Reducing the energy of the dashboard by changing color schemes can help an employee feel less compelled to anxiously check that site. And with less distraction in that area, employees may feel more productive in their work from home environments.
Lately, it may seem like the news hasn’t done much besides telling you things you shouldn’t do. This could include touching your face, meeting in large groups of people, and going to the gym. For employees working from home, anxious times may make for anxious coworkers. Some folks already report coworkers ramping up the number of “high importance” emails. And anxious coworkers may get more anxious when they can work from home. With the liberty to check their retirement dashboards without other coworkers seeing and a highly volatile time in the stock markets, not checking a retirement account may be as difficult as not touching your face. How can a Plan Sponsor help reduce some of the anxiety among employees at this difficult time? Aside from working on risk tolerance and habituation, Plan Sponsors can change some of the messaging around the retirement dashboards they may offer.
Many retirement dashboards have a variety of colors against a stark white background. In a normal course of events, this kind of graphic design works well to keep readers engaged. They feature versions of the primary colors (red, yellow and blue) and work in as many color variants into charts as possible. By having an array of colors, the reader’s attention is held longer. Additionally, in UX design (web user design) bright colors provide energy and vibrancy. So those primary colors may be brightened up from simple blue to a bright robins egg color and from a static yellow to a more dandelion pop of color. Normally all those pops of color and contrast add a sense of immediacy and action. Those elements can be helpful to those who need to visualize numbers or don’t get a sense of narrative or story from their retirement portfolio. But in volatile times, all that energy and brightness may feel as stressful as an over caffeinated colleague in a tense meeting.
Instead, UX design recommends softer, less vibrant colors, often used in navigation. Even more soothing is a monochromatic design experience. That is, one color brightened by white and darkened by saturation. Similarly, darker shades (ones with less vibrancy) can have a more soothing appeal.
Armed with this knowledge, how can Plan Sponsors make the retirement dashboards something less “energetic”? An example here might be helpful. Imagine a dashboard with three main windows. First, an investment management pie graph, detailing balances and diversification. Second, a line graph showing progress towards the total amount of retirement. And third, a slider bar showing contribution amounts for an employer sponsored account, like a 401(k), and individual accounts, such as IRAs or HSAs. In an average investment environment, this three window scheme conveys a lot of information quickly and helps the employee see their progress towards goals. In a chaotic investment environment, it may feel like a lot of noise. Changing the color scheme can help reduce the amount of design noise. While it’s possible to easily move from three windows (or columns in design speak) to one, let’s leave the spatial design of a dashboard for another day.
The total number of colors on the pie chart could be as much as 9, with varieties of those primary colors noted above. Replacing the total number of colors from 9 to 3 with a slight variety of shades will automatically make that section seem less energetic. And taking those shades from including all of the primary colors to darker ones with less contrast can make that information more soothing.
Plan sponsors may worry that a color redesign could be expensive or slow. However, most UX design programs allow the designer to globally change colors and could be a quick change that can be changed back as time goes on.
Reducing the energy of the dashboard by changing color schemes can help an employee feel less compelled to anxiously check that site. And with less distraction in that area, employees may feel more productive in their work from home environments.
Before leaping into the unknown, we recommend a thorough examination of your plan. Because we are experts in the field, we know the marketplace and know what your existing vendor is capable of offering. Through this examination, we can help you optimize the service you receive.
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