Smart Investor

With investment within New Zealand in the midst of radical change, Kiwis needed an independent and impartial source of alternatives to consider alongside KiwiSaver (a voluntary work-based savings initiative) and other managed funds, bonds, shares and investments. In collaboration with our project partners from the New Zealand Government: Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, Commission for Financial Capability and Financial Markets Authority, our challenge was to utilise the comprehensive information held in the Government’s Disclose Register (legislative database of financial products) to create an effortless and visually stunning user-centric solution that makes rich, complex information accessible to beginners and experts alike.

Taking a design-led approach, our discovery phase began with the challenge of making the wealth of information held in the Disclose Register widely accessible. In an intensive discovery phase spanning a full year, all possibilities were explored before the true problem was defined. Throughout development, prototypes were developed and tested with a representative user group. A streamlined development phase followed which saw us work directly with our partners and alongside the guidance of an external panel of experts. Recommendations were made at each stage of development ensuring that we met and exceeded the expectations of the client and audience.

Free, trusted and visited by 30,000 people in the first month with 4-minute average sessions and a 10% bounce rate, Smart Investor has become the preferred guide for people to explore, compare and determine the smartest place to invest. “Smart Investor flawlessly matches data with design, allowing the public to compare complex information easily and effectively put it in context.” – Tom Hartmann, Managing Editor for Commission for Financial Capability “Nice! Have been waiting for something like this for over 18 months. …super useful for Gen Ys like me who are not sure where to start in Investyland” – Sorted user

Some of the most important features are invisible, though they took a great amount of design effort. Smart Investor offers unprecedented transparency into the fine details of practically all investment offers registered in the New Zealand market. This level of information, while intense to work with from a design perspective, is vitally important for the audience to make direct, informed comparisons between varying products. With hundreds of data points to choose from, which ones make the most sense to visualise, and how? Which are directly comparable? How can novices gauge what’s right across a multitude of providers and disparate investment types? What data needs to be added and which augmented? How can the tool remain impartial? The invisible disciplines of content design, data management and information architecture were tasked with answering these questions, whilst creating new schemas that transform daunting spreadsheets and legislative reports into an inclusive, accessible, visual, interactive, educational and rewarding experience for everyday people.