USS Website & Portal Redesign

UX/UI Design  |  Design System

Project Overview

Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) provides private pension schemes for universities and other higher education institution staff in the UK. I was responsible for engaging with our clients to understand their design requirements in order to craft the best customer experience.

Key Objectives

It was key to factor in their distinctive brand, cater for all aspects of ever-evolving devices, browsers and accessibility standards. I led visual direction workshops with key stakeholders to gather input to shape the visual style, establish and maintain their design system and design all subsequent product enhancements for the public site and My USS customer portal. 

Public website and MyUSS customer portal
USS company logo
Customer experience of managing pension funds on uss.co.uk

Project Outcome

The outcome for USS was a consistent and cohesive online presence, instilling confidence among its members. As a result, customers are able to browse information as well as view and control their pension funds and investments.

Selection of presentation layouts

Key Activities

Visual direction  •  Component mapping against wireframes  •  Validation of user research  •  Cross collaboration with teams  •  Client presentations  •  UI design  •  Systems design  •  Design governance  •  Complying with accessibility standards  •

My Involvement

Over the course of 4 years working with this client, I have created and maintained the design system and built out expansive components in shared libraries which are used across multiple product features on the site. These include sophisticated finance modellers to enable USS members to calculate their potential retirement funds.

My collaboration with business analysts, frontend engineers, and accessibility specialists has been a key part of this role. We had daily stand-ups, regular project team reviews and I led client presentations to ensure we were creating products that meet the needs of all users.

I ensured all UI was designed with WCAG 2.2 in mind which enabled our team to collectively meet AA accessibility standards.

Throughout the process, I oversaw all development work in progress to ensure that the UI was crafted and built to a high standard through design governance.

Team collaboration
Component mapping exercise to identify commonalities
Ideation sketching / rapid whiteboard wireframing
Solution refinements
A selection of wireframes for analysis
Components and template breakdown

Detailed componentised UI designs

Each component was designed to ensure versatility, allowing our client to seamlessly compile them into page templates. While prioritizing versatility, I also made sure to consider the user interface (UI) to ensure it aligns with the brand and maintains consistency throughout.

Content page layout
Content page layout showing versatile components
Content page layout showing versatile components
Content page layout showing versatile components
UI designs created for device testing
UI designs created to meet accessibility standards
Ui designs adhering to a11y colour contrast ratios
Customer portal design created for device testing

Detailed Product Designs

Once the new website was launched, we established a backlog of feature enhancements for the continuous improvement cycle for our client. I was also involved in numerous product designs for new features, such as financial modellers. The design system I created enabled me and the team to quickly establish consistent component styles to shape enhanced UI design, meeting the complex requirements of the products.


Throughout the project, our cohesive team aligned with the overall strategic vision and successfully delivered a website that met the needs of both clients and customers. I developed and maintained a clear design process, contributing significantly to the overall success of the launch.

Would you like to know more about me or this project?

CONTACT ME

Email: mai@5thirty.com  |  Mobile: +44 (0)7703 487077

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