting information in a clear, actionable way. I simplified complex workflows with low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes using Balsamiq to test and iterate designs with users.

‍Design System Development
To ensure consistency and efficiency, I designed and built a scalable design system using Bootstrap and SASS. This included standardizing UI components, interactions, and visual styles to reduce engineering effort and ensure future applications would feel part of the same family.

‍Mentorship & Collaboration
I worked closely with developers to ensure designs were implementable and aligned with technical constraints. I also advocated for UX principles within the IT team by conducting workshops and sharing best practices to elevate the role of design in application development.

• Unified UI Framework: Delivered a cohesive interface across high-volume internal applications, reducing user confusion and improving productivity.
• Streamlined Development: Introduced reusable UI components, reducing engineering efforts by 25% and accelerating future development timelines.
• Enhanced User Experience: Simplified workflows and improved navigation, empowering teams to complete tasks more efficiently.
• Design Advocacy: Helped establish a culture of design thinking within CPP Investments’ IT team, fostering long-term collaboration and innovation.

This project reinforced the immense value of a shared design system. It became more than just a collection of UI components; it became the common language that aligned the design and IT teams. In the future, I would involve developers even earlier in the wireframing process to identify technical constraints and opportunities from the very start. This project proved that bridging the gap between design and development is the key to creating successful and scalable products.