Online Retirement Investing Advice Module

ClearFuture is an investing advice program developed as a proprietary online service offering by Morningstar, a US-based provider of investment research with a mission of providing useful, usable data for individual investors. The product intended to solve the problem that many people do not fully understand how their employer-administered retirement funds work, and lack any real strategy for understanding and planning for their retirement needs. Because participation is voluntary, and because employers are not allowed to make investment decisions on behalf of employees or give advice, this left people with little information or agency in optimising their investment strategy.


I joined the project team as an interaction designer during my graduate internship in 2000. I performed usability research and evaluations to inform the design of the ClearFuture web-based investment program. I also conducted general task flow analysis and contributed new content and recommendations to interface design and usability issues. Additionally, I was asked to research best practices in help systems and compile a report on findings with recommendations for possible design solutions to the help system. These recommendations were implemented into the redesigned help structure, including the addition of live chat help feature.


I later applied my knowledge of the online interface issues to the development of a paper/analog version of the program. I focused on clarifying the methodology of the program design, including analysis of learning and experiential pathways that were encouraged and supported by the product. I considered issues related to how to capture the interactivity of the online version in a static print version.

Portfolio > Information Design > ClearFuture

Client: Morningstar, Inc.


My Role: Interaction Designer