Changing the conversation around women’s wealth.
Women retire with about 28% less superannuation than men. This gap persists despite women’s equal contribution to the workforce and is driven by the innate responsibilities of caregiving, part-time work, and pay inequality. The result is long-term financial insecurity that impacts women across ages, life stages, and income levels.
01 Project Overview
Tap the Gap is a digital financial experience designed to transform the "silent" systemic failure of the gender superannuation gap into a catalyst for emotional empowerment. While women retire with 28% less super due to structural inequities, traditional financial tools often feel distant or intimidating. We developed a next-generation lifestyle calculator that translates abstract data into a relatable "lifestyle gap," paired with a scaffolded onboarding narrative that simplifies complex features like Round Ups. By flipping the "point of purchase" into a point of wealth creation, Tap the Gap turns a 30-year hurdle into an achievable, daily habit.
02 Emotional Empowerment
The Challenge: Retirement planning is often treated as a "future problem." Standard calculators are sterile and data-heavy, failing to bridge the gap between abstract numbers and a user’s desired future.
The Solution: We shifted the focus from "total figures" to "desired lifestyle" for better understanding. Then, by visually comparing a user’s projected standing to that of their male counterparts, we triggered "emotional momentum."
Bridging the gap between realisation and action
This next-generation retirement calculator was designed to be the entry point for behavioural change. By allowing users to easily discover their super gap based on personalised lifestyle goals, we created a clear "moment of realisation." Followed by the visual comparison of men, laying and building the emotional momentum. The transition from the results page to the Round-Ups feature is smooth, making it the immediate, easy solution to the discovered deficit. This design converts a systemic failing into a personal, empowering pathway toward long-term financial security.
03 Building Trust & Transparency
The Problem: Users find 30-year savings goals psychologically daunting and are often sceptical of third-party bank integrations (the "Fintech Friction").
The Solution: Scaffolded and Trust through accessible narrative.
Building Trust: We used transparent, accessible language to explain the how, what and why simply, addressing security anxiety through "snackable" information.
Breaking the 'Scroll-and-Dismiss' cycle: We replaced hidden compliance with intentional transparency. By slowing the user down for "Stuff you should know," we built trust at the precise moment it is typically broken.
Converting friction into confidence: We replaced intimidating long-form setups with a stage-gated progress tracker. This gave users a sense of control and "safety nets" through automatic progress saving.
Building trust and confidence
We used a storytelling narrative to guide the user through scaffolded levels of information. This sequence utilises transparent, accessible language to explain the complexities of Open Banking, Round Ups and linking your Super simply and quickly, addressing users’ nervousness about the process. By starting with a "snackable" one-pager and closing with a scenario-based example of compound growth, we help users visualise roundups as the immediate solution to their wealth gap.
Breaking the 'Scroll-and-Dismiss' cycle of onboarding
We refused to create a "hidden" compliance step. This screen demonstrates our commitment to transparency by intentionally slowing the user journey, ensuring they digest "Stuff you should know" rather than dismissing it as annoying small print. By presenting clear terms in plain language, we reduce the onboarding friction of third-party products and build trust at the moment it is often lost.
Converting friction into confidence through sequential progress
We solved for onboarding abandonment by replacing a long, intimidating process with a stage-gated progress tracker. This design breaks down the connection between the bank, round ups, and superannuation into four distinct, digestible actions. By providing deep-dive "Why?" links at each step and reinforcing the benefit of "closing the gap," we transitioned the user from a state of scepticism to one of validated action. The result is a setup process that feels supported, secure, and entirely under the user's control.
Sustaining momentum through vision and validation
The final stage of the flow replaces technical setup with motivational validation. By pairing a dynamic future-value calculator with community-driven saving goals, we provide the user with both the "why" and the "how" of their financial future. This design choice addresses the "disconnect" people often feel with superannuation by making progress visible, social, and achievable. The result is a dashboard that doesn't just track data, but actively fosters a sense of belonging and "emotional momentum" toward retirement independence.
